World
Israel air attacks hit Gaza after 10 Palestinians killed in Jenin
Witnesses reported Israeli drones firing missiles at targets in Gaza adopted by fighter jets attacking areas.
Israel has launched a number of air assaults on the Gaza strip a day after Israeli forces killed 10 Palestinians – together with an aged girl – within the Jenin refugee camp, marking one of many deadliest raids within the occupied West Financial institution by Israel’s army in years.
“The IDF (Israel’s military) is presently hanging within the Gaza strip,” the military stated in a press release on Friday.
Safety sources in Gaza advised the Agence France-Presse information company that there had been 15 strikes. Witnesses and native media reported that Israeli drones fired two missiles at targets in Gaza earlier than fighter jets struck, inflicting 4 giant explosions.
There have been no speedy stories of casualties.
The Israeli military stated the air assaults on Gaza – one of the crucial densely populated areas on this planet with 2.1 million residents – adopted after two rockets had been fired in the direction of Israel at about midnight (22:00 GMT).
Air raid sirens had sounded in southern Israel because the preliminary two rockets had been fired after which once more after the Israeli air assaults.
The Israeli military stated the rockets had been intercepted by Israel’s air defence system and the nation’s Channel 12 aired footage of Israeli interceptor missiles being launched into the evening sky above town of Ashkelon, about 12km (7 miles) north of Gaza.
No group has claimed accountability for the reported rocket fireplace.
The Israeli air assaults and rocket fireplace adopted Israeli forces killing 10 folks throughout a raid on the Jenin refugee camp. A minimum of 20 folks had been additionally injured in what has been described as one of many deadliest days within the occupied West Financial institution since Israel ramped up raids initially of 2021.
4 of these injured within the raid had been in essential situation and the lifeless included an aged girl who was recognized as Magda Obaid by the Jenin hospital authorities.
Palestinians have described the Jenin raid as a “bloodbath”.
Folks stuffed the streets throughout the West Financial institution on Thursday to indicate solidarity with Jenin as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared three days of mourning.
Palestinian Authority spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh stated Abbas had minimize safety coordination with Israel in “gentle of the repeated aggression in opposition to our folks and the undermining of signed agreements”. He additionally stated that Palestinians deliberate to file complaints with the United Nations Safety Council, the Worldwide Legal Court docket and different worldwide our bodies over Israel’s violence.
The United Arab Emirates, China and France have requested the UN Safety Council to satisfy behind closed doorways on Friday over the assaults, diplomats stated.
Tor Wennesland, the UN’s particular coordinator for the Center East peace course of, stated on Twitter he was “deeply alarmed” and “saddened” by the violence and that he was engaged with Israeli and Palestinian authorities to “de-escalate tensions, restore calm and keep away from additional battle”.
#UN Envoy @TWennesland:
Deeply alarmed & saddened by the persevering with cycle of violence. Essential to scale back tensions instantly & forestall extra lack of life. Urges, & stays engaged w/, 🇮🇱 & 🇵🇸 auths. to deescalate tensions, restore calm & keep away from additional battle.
Full assertion 👇 pic.twitter.com/KBIGcjnG7Q— UNSCO (@UNSCO_MEPP) January 26, 2023
Israel’s Minister of Nationwide Safety Itamar Ben-Gvir lauded Israeli forces on the Jenin raid, saying those that attempt to “hurt our personnel ought to know that his blood is forfeit”.
World
Spain searches for bodies after unprecedented flooding claims at least 158 lives
Crews searched for bodies in stranded cars and sodden buildings Thursday as residents salvaged what they could from their ruined homes following monstrous flash floods in Spain that claimed at least 158 lives, with 155 deaths confirmed in the eastern Valencia region alone.
More horrors emerged Thursday from the debris and ubiquitous layers of mud left by the walls of water that produced Spain’s deadliest natural disaster in living memory. The damage recalled the aftermath of a tsunami, with survivors left to pick up the pieces as they mourn their loved ones.
AT LEAST 63 DEAD IN DEVASTATING FLASH FLOODS ACROSS EASTERN SPAIN, OFFICIALS SAY
Cars were piled on one another like fallen dominoes, uprooted trees, downed power lines and household items all mired in mud that covered streets in dozens of communities in Valencia, a region south of Barcelona on the Mediterranean coast.
An unknown number of people are still missing and more victims could be found.
“Unfortunately, there are dead people inside some vehicles,” Spain’s Transport Minister Óscar Puente said early Thursday before the death toll spiked from 95 on Wednesday night.
Rushing water turned narrow streets into death traps and spawned rivers that tore through homes and businesses, sweeping away cars, people and everything else in its path. The floods demolished bridges and left roads unrecognizable.
Luís Sánchez, a welder, said he saved several people who were trapped in their cars on the flooded V-31 highway south of Valencia city. The road rapidly became a floating graveyard strewn with hundreds of vehicles.
“I saw bodies floating past. I called out, but nothing,” Sánchez said. “The firefighters took the elderly first, when they could get in. I am from nearby so I tried to help and rescue people. People were crying all over, they were trapped.”
Regional authorities said late Wednesday that rescuers in helicopters saved some 70 people stranded on rooftops and in cars, but ground crews were far from done.
“Our priority is to find the victims and the missing so we can help end the suffering of their families,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said after meeting with officials and emergency services in Valencia on Thursday, the first of three official days of mourning.
