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The Israeli military said eight soldiers were wounded on Thursday when a driver deliberately rammed his car into a bus stop in what police called a “terror attack”.The army said two soldiers were “moderately injured” and six “lightly injured” in the attack at the Beit Lid junction near Kfar Yona in central Israel.”The soldiers were evacuated to a hospital to receive medical treatment and their families have been notified,” it said in a statement.There has been a spate of violence in Israel and the occupied West Bank since the start of the war against Hamas in Gaza, triggered by the Palestinian militants’ attack on October 7, 2023.A teenager died in March this year when police said a car driven by a Palestinian man deliberately ploughed into civilians at a bus stop in northern Israel.One witness to Thursday’s ramming said the driver cut her off the road near Kfar Yona, then “turned his wheel to the right, full gas, as fast as he could, and hit as many people as he could”.Kineret Hanuka, 45, told AFP: “I saw only blood and heard them screaming: ‘It hurts!’… It was so hard for me to see this.”Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) first responders said they received a report at 9:25 am (0625 GMT) that a vehicle had crashed into a bus stop near Kfar Yona.They said that the wounded had chest, limb and head injuries.Israeli police spokesman Dedan Elsdunne described the incident as a “terror attack, where a terrorist rammed his vehicle into individuals who were standing here waiting to catch the bus”.”He (the attacker) then attempted to flee. He abandoned his vehicle and fled from that location. We had large police forces who immediately arrived here, set up a perimeter so that we can locate this individual.” The car was later recovered and the driver is being hunted using helicopters, motorbikes and a specialist dog unit, police added.The site of the crash was cordoned off as forensic investigators combed the scene, AFP journalists reported.In Israel, at least 32 people, including soldiers, have died in attacks by Palestinians since the start of the Gaza war, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.In the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, at least 960 Palestinians, including many fighters but also civilians, have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers, according to Palestinian Authority figures.At the same time, at least 36 Israelis, including civilians and soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations, Israeli figures showed.

International news agencies Agence France-Presse (AFP), Associated Press (AP) and Reuters as well as the BBC on Thursday called on Israel to allow journalists in and out of Gaza, which is subject to a strict blockade.”We are desperately concerned for our journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families,” the media groups said in a joint statement. They added that “journalists endure many deprivations and hardships in war zones. We are deeply alarmed that the threat of starvation is now one of them.””We once again urge the Israeli authorities to allow journalists in and out of Gaza. It is essential that adequate food supplies reach the people there,” they concluded.With Gaza sealed off, many media groups around the world depend on photo, video and text coverage of the conflict provided by Palestinian reporters to international news agencies such as AFP.International criticism is growing over the plight of the more than two million Palestinian civilians in Gaza, where more than 100 aid and rights groups have warned that “mass starvation” is spreading.Since the war started following the unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas, a small number of journalists have been able to enter Gaza only with the Israeli army and under strict military censorship rules.Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in early July that more than 200 journalists had been killed in Gaza since the war began.- Evacuations -AFP news agency has published accounts of life inside Gaza from its reporters this week. It has said it is concerned about “the appalling situation” they face due to a daily struggle to find food.   “We have no energy left due to hunger and lack of food,” said Omar al-Qattaa, a 35-year-old AFP photographer shortlisted for a Pulitzer Prize earlier this year.”Obtaining food in Gaza is extremely difficult. Even when it is available, prices are multiplied by 100,” video journalist Youssef Hassouna said.Israel says humanitarian aid is being allowed in and accuses Hamas of exploiting civilian suffering, including by stealing food handouts to sell at inflated prices or shooting at those awaiting aid.The World Health Organization’s chief warned on Wednesday of widespread starvation in Gaza, saying food deliveries into the territory were “far below what is needed for the survival of the population”.Witnesses and Gaza’s civil defence agency have repeatedly accused Israeli forces of firing on aid seekers. The UN said the military had killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food since late May.AFP succeeded in evacuating eight staff members and their families from Gaza between January and April 2024, after months of effort. – ‘Starving’ -The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a media freedom group, said in a statement on Wednesday that Israel was “starving Gazan journalists into silence”. “They are not just reporters, they are frontline witnesses, abandoned as international media were pulled out and denied entry,” CPJ regional director Sara Qudah was quoted as saying.Many Palestinian journalists have spoken out or posted about their exhaustion, with Sally Thabet, a correspondent for Al-Kofiya satellite channel, fainting after a live broadcast this week, the CPJ said. Doha-based Al Jazeera, the most influential Arabic media group, also called for global action to protect Gaza’s journalists on Tuesday. The channel, which has been banned in Israel, has had five of its reporters killed since the start of the conflict in what it says is a deliberate targeting campaign by Israel. In some cases, Israel has accused reporters of being “terror operatives”, such as when it killed a Gaza-based Al Jazeera staff journalist and freelancer last year — allegations condemned by the Qatari news network.”We know that probably most journalists inside Gaza are operating under the auspices of Hamas, and until Hamas is destroyed, they will not be allowed to report freely,” Israeli government spokesman David Mercer told a press conference last December.

