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Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli fire killed at least 25 people on Thursday, including 15 who had gathered near an aid distribution site.Civil defence official Mohammad al-Mughayyir told AFP that 15 people were killed and 60 wounded, while waiting for aid in central Gaza’s Netzarim corridor, where thousands of people have gathered daily in the hope of receiving rations.The Israeli army told AFP it was “looking into” the reports.Witness Bassam Abu Shaar said thousands of people had gathered overnight in the hope of receiving aid at the US- and Israeli-backed distribution site when it opened in the morning.”Around 1:00 am (2200 GMT Wednesday), they started shooting at us. The gunfire intensified from tanks, aircraft and quadcopter bombs,” he told AFP by phone.He said the size of the crowd had made it impossible for people to escape the Israeli fire near Shuhada Junction, and dead and wounded were left lying on the ground within walking distance of the distribution point run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. “We couldn’t help them or even escape ourselves,” he said.Mughayyir said the casualties had been taken to the Al-Awda and Al-Aqsa hospitals, in north and central Gaza respectively.Dozens of Palestinians have been killed in recent weeks while trying to reach aid distribution points in Gaza, which is suffering from famine-like conditions, according to UN agencies operating in the territory.Israeli restrictions on media in the Gaza Strip and difficulties in accessing some areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency.In early March, Israel imposed an aid blockade on the territory amid a deadlock in truce negotiations, only partially easing restrictions in late May.After Israel loosened its blockade, the privately run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation began distributing aid, but its operations have been marred by chaotic scenes.UN agencies and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the foundation over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.Elsewhere in Gaza, another 10 people were killed by Israeli fire on Thursday, the civil defence agency said.Three were killed by Israeli shelling of a residential building in Gaza City, while seven were killed in a strike on Al-Shati refugee camp to its west.

Mohammad Hassan anxiously returned to Pakistan from neighbouring Iran this week after witnessing drones, missiles, and explosions tear through Tehran’s sky during what he called long, “horrifying nights”. The 35-year-old  University of Tehran student is one of about 3,000 Pakistanis who, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, have returned home since Israel launched its aerial war against its long-time enemy last week.Governments around the world are scrambling to evacuate their nationals caught up in the rapidly spiralling conflict as Israel and Iran trade missile and drone strikes. “I was in the city centre where most of the strikes took place and even one of the student dormitories was attacked and luckily no one was dead, but students were injured,” Hassan said.There are more than 500 Pakistani students at his university alone, he said, all of them on their way “back home”.”Those days and nights were very horrifying… hearing sirens, the wailing, the danger of being hit by missiles. As one peeped out the window in the night, you could see drones, missiles with fire tails,” he told AFP.- Ghost town -Pakistan and Iran have a shaky diplomatic relationship. They bombed each other’s territory little more than a year ago, both claiming to target rebels using their neighbour’s land to launch attacks.Yet they have never suspended trade, tourism and academic ties.Iranian consulates across Pakistan have stepped up efforts to promote their universities.Between 25 million and 35 million Pakistani Shiite Muslims also hope to make at least one pilgrimage in their lifetime to holy sites in Iran, foremost among them the sacred city of Qom.Mohammad Khalil, a 41-year-old petroleum engineer, left Tehran three days ago, the capital of the Islamic Republic looking like a ghost town as residents sheltered indoors and families fled.”In the last two days, I saw people moving out of the city in different vehicles with necessary commodities,” Khalil said.Abdul Ghani Khan sells medical equipment in his hometown of Peshawar in northwest Pakistan and travels to Iran regularly for supplies.He had been in Tehran for a week when the first Israeli missiles fell on Friday. Iran and Israel have traded heavy missile fire in the days since, raising fears of a wider regional conflict.Pakistan is in a difficult position as the only Muslim-majority country with nuclear weapons. It, like Iran, does not recognise Israel but is also a major ally of the United States.Khan had to make the journey home by road because the airspace is now closed. Pakistan has also shut its border crossings with Iran to all except Pakistanis wanting to return home.”We saw drones, red lights of anti-aircraft guns and I spotted one building catch fire,” Khan said.