Malayalam actor Mamukkoya, who acted in ‘Byari’, dies in hospital after cardiac arrest

More than 9,000 students have been killed and more than 15,000 others wounded in the ongoing Israeli war on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, reports the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education.

The official Palestinian Wafa news agency, citing the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, reported on Tuesday that a total of 9,241 students had been killed and 15,182 injured since the start of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank on October 7, 2023.

The Ministry reported that over 9,138 students were killed in the Gaza Strip, while 14,671 others were injured there.

With Gaza's education system decimated, some 620,000 school-age Palestinians are out of school and more than 88,000 students are unable to enroll in universities, according to the ministry.

In West Bank, 103 students were killed, 505 injured and around 357 students were detained during the nine months of war.

The report also indicated that a total of 497 teachers and administrators have been reported killed, with 3,426 others injured in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

In the Gaza Strip, a total of 353 educational institutions, including government schools, universities, university buildings, and 65 belonging to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Refugees (UNRWA), were targeted in bombings and acts of vandalism.

Out of these buildings, 139 suffered severe damage, 93 were completely destroyed, and 133 government schools in the Gaza Strip were repurposed as shelter centers, according to the report.

In the West Bank, 69 schools and five universities have been attacked and vandalized.

The bloodshed in Gaza’s schools-turned-shelters, which Israel alleges are used by Palestinian resistance movement Hamas as hiding spots, has been a recurring scene throughout the war.

Only in the past 10 days, five UN-run schools have been hit by Israel forces, UNRWA posted on social X platform.

UNRWA in its recent report said that its facilities in Gaza had been attacked by Israel 453 times since the war began last October, and that more than 500 people sheltering in its buildings had been killed. The UN has also said that 80 percent of schools in the territory have been destroyed or damaged.

UNICEF, the UN children’s agency, has recently described the number of wounded children as “staggering” in Gaza.

Israel’s war has killed at least 38,713 people, including nearly 16,000 children, in Gaza since early October last year. Tens of thousands have also been wounded.

Some 21,000 children are also missing while 17,000 have been orphaned. 

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar's petition challenging the CBI's FIR against him in a disproportionate assets case.

The bench, comprising Justices Bela M Trivedi and S C Sharma, stated it would not interfere with the Karnataka High Court's decision.

The case involves allegations by the CBI that Shivakumar accumulated assets disproportionate to his income from 2013 to 2018. 

The FIR was initially filed in September 2020, with an investigation mandated to be concluded within three months by the high court.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced on Wednesday that the state government will give ex gratia compensation of Rs 5 lakh each for those who have died in the landslide that occurred on Tuesday in Uttara Kannada's Ankola taluk.

Rescue officials on Tuesday had recovered bodies of four persons and a search is on to trace the missing persons from both under the debris of the landslide and in the Gangavali river. Seven members of two families were killed when a huge hill collapsed on their houses in Shirur village. 

In his post on X, the CM said, "In the landslide that occurred on the national highway near Shirur in Uttara Kannada district Ankola taluk, seven people are believed to have died due to mud and 4 dead bodies have already been recovered. This is a very unfortunate incident. I pray that the soul of the deceased may rest in eternal peace."

He further added, "For those who died in the incident, Rs. 5 lakh compensation has been announced. Despite the continuous rain, the rescue operation is continuing and the search is on for the remaining three."

The deceased have been identified as Lakshman Naik (47), his wife Shanthi (36) and son Roshan (11). The identity of the fourth body is yet to be ascertained.

Officials also sighted the body of a girl child in the river but could not retrieve it. The bodies were recovered in Gangavali River, at least six km from the accident area.