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Dozens of Israeli air strikes on Gaza have killed “only women and children” after a ceasefire collapsed, the UN said, as an Israeli attack in the territory’s south on Friday left a family of 10 dead.A UN rights office report also warned that expanding Israeli evacuation orders were resulting in the “forcible transfer” of people into ever-shrinking areas, raising “real concern as to the future viability of Palestinians as a group in Gaza”.Israel’s military said it was looking into the attack that killed members of the same family in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza, adding separately that it had struck approximately 40 “terror targets” across the territory over the past day.Israel resumed its Gaza strikes on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire with Hamas.Since then, more than 1,500 people have been killed, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory to which Israel cut off aid more than a month ago.”Ten people, including seven children, were brought to the hospital as martyrs following an Israeli air strike that targeted the Farra family home in central Khan Yunis,” civil defence spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told AFP.AFP footage of the aftermath showed several bodies wrapped in white shrouds and blankets, and footage of the house showed mangled concrete slabs and twisted metal.- ‘Women and children’ -Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lashed denounced Israel, saying: “If this is not barbarism, I ask you, what is it?”Early Friday, Israel’s military issued an evacuation warning to residents of several areas east of Gaza City ahead of a new offensive there.The UN decried the impact of the ongoing Israeli strikes, finding that “a large percentage of fatalities are children and women”.”Between 18 March and 9 April 2025, there were some 224 incidents of Israeli strikes on residential buildings and tents for internally displaced people,” the UN human rights office said in Geneva.”In some 36 strikes about which the UN Human Rights Office corroborated information, the fatalities recorded so far were only women and children.”Israel’s military has repeatedly said Palestinian militants often hide among civilians, a charge Hamas denies.UN rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani also raised concerns over “the denial of access to basic necessities within Gaza and the repeated suggestion that Gazans should leave the territory entirely”.Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan, after meeting regional counterparts in Turkey, urged “maximum pressure to ensure” aid is delivered into Gaza.The war broke out after Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.Militants also took 251 hostages, 58 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.Gaza’s health ministry said Friday at least 1,542 Palestinians have been killed since March 18, taking the overall death toll since the war began to 50,912.- Ceasefire efforts -A truce brokered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar that took effect on January 19 and lasted until March 17 saw the return of 33 Israeli hostages, eight of them in coffins, in exchange for around 1,800 Palestinian prisoners.In a Passover holiday message, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his pledge to bring the remaining captives home.He spoke after US President Donald Trump suggested progress in hostage release talks, telling a cabinet meeting on Thursday that “we’re getting close to getting them back”.Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff was also quoted in an Israeli media report as saying “a very serious deal is taking shape, it’s a matter of days”.Israeli media reported Friday that Egypt and Israel had exchanged draft documents on a ceasefire-hostage release deal.The Times of Israel said Egypt’s proposal would mean eight living hostages and eight bodies released in exchange for a truce of between 40 and 70 days and a large number of Palestinian prisoner releases.A senior Hamas leader who declined to be identified told journalists the group had “not received any new ceasefire offer”.”The movement is open to any new proposal that would achieve a ceasefire, withdraw the occupation’s forces, and end the suffering of the Palestinian people.”In his message for Passover — a holiday celebrating the biblical liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt — Netanyahu said that “together we will return our hostages”.He has insisted that increased military pressure is the only way to get the captives home.

The trial of dozens of Tunisian opposition figures resumed on Tuesday under tight security, with six detained defendants on hunger strike after they were barred from attending court in person.Foreign diplomats were in court to monitor the trial of around 40 high-profile accused. They include activists, politicians, lawyers and media figures, some of whom have been vocal critics of President Kais Saied.Saied, elected after Tunisia emerged as the only democracy from the Arab Spring, staged a sweeping power grab in 2021. Rights groups have since raised concerns over a rollback on freedoms.The accused face charges including “plotting against the state security” and “belonging to a terrorist group”, according to lawyers, which could entail hefty sentences and even capital punishment.Tunisia’s judiciary had ruled when the trial opened on March 4 that the defendants would only be allowed to attend Friday’s hearing remotely.Six of them, including jurist Jawhar Ben Mbarek and a former leader of the Islamist party Ennahdha, Abdelhamid Jelassi, have gone on hunger strike to demand permission to attend the hearing in person, their defence team said.”The defence asks that the hearing be suspended and the accused be brought before their lawyers,” said one of their legal counsel, Abelaziz Essid. “We cannot make our arguments under these conditions and we refuse to be false witnesses.”According to an AFP journalist, security was tight at the entrance to the courtroom in the Tunisian capital.- NGOs denied access -Representatives of France, Canada, Germany the Netherlands and European Union attended the hearing.Local NGOs were, however, not given access and only one relative of each accused was allowed entry.Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, who heads the main opposition coalition the National Salvation Front and is also named in the case, called the accusations “wild fabrications”.The defence lawyers say that Chebbi, along with several other defendants, is accused of holding contacts deemed suspicious with foreign diplomats.Several of the defendants were arrested in February 2023, after which Saied labelled them “terrorists”.Others, like Chebbi, have remained free pending trial, while some have fled abroad, according to the defence committee.Human Rights Watch has dubbed the trial a “mockery” based on “abusive charges”. In February, the leader of the Ennahdha party, Rached Ghannouchi, 83, was sentenced to an additional 22 years in prison for plotting against state security.Ennahdha has been Tunisia’s main opposition party and the main rival to Saied.The United Nations urged Tunisian authorities last month to bring “an end to the pattern of arrests, arbitrary detentions and imprisonment of dozens of human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists, activists and politicians”.Tunisia’s foreign ministry at the time dismissed the UN statement with “astonishment” and denounced its “inaccuracies”.”Tunisia can give lessons to those who think they are in a position to make statements,” it said.

