Yesterday, for the first time, Palestinian rockets fired from the Gaza Strip killed people in Israel, a three-year-old boy and a man, in a deadly battle of wills in anticipation of an Israeli pullout.
A strong Israeli military response appeared likely after two rockets slammed into the southern town of Sderot some 12 hours after militants blew up an army post in the Gaza Strip, killing one soldier and wounding five others.
At least four Palestinians were also killed in the latest spiral of violence in the area, where Israel and militants have been locked in a fight to claim victory before implementation of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Gaza pullout plan.
PHOTO: EPA
"An ambulance pulled up and there was a dead three-year-old boy inside," said a doctor at Soroka Hospital in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba, where Sderot casualties were taken.
Medical officials said a man, aged 50, was also killed and about a dozen people, including the boy's mother, were wounded. One of the rockets landed next to a kindergarten, but none of the children inside was hurt.
"I put the kids in my kindergarten into a shelter, and then I came running and saw the mother and son lying on the sidewalk on top of one another," said teacher Minnie Shoshan.
It was the first time makeshift rockets fired from Gaza, whose small payloads usually cause no serious injuries, had killed anyone in Israel. Sharon planned to hold security consultations later in the day, an official said.
"So far Sderot had been lucky in the Qassam [rocket] attacks, but that luck ran out today," Israeli cabinet minister Gideon Ezra told Israel Radio. The town has been hit by 10 rockets this year, the army said.
Izz el-Deen al-Qassam, the armed wing of the militant Hamas group, claimed responsibility for an attack that fueled worst-case scenarios in Israel of rockets slamming into its southern towns after a Gaza withdrawal.
"They [Israeli forces] should never leave Gaza. It would mean death for us," said Mira Zaaroum, a resident of Sderot, a working class town 1km from the border.
A senior Israeli official said Sharon was determined to press ahead with his plan to evacuate all 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza and four of the 120 in the West Bank.
"Terrorism will not dictate our political plans," the official said.
Avi Pazner, an Israeli government spokesman, said Israel would continue its efforts "to destroy the terrorist infrastructure, arrest those behind terrorist activities and harshly punish those who perpetrate these murderous activities."
Hamas and al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group in Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, both claimed responsibility for a Sunday explosion that destroyed the army post near the Gush Katif bloc of Jewish settlements.
They called it retaliation for Israel's assassination of two top Hamas leaders earlier this year and the killing of an al-Aqsa Brigades leader in the West Bank on Saturday.
Young Chinese, many who fear age discrimination in their workplace after turning 35, are increasingly starting “one-person companies” that have artificial intelligence (AI) do most of the work. Smaller start-ups are already in vogue in Silicon Valley and elsewhere, with rapidly advancing AI tools seen as a welcome teammate even as they threaten layoffs at existing firms. More young people in China are subscribing to the model, as cities pledge millions of dollars in funding and rent subsidies for such ventures, in alignment with Beijing’s political goal of “technological self-reliance.” “The one-person company is a product of the AI era,” said Karen Dai
South Korea’s air force yesterday apologized for a 2021 midair collision involving two fighter jets, a day after auditors said the pilots were taking selfies and filming during the flight and held them responsible for the accident. “We sincerely apologize to the public for the concern caused by the accident that occurred in 2021,” an air force spokesman told a news conference, adding that one of the pilots involved had been suspended from flying duties, received severe disciplinary action and has since left the military. The apology followed a report released on Wednesday by the South Korean Board of Audit and Inspection,
About 240 Indians claiming descent from a Biblical tribe landed at Tel Aviv airport on Thursday as part of a government operation to relocate them to Israel. The newcomers passed under a balloon arch in blue and white, the colors of the Israeli flag, as dozens of well-wishers welcomed them with a traditional Jewish song. They were the first “bnei Menashe” (“sons of Manasseh”) to arrive in Israel since the government in November last year announced funding for the immigration of about 6,000 members of the community from the states of Manipur and Mizoram in northeast India. The community claims to descend from
‘TROUBLING’: The firing of Phelan, who was an adviser to a nonprofit that supported the defense of Taiwan, was another example of ‘dysfunction’ under Trump, a US senator said US Secretary of the Navy John Phelan has been fired, a US official and a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, in another wartime shakeup at the Pentagon coming just weeks after US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ousted the Army’s top general. The Pentagon announced his departure in a brief statement, saying he was leaving the administration “effective immediately,” but it did not provide a reason or say whether it was his decision to go. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Phelan was dismissed in part because he was moving too slowly to implement reforms to
RSS