- ‘Offering prayer’ -Mohammad Asif, a lawyer from Lahore in Pakistan’s east, heard about the air strikes while on a pilgrimage in Qom.He wasn’t initially afraid and continued his pilgrimage to Mashhad in Iran’s northeast, home to the golden-domed Imam Reza shrine.That was until Israeli strikes hit the airport in Mashhad, nearly 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) from the Pakistani border.Samreen Ali was also in Mashhad but, like Asif, cut her trip short and returned with her husband and 15-year-old son.She was praying in a mosque in Mashhad when Israel struck the city.Ali said she had visited Iran nine times before on pilgrimages and never imagined witnessing war there.”I was offering prayer when I heard two explosions,” she told AFP.She then noticed she wasn’t receiving messages on her phone and assumed that “communication was being restricted… because of the war”.Syed Saqib, 46, was in Qom and had to travel 500 kilometres (310 miles) by bus southeast to Yazd. “We had to take alternative routes, spend an entire night waiting at a bus terminal,” Saqib said.They then boarded buses to Zahedan, a city near the border with Pakistan’s Balochistan province. A relieved Saqib recalled making the border crossing at Taftan, surrounded by families carrying heavy luggage.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran would “pay a heavy price” after a hospital in southern Israel was hit during an Iranian missile attack on Thursday, while his defence minister said Iran’s supreme leader would be “held accountable”.”This morning, Iran’s terrorist dictators fired missiles at Soroka Hospital… and at civilians in the centre of the country. We will make the tyrants in Tehran pay a heavy price,” Netanyahu said in a post on X.The Soroka Hospital in the southern town of Beersheba was left in flames following an early morning barrage of “dozens” of Iranian ballistic missiles, with impacts also reported in two Israeli towns close to coastal hub Tel Aviv. Speaking at the scene of the hospital, director Shlomi Kodesh said that a surgical building which had been evacuated in the past few days was hit, adding that 40 people had sustained injuries.”Several wards were completely demolished and there is extensive damage across the entire hospital with damage to buildings, structures, windows, ceilings across the medical centre,” he told journalists.Iran said it was targeting an Israeli military and intelligence base, not the health facility.The latest escalation came on the seventh day of deadly exchanges between the two countries, with US President Donald Trump maintaining suspense about whether Washington will enter the war alongside Israel.Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has rejected Trump’s demand for an “unconditional surrender”, despite claims from the US leader that “Iran’s got a lot of trouble and they want to negotiate”.- ‘Never surrender’ -Trump has left his intentions on joining the conflict deliberately ambiguous, saying Wednesday: “I may do it, I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do.””The next week is going to be very big,” he added, without further details.Any US involvement would be expected to involve the bombing of a crucial underground Iranian nuclear facility in Fordow, for which special bunker-busting bombs have been developed.The White House said Trump would receive an intelligence briefing on Thursday, a US holiday. Top US diplomat Marco Rubio is set meet his British counterpart for talks expected to focus on the conflict.”I have ideas as to what to do, but I haven’t made a final (decision),” Trump said. “I like to make the final decision one second before it’s due, because things change. Especially with war.”The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had told aides on Tuesday he had approved attack plans but was holding off to see if Iran would give up its nuclear programme.Trump told reporters that Iranian officials “want to come to the White House”, a claim denied by Tehran.The US president had favoured a diplomatic route to end Iran’s nuclear programme, seeking a deal to replace the 2015 agreement he tore up in his first term.But since Israel unleashed the campaign against Iran last week, Trump has stood behind the key US ally.- Nuclear sites -On Thursday morning, Israel said it had carried out dozens of fresh raids on Iranian targets overnight, including the partially built Arak nuclear reactor and a nuclear facility in Natanz that has been struck previously. The Israeli military said the Arak site on the outskirts of the village of Khondab in central Iran had been hit “to prevent the reactor from being restored and used for nuclear weapons development”.There was also a “near-total national internet blackout” in Iran on Wednesday, a London-based watchdog said, with Iran’s Fars news agency confirming heavier internet restrictions after initial curbs imposed last week.The military campaign has sparked calls for a return to diplomacy.Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that a deal to guarantee both Israel’s security and Iran’s desire for a civilian nuclear programme was possible.”I believe it would be good for all of us together to look for ways to stop the fighting and seek ways for the participants in the conflict to find an agreement,” he told foreign journalists at a televised event.He said Iran had not asked Russia for military help.- Daily barrages -An Israeli military official, who asked not to be named, said Wednesday that Iran had fired around 400 ballistic missiles and 1,000 drones since the conflict began on Friday. About 20 missiles had struck civilian areas in Israel, the official added.Iranian strikes have killed at least 24 people and injured hundreds since they began, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Monday.Iran said Sunday that Israeli strikes had killed at least 224 people, including military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians.Both countries have not issued an updated official toll since then.Israel says its surprise air campaign is aimed at preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.Iran had been enriching uranium to 60 percent — far above the 3.67-percent limit set by the 2015 nuclear death but still short of the 90-percent threshold needed for a nuclear warhead.Israel has maintained ambiguity on its own atomic activities, but the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute says it has 90 nuclear warheads.burs-sah-adp/jsa

