Gaza, Jan 9 (IANS) The Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip exceeded 23,000, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said.
The Ministry said on Monday in a press statement that the Israeli army killed 249 Palestinians and wounded 510 others during the past 24 hours, Xinhua news agency reported.
This brings the total number of deaths to 23,084 and injuries to 58,926 since the Israel-Hamas conflict broke out on October 7, 2023, it noted.
A taxi driver was on Monday sentenced to two months in jail for falling asleep at the wheel and hitting an Indian-origin man who was carrying out road works in Singapore. Ong Boon Leong, 64, pleaded guilty to causing grievous hurt to Madhavan Naveen Kumar, 25, and for driving without due care and attention, The Straits Times reported.
The Joe Biden administration in the US, while supporting Israel in its war with Hamas, wants Israel to end its large-scale invasion in Gaza as its apparently hurting civilians in what the west describes as "collective punishment". US officials stressed on surgical, focussed and targeted attacks on Hamas while protecting the civilians in the enclave.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said it has received a sufficient number of petitions to reach the congressionally-mandated cap for the most-coveted H-1B visa for the fiscal year 2024. This includes the 65,000 H-1B visa regular cap as well as the 20,000 H-1B visa US advanced degree exemption, commonly referred to as the master’s cap.
Human rights activists, relatives and ex-detainees allege the Israeli military has rounded up hundreds of Palestinians in northern Gaza, forced men to strip to their underwear and subjected them to hunger and cold. Experts say the roundups have laid bare an emerging tactic in Israel's ground offensive in Gaza, nearly 10 weeks after the deadly October 7th attack on southern Israel by Hamas.
This is being seen as a move for peace from the Hamas side as the Israel military is putting grave pressure on the militant group's leadership and the possibility of its ouster from the Gaza Strip. Hamas has always openly sought Israel’s destruction and vowed to commit similar onslaughts to the one carried out on October 7.
Israel is facing a security threat in north from Hezbollah which is backed by the Islamic Republic of Iran. There are also less possibilities of an all-out war between Hezbollah and Israel as the Hezbollah Chief Hassan Nasarullah has not made any comments whether Hezbollah will join the war during his two public addresses since October 7.