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At least six Palestinians have been killed in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), and several homes have been destroyed as Israeli forces pushed deeper into the city and pressed further into Shujayea in northern Gaza.

Israeli tanks, which re-entered Shujayea four days ago, fired shells towards several houses, leaving families trapped inside and unable to leave, residents said.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that “60,000 to 80,000 people were displaced” from Shujayea in recent days.

For those who remain, “our lives have become hell”, said 50-year-old resident Siham al-Shawa.

She told the AFP news agency that people were trapped as strikes could happen “anywhere” and “it is difficult to get out of the neighbourhood under fire”.

“We do not know where to go to protect ourselves,” she said.

Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah, said residents who managed to flee the neighbourhood say the scale of destruction is “massive”.

He said the central areas of Gaza City have also been “pounded” by Israeli forces.

“In the past hour, a residential flat was targeted. Medical sources we’ve talked to say at least 15 people have been killed today in the north after people’s homes were directly hit by artillery shells,” Abu Azzoum said.

He noted that in Rafah, there was a continuation of “indiscriminate Israeli attacks as residents flee for their lives”.

“In the al-Mawasi district – declared a ‘safe zone’ by Israel’s military – they’ve been setting fire to makeshift tent camps where displaced Palestinians have been sheltering,” he added.

Speaking at a weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his stance that there was no substitute for victory in the war against Hamas.

“We are committed to fighting until we achieve all of our objectives: Eliminating Hamas, returning all of our hostages, ensuring that Gaza never again constitutes a threat to Israel and returning our residents securely to their homes in the south and the north,” he said.

Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan meanwhile said there’s been no progress in ceasefire talks. He said on Saturday that the Palestinian group is still ready to discuss any truce proposal that ends the nearly nine-month assault.

While the offensive focused on Gaza, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, one man was killed and five were wounded in an Israeli strike near the city of Tulkarem, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

The armed wing of Hamas and the allied Palestinian Islamic Jihad reported fierce fighting in both Shujayea and Rafah, saying their fighters had fired antitank rockets and mortar bombs against Israeli forces operating there.

Arab mediators’ efforts, backed by the United States, have stalled. Hamas says any deal must end the offensive and bring a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Israel says it will accept only temporary pauses in the fighting until Hamas, which has governed Gaza since 2007, is eradicated.

The Palestinian health ministry said 43 bodies of slain Palestinians arrived at hospitals in the last 24-hour reporting period. At least 111 others were wounded.

Israel’s offensive has so far killed at least 37,877 people, according to the Gaza health ministry, and has left the heavily built-up coastal enclave in ruins.

Israeli tanks pushed deeper into several districts in the east, west and centre of Rafah, near the border with Egypt, on Sunday, and medics said six people had been killed in an Israeli strike on a house in Shaboura, in the heart of the city.

Six bodies from the Zurub family were transferred to Nasser Hospital in the nearby city of Khan Younis, where dozens of relatives paid their respects.

Residents said the Israeli army had torched the Al-Awda mosque in the centre of Rafah, one of the city’s best known.

Israel has said its military operations in Rafah are aimed at eradicating the last armed battalions of Hamas. It continues to severely restrict the entry of much-needed humanitarian aid, medicine, and fuel into the enclave, which is on the verge of famine.

The United Nations and other relief agencies have voiced alarm over the dire humanitarian crisis and the threat of starvation that the assault and Israeli siege have brought for Gaza’s 2.4 million people.

“Everything is rubble,” said Louise Wateridge from the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), speaking Friday from the city of Khan Younis.

“There’s no water there, there’s no sanitation, there’s no food. And now, people are living back in these buildings that are empty shells.”

Source: Aljazeera

At least 18 people have been killed and 19 seriously injured in suicide attacks targeting a wedding, a hospital and a funeral in north-east Nigeria, authorities have said.

In one of three blasts on Saturday in the town of Gwoza, a woman with a baby strapped to her back detonated explosives in the middle of a wedding ceremony, according to state police.

The Borno state police spokesperson Nahum Kenneth Daso said: “At about 1545 (1445 GMT) a woman carrying a baby on her back detonated an improvised explosive device she had on her at a crowded motor park.”