An ‘extraordinary’ deluge
Spain’s Mediterranean coast is used to autumn storms that can cause flooding, but this was the most powerful flash flood event in recent memory. Scientists link it to climate change, which is also behind increasingly high temperatures and droughts in Spain and the heating up of the Mediterranean Sea.
Human-caused climate change has doubled the likelihood of a storm like this week’s deluge in Valencia, according to a rapid but partial analysis Thursday by World Weather Attribution, comprising dozens of international scientists who study global warming’s role in extreme weather.
Spain has been suffering from an almost two-year drought, meaning that when the deluge happened late Tuesday and early Wednesday, the ground was so hard that it could not absorb the rain, leading to flash floods.
The violent weather event surprised regional government officials. Spain’s national weather service said it rained more in eight hours in the Valencian town of Chiva than it had in the preceding 20 months, calling the deluge “extraordinary.”
In Paiporta, a community of 25,000 next to Valencia city where mayor Maribel Albalat said Thursday that not fewer than 62 people had perished.
“(Paiporta) never has floods, we never have this kind of problem. And we found a lot of elderly people in the town center,” Albalat told national broadcaster RTVE. “There were also a lot of people who came to get their cars out of their garages … it was a real trap.’
Farms damaged
While the most suffering was inflicted on municipalities near the city of Valencia, the storms unleashed their fury over huge swaths of the south and eastern coast of the Iberian peninsula. Two fatalities were confirmed in the neighboring Castilla La Mancha region and one in southern Andalusia.
Greenhouses and farms across southern Spain, known as Europe’s garden for its exported produce, were also ruined by heavy rains and flooding. The storms spawned a freak tornado in Valencia and a hail storm that punched holes in cars in Andalusia. Homes were left without water as far southwest as Malaga in Andalusia.
Heavy rains continued Thursday farther north as the Spanish weather agency issued alerts for several counties in Castellón, in the eastern Valencia region, and for Tarragona in Catalonia, as well as southwest Cadiz.
“This storm front is still with us,” the prime minister said. “Stay home and heed the official recommendation and you will help save lives.”
The search goes on amid the destruction
Over 1,000 soldiers from Spain’s emergency rescue units joined regional and local emergency workers in the search for bodies and survivors.
“We are searching house by house,” Ángel Martínez, with a military emergency unit, told Spain’s national radio RNE from the town of Utiel, where at least six people died.
An Associated Press journalist saw rescuers remove seven body bags from an underground garage in Barrio de la Torre on Thursday.
Many residents in both towns had to walk long distances in sticky mud to find food and water. Many of their cars had been destroyed and the mud, destruction and debris left by the storm made some roads unpassable. Some pushed shopping carts along sodden streets while others carried their children to keep them out of the muck.
Valencia regional President Carlos Mazón on Thursday asked if Spain’s army could assist with distributing basic goods to the population.
The National Police arrest 39 people for looting on Wednesday. The Civil Guard deployed officers to stop further thefts from homes, cars and shopping malls.
Some 150,000 people in Valencia were without electricity on Wednesday, but roughly half had power by Thursday, Spanish news agency EFE reported. An unknown number did not have running water and were relying on whatever bottled water they could find.
The region remained partly isolated with several roads cut off and train lines interrupted, including the high-speed service to Madrid. Officials said it will take two to three weeks to repair that damaged line.
A man wept as he showed a reporter from national broadcaster RTVE the shell of what was once the ground floor of his home in Catarroja, south of Valencia. It looked as though a bomb had detonated inside, obliterating furniture and belongings, and stripping the paint off some walls.
World
Orbán's meeting with FPÖ leaders in Vienna sparks controversy
The Hungarian prime minister arrived in Vienna on Thursday, where he was received by parliamentary president Walter Rosenkranz in a meeting condemned by several Austrian political parties.
Despite criticism from other political parties, Austria’s newly elected parliament president, Walter Rosenkranz of the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ), hosted Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in Vienna as his first official guest.
The controversial visit took place in the Austrian parliament’s reception room, with the entire leadership of the FPÖ, including leader Herbert Kickl, reportedly in attendance.
After the meeting concluded, Orbán had a separate, private meeting with Kickl. However, nothing was initially revealed about the content of their conversation.
Rosenkranz said the meeting had been arranged before he took office.
Other Austrian parties, including the Greens and Social Democrats, had resisted Orbán’s visit. Green party parliamentary leader Sigrid Maurer said the FPÖ views Orbán as a role model, which should be considered “an absolute warning signal.”
FPÖ finished first in the recent Austrian parliamentary elections, garnering 29.2% of the vote in the country’s first far-right election win since World War II.
Experts say the party managed to tap into Austrian anxiety on housing and healthcare, as well as often successfully blaming migration for a host of other issues.
As is customary within Austria, the group with the highest number of votes appoints the President of Parliament – hence Rosenkranz being elected to the second-highest state office in the country last week.
Orbán will reportedly not meet with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer during the visit.
Far-right alliance in Europe
Austria’s Freedom Party and Orbán’s Fidesz party both belong to the new European far-right group Patriots for Europe.
The party shares a deep aversion to the Green Deal, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s flagship initiative to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, and have challenged the project of European integration as well as the power granted to EU institutions.
Patriots for Europe are also opposed to providing Ukraine with military equipment, question the efficiency of Western sanctions against Moscow and want to maintain close relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his government.
It is the third-largest group in the European Parliament, boasting dozens of MEPs from countries like France, Italy and the Netherlands.
World
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