Medics fear for patients inside main Gaza hospital
Palestinian medics said on Thursday they are increasingly afraid for the lives of hundreds of patients and medical staff at Gaza’s biggest hospital, cut off from all links to the outside world for more than a day after Israeli forces entered.
Israel said its commandos were still searching through Al Shifa hospital on Thursday, more than a day after they entered its grounds as part of an offensive that Israel says aims to wipe out Hamas militants in the Palestinian enclave.
Israel believes a vast underground Hamas command headquarters was operating in tunnels beneath the hospital, and on Thursday night the military said troops had found a tunnel shaft and vehicle with weapons inside the hospital complex.
“In the Shifa Hospital, IDF troops found an operational tunnel shaft and a vehicle containing a large number of weapons,” the military said, using the acronym for the Israel Defence Forces. The military released videos and photographs which it said showed the tunnel shaft and weapons.
Russian shelling kills two in Ukraine’s Kherson region
Multiple Russian shelling attacks in and around the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on Thursday killed three people and injured at least a dozen, the region’s governor said.
Kherson was recaptured by Ukrainian forces last year, but has been shelled relentlessly since by Russian forces from the opposite bank of the Dnipro river.
Three people died in separate shelling attacks throughout the day, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.
Russia jails artist for 7 years over Ukraine war protest
Russia sentenced artist Alexandra Skochilenko to seven years in prison on Thursday for spreading disinformation about the army, after she swopped supermarket price tags with slogans criticising Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The 33-year-old, who goes by Sasha, is the latest among thousands of Russians who have been detained, jailed or fined for speaking out against Moscow’s large-scale military offensive.
Her supporters in the courtroom shouted “shame” and “we’re with you Sasha” after judge Oksana Demiasheva read out the verdict, an AFP journalist at the sentencing reported.
Newspaper removes Osama bin Laden letter after it goes viral
British newspaper The Guardian has removed from its website a 21-year-old message written by Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, after it was shared several million times on social media.
Bin Laden’s “Letter to America” began being shared on TikTok on Tuesday, sparking a fierce debate about US backing for Israel in its current war against Hamas.
The transcript includes bin Laden’s assertion that the United States was attacked on Sept 11, 2001 due to its support of Israel.
Rory McIlroy tee shot lands on spectator’s lap in Dubai
Rory McIlroy has had to chip shots from all corners of a golf course in his career but the former world number one found himself in an awkward fix at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai on Thursday when his tee shot landed on a woman’s lap.
The four-time major winner teed off from the 13th hole at the Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai and as the ball fell outside the green, spectators moved aside to reveal his ball was lodged on the lap of a woman sitting on the grass.
McIlroy playfully pretended to take his next shot off her lap amid laughter before he called for the referee, who himself could not contain a smile as he took in the Northern Irishman’s predicament while the woman stood absolutely still.
