Israel launches 3 airstrikes on Gaza
Gaza, June 25 : Israeli army drones have carried out three successive airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, in response to arson kites and balloons fired from the enclave.
The airstrikes on Sunday injured four persons, according to medical sources, Xinhua news agency reported.
An Israeli drone fired a missile at a training facility that belongs to the Islamic Hamas movement's armed wing al-Qassam Brigades in central Gaza, with no injuries reported.
Another drone fired a rocket on a motorbike in the refugee camp of al-Bureij close to the border between eastern Gaza and Israel, also with no injuries.
The third airstrike on eastern Gaza City injured four. It targeted a vehicle which carried young Palestinians flying flaming kites and balloons into Israel.
The Israeli army is not immediately available for comment on the airstrikes.
Flying and releasing kites and balloons is part of the ongoing Palestinian "Great March of Return" mass rally against Israel's 11-year crippling blockade, which started on March 30.
Israeli media reported last Thursday that flaming kites and balloons caused four huge fires in agricultural fields in Israel.
Ashraf al-Qedra, the health ministry spokesman in Gaza, earlier told reporters that Israeli forces have killed at least 132 Palestinians, and injured 14,000 others since March 30.
Around half of the injured were shot by live ammunition, and many of them are still in critical condition, he added.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
