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RAMALLAH: The Palestinian Authority on Saturday lambasted the Israeli government’s decision to expand its military operations in Gaza, as it called on the international community to push for the entry of aid into the strip.
According to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, the PA’s presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said the Israeli government’s moves were “an unprecedented challenge and provocation to the international will to achieve peace and stability.”
He also called on the “international community, led by the UN Security Council, to urgently compel the occupying state to cease its aggression, allow the entry of aid, and work diligently to enable the State of Palestine to assume its full responsibilities in the Gaza Strip,” reported Wafa.
Early Friday, the Israeli security cabinet approved plans to launch major operations to seize Gaza City, triggering a wave of outrage across the globe.
Despite the backlash and rumors of dissent from Israeli military top brass, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remained defiant over the decision.
In a post on social media late Friday, Netanyahu said “we are not going to occupy Gaza — we are going to free Gaza from Hamas.”
Netanyahu faces mounting pressure to secure a ceasefire to bring the territory’s more than two million people back from the brink of famine and free the hostages held by Palestinian militants.
Israel’s arch enemy Hamas, whose October 7, 2023 attack triggered the war, slammed the plan to expand the fighting, calling it a “new war crime.”
Israel’s offensive has killed over 61,000 Palestinians, according to Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry, figures the UN says are reliable.
The 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

ANKARA: Turkiye recorded its hottest July in 55 years, the environment ministry said Saturday.

Temperatures recorded in 66 of the country’s 220 weather stations showed an average rise of 1.9 degrees over the preceding years, the ministry said on X.

The highest-ever recorded temperature of 50.5 C was also set near the end of July in Silopi, southeast Turkiye.

Silopi, a city in the Sirnak province, is located around 10 kilometers from the Iraq and Syrian borders.

It shattered the previous national high of 49.5 C recorded in August 2023 in the western province of Eskisehir.

Turkiye has faced weeks of scorching heat along with several wildfires.

Fourteen people lost their lives battling blazes last month in the western part of the country.

Hundreds of people were evacuated on Friday in the northwest province of Canakkale, where the busy Dardanelles Strait was closed to maritime traffic due to two raging fires.

The heatwave has also prompted fears of water shortages in some areas. The resort town of Cesme on the Aegean Sea has restricted tap water for residents and tourists between 11:00 p.m. to 6:00 am since July 25.