India’s gems and jewellery industry is breathing a momentary sigh of relief after US President Donald Trump paused harsh tariffs that threatened to hit lucrative exports and tens of thousands of jobs.At manufacturing and processing hubs across India, exporters and buyers worried over how they would absorb Trump’s gruelling 26 percent tariff on a multi-billion …

Hope sparkles anew for India’s jewellers after US tariff pause Read More »

A living legend in Liverpool, Mohamed Salah has two more years to burnish his astonishing legacy at Anfield after extending his contract on Friday.In the midst of constant speculation over his future, the 32-year-old has produced one of the great all-time individual seasons to take the Reds to the brink of the Premier League title.The Egyptian has scored 27 goals and provided 17 assists in 31 league appearances to help Arne Slot’s men open up an 11-point lead for with seven games to go.A third player of the year award from both his fellow players and football writers is a formality as Salah’s latest prolific season has propelled him into the debate over who is the greatest player of the Premier League era.Salah’s 184 goals in the English top flight is the joint fifth highest in Premier League history, while he also now sits in the top 10 for assists.He did not arrive at Anfield as a superstar destined for greatness when Liverpool paid Roma £34 million ($44 million) for his services in 2017.As a pacy winger with promise, Salah had hitherto struggled for consistency and end product with a string of European clubs since making the move from his homeland to Swiss side Basel as a 19-year-old.Salah failed to make the grade in his first spell in the Premier League at Chelsea as the Blues discarded him after just 19 games in what proved to be a monumental mistake.A move to Italy, firstly on loan at Fiorentina, before heading to Roma on a permanent basis restored Salah’s reputation to tempt Liverpool into taking a punt on his potential, even if he was not Jurgen Klopp’s first choice.The German manager had wanted his compatriot Julian Brandt instead, but was convinced by the club’s recruitment team and together they rebuilt the Reds into a force of English and European football once more.- Fitness fanatic -Klopp did not take long to be convinced as Salah scored 44 times in a stunning debut season, leading Liverpool to the Champions League final and a top-four Premier League finish.He was quickly christened “The Egyptian King” on Merseyside and soon the trophies began to flow like his goals.Salah left the 2018 Champions League final defeat to Real Madrid in tears after being forced off by a shoulder injury in the first half which also limited the impact he could make for his country at the World Cup finals in Russia a few weeks later.One year on, he scored in the final as Liverpool beat Tottenham 2-0 to deliver the first silverware of the Klopp era.The club’s first Premier League title for 30 years followed in the coronavirus-disrupted 2019/2020 season.The FA Cup, two League Cups and another run to the Champions League final in 2022 underlined Liverpool’s return to serial trophy contenders under Klopp — and with it Salah’s heightened status within the game and further afield.He was named among Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2019 in which he was described as an “iconic figure for Egyptians, Scousers and Muslims the world over.”Salah has used that profile to call for greater gender equality in the Arab world and to appeal for humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza following an Israeli air bombardment last year.However, he has mostly done his talking on the field.A fitness fanatic, Salah regularly posts images of his workouts on social media which he credits for allowing him to remain among the world’s best despite his advancing age.Klopp’s emotional departure last year was seen by many as the end of an era for this Liverpool side.Instead, in the first season under Dutch coach Slot, Salah has been the catalyst for an unexpected cruise towards the Premier League title.”It’s not a coincidence because the first day I arrived over here, we did a fitness test and he was our fittest player,” said Slot.“So it tells you what his plans were for the season. It also tells you a player that has so many great seasons at a club like this comes back like that tells you a lot about his personality.”