Israel's latest strikes in Gaza kill 38 people including children
Deir Al-Balah (Gaza Strip), May 25 (AP): Israeli strikes over the past 24 hours killed at least 38 people in Gaza, including a mother and her two children sheltering in a tent, local health officials said Sunday, with no data available for a second straight day from now-inaccessible hospitals in the north.
Further details also emerged of the local doctor who lost nine of her 10 children in an Israeli strike on Friday.
Gaza's Health Ministry said 3,785 people have been killed in the territory since Israel ended a ceasefire and renewed its offensive in March, vowing to destroy Hamas and return the 58 hostages it still holds from the October 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war.
Israel also blocked the import of all food, medicine and fuel for 2 1/2 months before letting a trickle of aid enter last week after experts' warnings of famine and pressure from some of Israel's top allies. Israel has been pursuing a new plan to tightly control all aid to Gaza, which the United Nations has rejected.
Israel also says it plans to seize full control of Gaza and facilitate what it describes as the voluntary migration of much of its population of over 2 million Palestinians, a plan rejected by Palestinians and much of the international community. Experts say it would likely violate international law.
The new strike on the tent housing displaced people that killed the mother and children occurred in the central city of Deir al-Balah, according to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. A strike in the Jabaliya area of northern Gaza killed at least five, including two women and a child, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
Only one of paediatrician Alaa al-Najjar's 10 children survived the Israeli strike on their home Friday near the southern city of Khan Younis. Both the 11-year-old and al-Najjar's husband, also a doctor, were badly hurt.
The charred remains of the other children were brought to the morgue in a single body bag, said a fellow paediatrician at Nasser Hospital, Alaa al-Zayan.
The home was struck minutes after Hamdi al-Najjar had driven his wife to the hospital. His brother, Ismail al-Najjar, was the first to arrive at the scene.
“They were innocent children," the brother said, with the youngest 7 months old. "And my brother has no business with (Palestinian) factions.”
Israel on Saturday said, “The claim regarding harm to uninvolved civilians is under review." It says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames Hamas for their deaths because it operates in densely populated areas. There was no immediate comment from the military on the latest strikes.
Hamas-led group killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the October 7 attack and abducted 251 people. Around a third of the remaining hostages are believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel's 19-month offensive has killed over 53,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which says women and children make up most of the dead. It does not provide figures for the number of civilians or combatants killed.
The offensive has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and displaced around 90% of the territory's population, often multiple times.
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Traffic fraud: Fake 'no-entry' sticker racket busted in Delhi, mastermind among 3 held
New Delhi (PTI): Police here have busted a crime syndicate involved in traffic fraud and extortion, arresting three people including the alleged mastermind who sold fake stickers to help commercial vehicles bypass no-entry restrictions, an official said on Saturday.
The police said they dismantled a third organised syndicate linked to traffic-related frauds, with the arrest of Rinku Rana alias Bhushan, his associate Sonu Sharma and Mukesh Kumar alias Pakodi, who was also connected to another extortion syndicate.
According to the police, Rinku Rana was running a well-organised network that facilitated the movement of commercial goods vehicles during restricted hours by selling fake 'marka' or stickers for Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 per vehicle every month. The stickers were falsely projected as authorisation to evade traffic challans.
During raids, the police recovered Rs 31 lakh in cash, property documents worth several crores of rupees, over 500 fake stickers and six mobile phones allegedly used to operate the syndicate.
The crackdown followed a complaint filed by a traffic police officer in April this year after a commercial vehicle tried to evade checking by producing a fake sticker claiming exemption from enforcement action.
Investigation revealed that social media groups were being used to coordinate the illegal movement of vehicles and alert drivers about traffic police checkpoints, police said.
"A parallel system was being run to cheat drivers and vehicle owners while undermining traffic enforcement. On the basis of evidence, provisions related to organised crime under the BNS were invoked," a senior police officer said.
Sonu Sharma, the police said, managed social media groups through which stickers were sold and real-time alerts were circulated regarding traffic police movement. He also acted as a link between Rana and drivers operating in the field.
In a related development, Mukesh Kumar alias Pakodi, an associate of Rajkumar alias Raju Meena, who was earlier arrested under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), was also apprehended.
Mukesh allegedly helped extort money from transporters and was involved in blackmailing traffic police personnel by recording enforcement actions, the police said.
Investigators alleged the syndicate led by Rajkumar deployed drivers to deliberately violate traffic rules and secretly record police officials during challans, later using manipulated videos to extort money under threat of false allegations.
The police said that in total, eight accused belonging to three different organised crime syndicates linked to traffic frauds and extortion have been arrested so far.
Further investigation is underway to trace the remaining members, conduct financial probes, and analyse digital evidence recovered during the raids, officials added.