Hamas said on Thursday that it had responded to an Israeli proposal for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza, as pressure mounted for a breakthrough to end almost two years of devastating conflict that has triggered a humanitarian crisis. Mediators have been shuttling between Israeli and Hamas negotiators in Qatar for more than two weeks but the indirect talks have so far failed to yield an elusive truce.International criticism is growing over the plight of the more than two million Palestinians in Gaza, where more than 100 aid and rights groups have warned that “mass starvation” is spreading. Palestinian militant group Hamas confirmed in a statement on Telegram that it “submitted its response and that of the Palestinian factions to the ceasefire proposal to the mediators”.Israel later confirmed it had received the response. “It is currently being evaluated,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.Hamas’s response included proposed amendments to clauses on the entry of aid, maps of areas from which the Israeli army should withdraw, and guarantees on securing a permanent end to the war, according to a Palestinian source familiar with the ongoing talks.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s special envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff was “headed to Europe” to meet “key leaders” and discuss the ceasefire proposal.Witkoff was reportedly on the Italian island of Sardinia on Thursday, Israeli media said.- Key demands -Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli forces had killed 24 people since dawn on Thursday, including six waiting for aid, while Israel’s military said Hamas had targeted a food distribution site in the south of the territory the day before.The militants, though, claimed they had shelled “an enemy command and control site”.In Khan Yunis, in the south, Umm al-Abd Nassar urged Hamas to secure a truce after her son was killed in an air strike on a camp for the displaced.”They need to do something. Enough with this destruction and people dying,” she told AFP.Through 21 months of fighting, both sides have clung to long-held positions, preventing two short-lived truces from being converted into a lasting ceasefire.The talks in Doha began on July 6 to try to reach an agreement on a truce that would also see the release of Israeli hostages.Of the 251 hostages taken during Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war, 49 are still being held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.But the talks have dragged on without a breakthrough, with each side blaming the other for refusing to budge on their key demands.For Israel, dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities is non-negotiable, while Hamas demands firm guarantees on a lasting truce, a full withdrawal of Israeli troops and the free flow of aid into Gaza.- ‘Blockade’ -Israel has rejected accusations that it is responsible for Gaza’s deepening hunger crisis, which the World Health Organization has called “man-made” and France blamed on an Israeli “blockade”.Instead, it accuses Hamas of preventing supplies from being distributed and looting aid for themselves or to sell at inflated prices as well as shooting at people seeking handouts.International news organisations, including AFP, urged Israel on Thursday to allow journalists in and out of Gaza, with concern that a lack of food is putting their lives at risk.Israel maintains that it is allowing aid into the Palestinian territory but that international relief agencies were failing to pick it up for distribution.COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body overseeing civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said on Thursday that around 70 food trucks had been unloaded at aid crossings the previous day.”Over 150 were collected by the UN and international organisations from the Gazan side, but over 800 still await pick up,” it said in a post on X.Aid agencies have said permissions from Israel are still limited, and coordination to safely move trucks to where they are needed is a major challenge in an active war zone.Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed 59,219 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

