Air attack leaves 1 dead, at least 10 injured in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv (AP): A large explosion rumbled through the streets of central Tel Aviv early Friday morning after an apparent drone strike caused shards of shrapnel to rain down and injure at least 10 people, authorities said.
Israel's military said that they were reviewing the explosion and increasing air patrols after the incident, which its initial inquiries determined was caused by “an aerial target."
It was not immediately clear how the strike evaded Israel's air defences or how Israel might respond.
Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai on X called the attack a drone strike, though the military has not yet specified the nature of the attack. Yemen's Houthis have repeatedly launched drones and missiles toward Israel throughout the nine-month-long war in Gaza. But until Friday, all were intercepted by either Israel or Western allies with forces stationed in the region.
Local police said that the blast sounded at around 3:10 a.m. on Friday morning, reverberating to nearby cities and physically injuring at least 10 people. Tel Aviv District Commander Peretz Amar said officers could not locate the point of contact, suggesting the explosion occurred in the air.
“The force of the explosion caused damaged that is not great but is spread over a large area. At the moment we don't know what the object was,” Amar said.
Israel possesses a multilayered aerial defence system, capable of intercepting threats ranging from long-range ballistic missiles to drones and short-range missiles. These various systems have intercepted thousands of projectiles throughout the war. But officials warn they are not 100% effective, and the systems appear to have struggled against small and hard-to-detect attack drones. It was not known which, if any, system was deployed.
Like Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis are backed by Israel's arch enemy, Iran. Israel for the most part also has avoided a direct confrontation with Iran throughout the war. Iran launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel during a single incident in April in response to Israel's alleged assassination of a pair of Iranian generals in Syria at the time.
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Mathura boat capsize tragedy: Death toll climbs to 13
Mathura (UP)(PTI): With the recovery of two more bodies on Sunday, the death toll in the boat capsize incident in the Yamuna river in Mathura has climbed to 13, officials said on Sunday.
Search for three more missing persons is underway.
Superintendent of Police (Rural) Suresh Chandra Rawat said renewed search efforts led to the recovery of the body of a college student, identified as Dinki Bansal, near Devraha Baba Ghat and that of a man identified as Rishabh Sharma approximately 3 km away from the accident site.
The incident occurred on Friday afternoon when a boat carrying over two dozen tourists, primarily from Punjab, hit a floating drum of a pontoon bridge and capsized near Kesi Ghat in Vrindavan.
Most of the victims were from Jagraon and Dugri areas of Ludhiana district.
Teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) along with the district administration and local police were actively engaged in the search for the missing pilgrims.
However, strong currents of the Yamuna river and the significant depth of the water at the ghats are proving a hindrance.
Circle Officer (Mant) Sandeep Singh said the Yamuna river stretch extending from Keshi Ghat to Gokul Barrage has been divided into seven sectors.
The search for the missing individuals will now be conducted within this specific 20-square-km zone. A Station House Officer (SHO) has been designated as the in-charge for each sector.
Acting on the orders of the DIG (Agra Range), seven SHOs will oversee operations across the seven sectors of river Yamuna.
Giving details about the operation, Additional District Magistrate (Finance and Revenue) Pankaj Kumar Verma, citing NDRF officials, on Saturday had said although the search for the missing persons is currently focused within a 14-km radius from the spot where the boat had capsized, there is a possibility that they may have been swept much further downstream.
SHO of Vrindavan police station Sanjay Pandey said boat operator Pappu was arrested late on Friday night.
He is accused of failing to provide life jackets to passengers before allowing them to board the boat, and operating the boat at high speed. This resulted in the boat losing control and colliding with a pontoon bridge's drum, which led to the accident, officials said.
Police have registered a case and also arrested the contractor, Narayan Sharma, responsible for the repair work on the pontoon bridge.
Rawat said that on Friday evening, police registered a case under section 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) against the boatman Pappu (alias Dauji) and Sharma, and subsequently arrested them.
According to the case details, Pappu's boat did not have any safety equipment or provisions whatsoever.
Moreover, despite repeated pleas from pilgrims, Pappu operated the boat at high speed. By the time he realised the danger upon approaching the pontoons of the bridge, it was already too late.
Consequently, after colliding with a pontoon drum, the boat lost control and capsized. It has also come to light that he is among those operators who have not obtained the requisite license to operate a boat.
Sharma was carrying out the work of dismantling and reassembling the pontoon bridge without providing any prior notification.
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