Female suicide bombers also targeted a hospital in the same town, which lies across the border from Cameroon. Another attack was later carried out at the funeral for victims of the wedding blast, authorities said. The region has been scarred by more than a decade of violence by the jihadist group Boko Haram, which did not immediately claim responsibility for the string of attacks.

Barkindo Saidu, the head of Borno state’s emergency management agency, said in a report seen by Agence France-Presse that “18 deaths comprising children, men, females and pregnant women” had so far been reported. Nineteen “seriously injured” people were taken to the regional capital, Maiduguri, while 23 others were awaiting evacuation, Saidu said in the report.

A member of a militia assisting the military in Gwoza said two colleagues and a soldier were also killed in a separate attack on a security post, though authorities did not immediately confirm this toll.

Although Boko Haram has lost ground in recent years, jihadists continue to attack rural communities in Nigeria on a regular basis. Over the course of the insurgency, Boko Haram has repeatedly deployed young women and girls to carry out suicide attacks.

The group seized Gwoza in 2014 when its militants took over swathes of territory in northern Borno. The town was taken back by the Nigerian military with help from Chadian forces in 2015 but the group has continued to launch attacks from mountains near the town.

Boko Haram has carried out raids, killing men and kidnapping women who venture outside the town in search of firewood and acacia fruit. The violence has killed more than 40,000 people and displaced about 2 million in north-east Nigeria.

The conflict has spread to neighbouring Niger, Cameroon and Chad, prompting the formation of a regional military coalition to fight the militants.

Source: The Guardian

Abia State governor, Alex Otti, on Saturday said the state government would fish out the killers of two policemen shot dead by unknown assailants in the state on Friday.

The two policemen, Inspector Augustine Ogbudu (36 years) from Cross River State and Superintendent Eziekel Sunday from Kebbi State were killed, while two other police officers were wounded in the Aba area of the state.

Sunday PUNCH gathered that a 14-year-old teenager also lost his life during the attack which occurred at Opobo Junction Ogborhill Aba.

But speaking to newsmen during his visit to the families of the victims, Governor Otti described the attack as unfortunate, vowing that his government would fish out the perpetrators.

“We thought that with all that we have done, including rounding up some of the people that were involved in that last attack that this would not happen again. We have decided to change our strategy. We do not want to speculate but like you (journalist) rightly asked, it is reasonable to suspect that the enemies of the state, particularly those who don’t seem to see anything good or want any good thing for Abia people may be somehow connected to this. That is a suspicion. We are not going to let this go away without identifying and bringing to book all those who are directly or remotely involved,” the governor said.

The governor said he believed that by the time investigations are concluded, the government would know where the attacks came from, and would not succumb to any blackmail.

Source: Punch

The Ogun So-Safe Corps has apprehended three suspects for buying stolen transformer armoured cables worth N9.8m in OPIC Estate, Agbara, Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area of the state.

According to a statement issued by the State Commander, Soji Ganzallo, through the office of the Director of Information and Public Relations, Assistant Commander Moruf Yusuf, the suspects – Mansirina Usman (27), Janadu Ahyarn (20), and Husseni Abdullahi (20) – were arrested on Thursday, around 7pm.

Ganzallo said the arrest was made possible by the corps’ surveillance team, who acted on a tip-off that the stolen cables were being sold in the area.

“Before the arrest, information reached the corps that unknown thieves had vandalised and stolen transformer armoured cables worth N9.8m.

“The Area Commander, Assistant Commander Adeosun Adeniyi, and his team were tasked with bringing the perpetrators to justice within 48 hours,” the statement read.

Ganzallo explained that the suspects confessed to buying the stolen cables from Mustapha and one other person identified as Minister, who are currently at large.

“Usman bought 30kg of cable for N300,000, Ahyarn bought 25kg for N250,000, and Abdullahi bought 20kg for N200,000.

“The suspects had in their possession four off-cut armoured cables, N18,850 in cash, three Android phones, two wristwatches, and two unmarked TVS motorcycles,” it was added.

