Netanyahu refuses to halt Israeli strikes, 70 killed in Gaza, including 22 children during the ‘offe
DEIR AL-BALAH: Israeli air raids hit northern and southern Gaza on Wednesday, killing at least of 70 individuals, including almost two dozen children, according to hospitals and health officials. The raids carried out after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's statement a day earlier that there will be no pause to the army campaign, asserting that Israel's offensive would endure until the militant group is utterly dismantled.
At least 50 individuals, 22 of them children, died in raids around the Jabaliya area in northern Gaza, hospitals and Gaza's Health Ministry reported. In Jabaliya, rescue workers used hand tools and the light of cellphones to dig through rubble and retrieve the bodies of children trapped beneath collapsed concrete.
Israel’s military declined to comment on the latest strikes but had issued warnings to Jabaliya residents late Tuesday, urging them to evacuate due to the alleged presence of militant infrastructure, including rocket launchers.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused any pause in military operations in Gaza, stating that the offensive will persist until Hamas is fully dismantled. Netanyahu, in remarks released by his office Tuesday, stated that Israeli forces were preparing for a major escalation in Gaza, vowing they would advance "with great strength to complete the mission... It means destroying Hamas."
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11k litres of milk poured into Narmada river after religious event; environmentalists see red
Sehore (PTI): Around 11,000 litres of milk were poured into Narmada river, often called the lifeline of Madhya Pradesh, in Sehore district on the culmination of a 21-day religious event as part of a sanctification ritual, prompting environmentalists to flag its negative impact on the ecosystem.
The event concluded at Satdev village in Bherunda area, located about 90 km from the district headquarters, with a 'mahayagna' on Wednesday.
The milk was offered to the river as part of rituals and prayers for the purity of the waters, the well-being of pilgrims and prosperity, organisers said.
The milk was brought in tankers to the riverbank and later poured into the flowing water amid chanting of mantras in the presence of a crowd of devotees.
However, environmentalists raised concerns over the practice, warning of its potential ecological impact.
"Such large quantities of organic matter can deplete dissolved oxygen in water, adversely affecting the river ecosystem. These impact local communities dependent on the river for drinking water and threaten aquatic life as well as domestic animals," noted environmentalist and wildlife activist Ajay Dube said.
Religious offerings should be symbolic and mindful, he asserted.
Renowned environmentalist Subhash Pandey said 11,000 litres of milk acts as a significant organic pollutant.
"It is highly oxygen-demanding and can lead to oxygen depletion, aquatic mortality, eutrophication (process of plants growing on river surface) and loss of potability. These effects are predictable from dairy-effluent chemistry and have been documented in similar incidents worldwide," Pandey pointed out.
Narmada originates at Amarkantak in the state and traverses 1,312 km westward to Maharashtra and Gujarat, emptying into the Arabian Sea via the Gulf of Cambay.
It is the largest west-flowing river in the peninsula, passing through a rift valley, and acts as a crucial water source for irrigation in MP, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
