US-Israeli genocide in Gaza
It is almost six months since Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza. The regime’s warplanes and artillery keep pounding the besieged strip, causing more deaths and destruction in the last 24 hours. Four civilians, including journalists were killed and 16 others injured after Israeli warplanes struck the vicinity of al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah. Several areas of Gaza City were also shelled and bombed, leaving two people dead and 10 injured. Meanwhile, four Palestinians, including two children, died due to starvation in Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern part of the territory. The number of deaths related to famine and malnutrition has gone up to 34, including 31 children. Nearly 32,800 Palestinians have lost their lives and some 75,000 injured in the Israeli onslaught on Gaza that began early last October.
Anti-Israel operations
At least, three Israeli settlers have been seriously injured in a stabbing attack by a Palestinian in the occupied territories. The attack took place at a shopping mall in a settlement near the town of Ashdod. According to reports, regime forces fatally shot the attacker, who was later identified as a man from the city of al-Khalil. The incident came hours after the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas resistance movement, republished a message from its commander, calling on Palestinians to use all their resources to fight against the regime. Hamas later hailed the attack as a natural response to the occupation’s massacres in Gaza and the West Bank. The group added, the operation also shows Palestinians' commitment to resistance as the path to liberate Palestine.
Turkey local elections
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has acknowledged his party’s poor performance in Sunday’s local elections, calling the outcome a turning point for the Justice and Development Party, also known as the AK Party. Erdogan issued the statement after early results squashed his party’s hopes of winning municipality and mayoral seats in Istanbul and Ankara and some other traditional strongholds. The opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) has already declared victory for Ekrem Imamoglu, the incumbent mayor of Istanbul, after 96 percent of ballot boxes were counted. Partial official tallies also showed the CHP was leading in other big cities such as Izmir, Bursa, Antalya and Adana. Sunday’s local elections appear to represent a fresh blow to the president, who had set his sights on retaking control of urban areas. But the outcome is the repeat of the 2019 municipal elections when the CHP turned victorious against Erdogan’s party in major cities.