The three suspects and the items recovered have been transferred to the Nigeria Police Force, Agbara Divisional Headquarters for further investigation and likely prosecution.

Ganzallo commended the surveillance team for their swift action and reiterated the cops’ commitment to combating criminal activities in the state.

Source: Punch

Five days after a dynamite explosion near the Presidential Hotel of Aba Road in Port Harcourt, Rivers State the prime suspect is still hospitalised under heavy security watch at the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital.

The dynamite explosion happened last Tuesday seriously injuring the carrier allegedly during a protest by some persons over the tenure of the local government chairmen in the state.

The State Commissioner for Health, Dr Adaeze Oreh, had on Tuesday night during a news briefing, alerted hospitals in the state to look out for any patient with ‘traumatically dismembered upper limb’.  and to immediately alert the government.

On Wednesday morning, the health commission said a patient with the described injury reported at the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital and had been held.

She said the patient was brought unconscious to the hospital by his friends, who claimed he was involved in a road accident, but the doctors, on examining the injuries, “immediately recognised that the injuries seen on this individual were not in tandem with a road traffic accident, but rather resemble injuries that would have come from a blast.”

Our reporter, who visited the hospital on Sunday afternoon, observed a huge security presence in and around the hospital premises.

A police patrol van was stationed at the Moscow Road junction leading to the hospital, while another patrol van was stationed inside the facility just after the main entrance.

Also, near the emergency ward, another patrol van was spotted, making three police vans, all manned by armed policemen.

Although there was no restriction on movements in and out of the hospital, the operatives kept a watchful eye on the movements of visitors within the facility and the perimeter.

The policemen were also spotted manning strategic locations in various units of the hospital where they had been keeping vigil since last Wednesday when the suspect was discovered in the facility.

When contacted, the spokesperson for the Rivers State Police Command, Grace Iringe-Koko, confirmed the security beef-up due to the hospitalised suspect, adding that investigation was ongoing.

Last Friday, the police in a statement, said, “The command has launched a comprehensive investigation to ascertain the cause and circumstances surrounding this unfortunate event, with a view to ensuring the safety and security of all residents and visitors in Rivers State.

“The command would like to express its gratitude to members of the public who have provided information, pictures, and videos to assist the police investigation.

“The Commissioner of Police advises that anyone who sees a suspicious object should evacuate the area immediately and notify the police without delay.

“Every effort is being made to gather all pertinent information and bring clarity to this situation. Further updates on our findings will be provided as the investigation progresses.”

Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara said the suspected bomber was sponsored by the opposition in order to justify their call for a state of emergency in Rivers State amid the face-off between him (Fubara) and his estranged political godfather, Nyesom Wike.

Fubara said the opposition particularly picked Hotel Presidential in Port Harcourt as the spot to detonate the dynamite because they knew that some federal lawmakers who visited the state lodged in the hotel.

He said, “In fact, there was a plan to detonate a dynamite at the Hotel Presidential because you people (federal lawmakers) were there. But this God that we serve, it happened that the man who was trying to do it, detonated it but just a few seconds after, it blew his hands off.

“The idea was that as you (federal lawmakers) were hearing the state of emergency, it will be so that by the time they finish, when you (lawmakers) return to have your sitting tomorrow (Thursday), the debate will be from somebody from this state who called you people to tell you not to come.

“He will now raise the issue of state of emergency, and say, after all, distinguished colleagues saw it happen while you were in Rivers State; that you saw what happened.

“But you see, when you are with God, even your own child who is planning evil will go and tell somebody that God is with this man because he is clean, this is what my father is planning. That is what is keeping us in this state.”

Source: Punch

An Air Force helicopter belonging to the Nigerian Air Force in the early hours of Monday crashed in Tami village, located in the Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

Eyewitness said the incident occurred at approximately 5:00 am, causing significant alarm among residents.

The helicopter said to be on a routine operational flight, experienced technical difficulties that led to the crash. Fortunately, the pilot managed to execute emergency protocols effectively, ensuring his survival.

Eyewitnesses at the scene reported that the pilot emerged from the wreckage largely unscathed.