In 21 months of war in Gaza, the destruction and damage of 70 percent of buildings has buried the Palestinian territory under millions of tonnes of debris and plunged it into darkness, according to data from the UN and NASA analysed by AFP.The Israeli army has relentlessly pounded the densely populated territory of 365 square kilometres (141 square miles) in retaliation for Hamas’s 2023 attack, which sparked the war and resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.- 53 million tonnes of debris -The Israeli military’s campaign in Gaza has killed 59,219 people, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. The material damage has also been devastating: as of April 4, 2025, the Israeli campaign had destroyed 174,500 buildings, according to UNOSAT, the UN’s satellite analysis service. The debris from this destruction is estimated by UNOSAT at 53.5 million tonnes, approximately 10 times the weight of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. On average, this amounts to nearly 146 kilograms of rubble for each square metre of land, according to the UN agency. Prior to the start of the war, there were buildings destroyed by Israel in Gaza.But since October 2023, the destruction represents a mass 18 times greater than all the debris from buildings hit by Israel over the previous 15 years.- Asbestos risks -According to a publication by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) in early July, this mass of debris contains toxic materials likely to expose the Gaza population to health risks. The agency estimates 3.7 tonnes of asbestos from the debris of old buildings and 2.6 tonnes of toxic waste in the debris of former industrial structures. Several refugee camps, such as those in Jabalia, Nuseirat, Maghazi, Khan Yunis and Rafah are located in close proximity to “debris potentially contaminated with asbestos”, according to UNEP.- Half hospitals ‘partially’ operational -Medical facilities have also suffered extensive damage during bombardments by Israel, which accuses Hamas fighters of using hospitals as shelters or bases to launch attacks. As of June 30, only 18 of the territory’s 36 hospitals were “partially” operational, according to the UN. Of 163 healthcare facilities, just 63 (less than 40 percent) were suitable for providing care.- Nearly 90 percent of schools damaged -School buildings, which have been turned into shelters for the displaced, have also faced heavy damage, with the army accusing Hamas of using them to hide fighters. As of April 1, UNICEF had recorded damage to 501 of the 564 schools it documented, equivalent to nearly 9 out of 10. Of these, 95 were damaged, potentially severely, and 406 were directly hit.- Seven times less light -Before the conflict, the Gaza Strip was supplied with mains electricity for an average of 12 hours per day, according to figures from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). But in 2024, the power grid was unavailable throughout the day. The territory’s only power plant stopped functioning in the early days of the conflict for want of fuel, and the power lines coming from Israel were cut. Together, these two sources had met 43 percent of Gaza’s electricity needs before the conflict, leaving the remaining demand unfulfilled. At night, the territory is plunged into darkness. AFP analysed data from NASA’s BlackMarble project, which measures radiance (the power of light emission) at the Earth’s surface. On average, from January to May 2025, the night-time radiance in the Gaza Strip was reduced by a factor of 7 compared to the five months prior to the start of the conflict (May to September 2023). For Gaza City, it was 16 times lower. Only one area maintained a brightness level comparable to that of the pre-war period: the Philadelphi Corridor, a strip of land on the Gaza side of the border with Egypt which is entirely controlled by the Israeli military.

Eight people were taken to hospital after a car ploughed into a bus stop in central Israel on Thursday in a suspected car-ramming attack, emergency services said.Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) first responders said they received a report at 9:25 am (0625 GMT) that a vehicle crashed into a bus stop near Kfar Yona.A man and woman in their 20s were said to be in a “moderate condition, with injuries to the chest and limbs”, the MDA said.Three others were in a “mild-moderate condition, with injuries to the head and limbs”, it added. Three people were described as having “mild” injuries.”The vehicle hit several people and fled the scene,” police spokesman Aryeh Doron said.The car was abandoned and later recovered and the driver is being hunted using helicopters, motorbikes and a specialist dog unit, police added.The site of the crash was cordoned off as forensic investigators combed the scene, an AFP photographer said.There has been a spate of violence in Israel and the occupied West Bank since the start of the war against Hamas in Gaza, triggered by the militants’ attack on October 7, 2023.A teenager died in March this year when police said a car driven by a Palestinian man deliberately ploughed into civilians at a bus stop in northern Israel.At least 32 people, including soldiers, have died in attacks in Israel by Palestinians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.In the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, at least 958 Palestinians, including many fighters but also civilians, have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers, according to Palestinian Authority figures.At the same time, at least 36 Israelis, including civilians and soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations, Israeli figures showed.

Negotiations over the Philippines’ new 19 percent US tariff rate are “not finished”, a key government economic adviser said Thursday, tamping down fears over the deal’s potential impact on the agriculture sector.President Ferdinand Marcos flew back to the country late Wednesday after a three-day trip to Washington that saw him emerge from a meeting with …

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HYBE, the agency behind K-pop superstars BTS, was raided by police on Thursday in connection with alleged fraudulent trading involving its founder Bang Si-hyuk, investigators said.”We are conducting a search and seizure at HYBE’s headquarters in Yongsan District,” Seoul police said in a brief statement.Bang, the mastermind behind BTS, is under investigation over allegations that …

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