Panaji, July 23 : A Goa BJP spokesperson on Monday called Congress President Rahul Gandhi a "loafer" for winking in Parliament, a day after the state Congress chief called Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar a "kathputli" (puppet) for bowing to unreasonable demands of ruling coalition allies in the coastal state.

"Rahul Gandhi, who does not have substance or the understanding of issues related to the people of India, had to resort to hugging the Prime Minister in the temple of democracy and then winking like a loafer," said state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Dattaprasad Naik in a press statement.

"We have only heard of loafers winking at girls in colleges in the past and never such a shameful act has ever happened in the temple of democracy," Naik said, adding that the Congress party had become a "kathputli" in the hands of Gandhi family.

Naik said state Congress president Girish Chodankar had forgotten that even former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was a puppet in the hands of then Congress president Sonia Gandhi and that all Goa Congress presidents in the past were "kathputlis" in the hands of the Congress high command.

On Sunday, the state's top Congress leader, Chodankar in a press conference had said: "The Chief Minister has been reduced to string puppet by alliance partners like Goa Forward, whose leader Vijai Sardesai has tried to save those behind the fish mafia, after formalin was found in fish imported into Goa from other states by rogue fish traders. Hundreds of thousands of Goans love their fish thali. The government has put the fish thali in peril".

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Deir al-Balah, Nov 1: Israeli airstrikes on Friday killed at least 24 people in northeastern Lebanon, the country's news agency said, raising the death toll from eight there.

It was the latest deadly toll in the area since the conflict between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah escalated last month.

Israel's military has said that its operation in Lebanon is targeting Hezbollah's military infrastructure.

Lebanon's state National news Agency reported four airstrikes in different villages across country's northeast, saying rescuers were still searching for survivors in Younine, a town in the Bekaa Valley, from the rubble of a targeted house.

Hussein Haj Hassan, a Lebanese lawmaker representing the region in Baalbek-Hermel region, said that 60,000 people have already fled their homes in the area due to Israeli bombardment.