Residents of Tami village quickly gathered at the crash site, offering assistance where possible and expressing relief that no lives were lost.

“We heard a loud noise and rushed to the scene. We were surprised and relieved to see the pilot alive,” said a local villager who witnessed the crash.

It was gathered that a team of military officers from the Nigerian Air Force swiftly arrived at the scene to secure the area and conduct an initial investigation.

They cordoned off the crash site to prevent unauthorised access and to ensure the safety of the villagers. The officers also began preliminary assessments to determine the cause of the crash, which remains unknown at this time.

As of the time of filling the report the Nigerian Air Force has not released an official statement regarding the incident, but an investigation is expected to be launched to ascertain the factors leading to the crash.

Source: Punch

One of the three housewives recently abducted in Taraba State has escaped from the kidnappers’ den.

Three housewives, it would be recalled, were abducted along the Takum-Katsina-Ala road in Takum local government council of Taraba State early last month.

The woman who was identified as Amina Adamu, was said to have escaped when the kidnappers were deeply asleep.

Confirming the incident on Monday, one of her husband’s relatives said two housewives, a daughter of a retired army general, are still in the kidnappers’ custody.

Our reporter also learnt that the two emissaries that took ransom to the kidnappers for the release of the three housewives, were also held hostage.

Residents from Takum who also confirmed the housewife’s escape, expressed sadness at the way and manner kidnappers have been terrorizing the areas.

Narrating how kidnappers have been having a field day in the area, especially along Takum-Katsina-Ala road, they raised the need for the deployment of security operatives to the area.

They also called on the governments of both Taraba and Benue State to put in place mechanisms that will checkmate hoodlums giving travellers sleepless nights.

A resident of the area who identified himself as Bello Haruna, said travelling along the road has become a nightmare following the activities of kidnappers and bandits

The Acting spokesperson of the command who could not confirm Amina’s escape, promised to get back to our reporter after making the necessary inquiries from the Divisional Police Officer, DPO, in Takum

Source: Daily Post

The Nigerian Air Force said on Sunday that it intercepted a group of terrorists in Niger State and freed some cattle earlier rustled by the criminals.

NAF said also destroyed several illegal oil refining sites in Rivers State and eliminated scores of terrorists in Niger State in recent coordinated air strikes.

The Director, Public Relations and Information of the Nigerian Air Force, AVM Edward Gabkwet, stated this in a statement on Sunday in Abuja.

He said following a tip-off, NAF swooped on terrorists hibernating at Dandunu after rustling cattle from communities around the Kuchi-Kapana axis in the Munya Local Government Area of Niger.

Gabkwet said the NAF intercepted the terrorists on nine motorcycles leading the rustled cattle.

According to him, the motorcycle-riding terrorists were struck by the aircraft in several passes with most of them eliminated in the process.

“The feedback from locals around the location has so far been positive, with most of them being able to recover the rustled cattle and returning to their livelihoods,” he added.

Gabkwet said as the activities of oil thieves and economic saboteurs had become sophisticated, so had the NAF and other security agencies re-strategised to checkmate their activities and be ahead of their game.

He said that the oil thieves had in most cases continued to find new ways of concealing their overhead tanks used in storing stolen crude oil products from burst pipelines in the Niger-Delta region.

According to him, they also continued to infuse the use of fast speedboats to convey their stolen goods.

Gabkwet said in response, NAF and other security agencies had upped their game with modern technology and hardware that enable them to detect and deter the activities of oil thieves and economic saboteurs.

“In Willcourt, a riverine settlement within the creeks of Niger Delta Region, the Air Component of Operation Delta Safe sighted and destroyed three illegal refining sites.”

“The site has a total number of seven overhead tanks concealed under thick mangrove vegetation.

“Similarly, about five kilometres downstream, four boats were also sighted moving southwards with suspected illegally refined products. Our men attacked and destroyed the boats.

“While heading back, the crew spotted a speedboat with five suspected oil thieves fleeing the area.

“Upon sighting the aircraft, the criminals increased speed, hoping to evade the aircraft but the air component then pursued the speedboat until they arrived at the blocking zone of ground troops where they were arrested,” he said.