Governments around the world are evacuating thousands of their nationals caught up in the rapidly spiralling Israel-Iran conflict, organising buses and planes and in some cases assisting people crossing borders on foot. Foreigners have rushed to leave both countries after Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign last Friday targeting Iran’s nuclear and military facilities, sparking retaliation from Tehran.With Israel’s air space closed and the two countries exchanging heavy missile fire, many people are being evacuated via neighbouring countries. – Europe -European countries have already repatriated hundreds of their citizens from Israel.The Czech Republic and Slovakia said Tuesday they had taken 181 people home on government planes.”It was not possible to send the army plane straight to Israel,” the Czech defence ministry said in a statement, citing the air space closure.”The evacuees were taken to an airport in a neighbouring country by buses. They crossed the border on foot.”The German government said flights were scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday via Jordan, while Poland said the first of its citizens were due to arrive back on Wednesday.Greece said it had repatriated 105 of its citizens plus a number of foreign nationals via Egypt, while a private plane with 148 people landed in the Bulgarian capital Sophia on Tuesday.  – United States -The US ambassador to Israel on Wednesday announced plans for evacuating Americans by air and sea.The embassy is “working on evacuation flights & cruise ship departures” for “American citizens wanting to leave Israel,” Ambassador Mike Huckabee posted on social media.- China -China has evacuated more than 1,600 citizens from Iran and several hundred more from Israel.The Chinese foreign ministry said Thursday its “embassies and consulates will continue to make every effort to assist in the safe transfer and evacuation of Chinese citizens”.- Australia -Australia has started evacuating around 1,500 citizens from Iran and more than 1,200 from Israel — but missile barrages have made it too risky for civilian aircraft to land in either country, its foreign minister said. “There’s no capacity for people to get civilian aircraft in, it is too risky, and the airspace is closed,” Foreign Minister Penny Wong told national broadcaster ABC. “We have taken the opportunity to get a small group of Australians out of Israel through a land border crossing. “We are seeking to try and do more of that over the next 24 hours.” – Pakistan -Pakistan has shut its border crossings with neighbouring Iran, except to Pakistanis wanting to return home. Around 1,000 Pakistanis have fled so far, including at least 200 students.The foreign ministry said the families of diplomats and some non-essential staff from Iran had been evacuated. – India -Around 110 students who fled Iran over the land border with Armenia have landed in New Delhi, a foreign ministry spokesperson said Thursday.There are around 10,000 Indian citizens in Iran. In Israel there are around 30,000 Indians, according to the country’s embassy in New Delhi.- Japan -Japan has ordered military planes to be on standby for around 1,000 Japanese nationals believed to live in Israel, and around 280 in Iran, according to government ministers.The Japanese embassies in Iran and Israel are preparing to use buses to evacuate citizens to neighbouring countries, a government spokesman said, as the war entered its seventh day.- Indonesia -Indonesia is preparing to evacuate around 380 of its citizens currently in Iran by land, Jakarta’s foreign minister said Thursday. “Flights are no longer possible, so the only way is land route. It will start tonight,” Foreign Minister Sugiono, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, said in a video.- Vietnam -Vietnam, which has more than 700 citizens in Israel and dozens in Iran, said it was working to ensure their safety.The foreign ministry said Thursday that 18 Vietnamese from Iran were evacuated, 16 of whom returned to Vietnam. It did not provide further information on evacuations from Israel.- Philippines -The Philippines is preparing to repatriate 28 Israel-based Filipino workers out of 178 who asked for help, the Department of Migrant Workers secretary Hans Cacdac said Thursday.At least 21 Philippine government officials have also crossed into Jordan by land from Israel since the conflict began, the foreign ministry said.

Nippon Steel completed its multi-billion-dollar acquisition of US Steel on Wednesday, granting rare veto-like power over strategic decisions to Washington with a “golden share”.The announcement concludes a saga that began in December 2023, when Nippon Steel agreed to acquire the linchpin of American steelmaking for $14.9 billion.An outright buyout sparked bipartisan political opposition, including from …

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