Source: Punch

Attacks on churches and synagogues in Russia’s Dagestan region killed primarily police officers, officials said Monday, announcing a toll of 19 dead after violence that stoked fears over Islamist violence in the historically restive North Caucasus.

The assaults launched on Sunday come just three months after Islamic State group fighters killed more than 140 in a Moscow concert hall, the deadliest terror attack on Russia for almost 20 years.

Moscow said on Monday it had concluded an “anti-terrorist operation” and killed five of the assailants behind the coordinated attacks on Sunday evening in the cities of Makhachkala and Derbent.

The incidents also had echoes of the kind of insurgent violence that marred the North Caucasus during the 1990s and 2000s.

Russia has been a target for Islamic State terror in recent years, with the fundamentalist group opposing Moscow’s military support for Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and claiming to have set up a “franchise” in Russia’s north Caucasus.

“According to preliminary data, 15 law enforcement officers were killed, as well as four civilians, including an Orthodox priest,” Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said on Monday.

Five assailants had also been “liquidated”, it added, though it was not clear how many had been involved in the attack.

The Russian Orthodox Church said its archpriest Nikolai Kotelnikov, had been “brutally killed” in an attack on a church in the city of Derbent.

The National Antiterrorism Committee, which responds to mass attacks and is tasked with foiling terror plots, said Monday morning it had wrapped up its rapid response operation.

“Following the neutralisation of the threats to the lives and health of citizens, it was decided to end the anti-terrorist operation in Dagestan,” at 08:15 am (0515 GMT), it said in a statement.

In the 1990s and 2000s, separatist and militant groups waged guerilla-style campaigns against Russian authorities in the mountainous North Caucasus following the breakdown of the Soviet Union.

Moscow fought two wars for control of the neighbouring Chechnya region, with President Vladimir Putin having touted his success in quashing the insurgency at the start of his presidency.

More than 12 hours after the attack unfolded, the Kremlin was yet to comment.

On Monday, some of Russia’s partners and allies, including China and Azerbaijan, which borders the Dagestan region, issued messages of condolence.

Russia’s Investigative Committee said it had opened criminal probes over “acts of terror,” while Dagestan’s Governor Sergei Melikov called the attacks an attempt to “destabilise” his region.

“We know who is behind these terrorist attacks and what objective they are pursuing,” he added, without providing specific details, but making references to the conflict in Ukraine.

“We must understand that war comes to our homes too. We felt it, but today we face it,” he said.

After the deadly attack on Moscow’s Crocus City Hall in March, Putin had initially said Kyiv had a hand in planning the assault, despite no evidence and an IS affiliate claiming responsibility on multiple occasions.

In a video message posted on social media Monday morning, Melikov said authorities were hunting for “all the members of these sleeper cells who prepared (the attacks) and who were prepared, including abroad.”

Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church and a fervent supporter of the Kremlin, said the “enemy” was seeking to destroy “inter-religious peace” in Russia, without naming who he believed was responsible.

Two Orthodox churches, two synagogues, and a police checkpoint were attacked, according to officials and the Russian Jewish Congress.

Sunday was a religious holiday, Pentecost Sunday, in the Russian Orthodox Church.

Dagestan’s interior ministry said 19 people took shelter inside a church in Makhachkala and were later led out to safety.

Gunmen also attacked synagogues in both cities, setting them on fire with Molotov cocktails, the Russian Jewish Congress said in a statement.

Russia’s FSB security service in April said it had arrested four people in Dagestan on suspicion of plotting the deadly attack on Moscow’s Crocus City Hall concert venue in March, which was claimed by IS.

Militants from Dagestan are known to have travelled to join IS in Syria, and in 2015, the group declared it had established a “franchise” in the North Caucasus.

Russian authorities repeatedly announce successful “anti-terrorist operations” targeting alleged IS fighters from the north Caucasus.

Tensions have also ran high in the Muslim-majority region following the start of the Israel-Hamas war last year.

In October an angry crowd stormed the local airport when reports circulated on social media that a plane was arriving from Israel.

Source: Channels