Indians are borrowing more but saving less, reveals RBI data

At least 56 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip after the regime's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the military would enter the war-battered territory "with full force".

Medical sources said at least 50 people have been killed in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza since dawn Wednesday.

The heavy airstrikes have also left more than 100 people injured, with several houses being targeted and collapsed on their residents.

Another four people were killed in a strike on the southern city of Khan Yunis, civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said.

The ferocious aggression came after the release of Israeli-American Edan Alexander, who had been in Hamas captivity since October 2023, offered a brief pause in the war on Gaza on Monday.

But the strikes resumed amid fierce new criticism of Israel's tactics in the war.

"In the very coming days, we are going in with full force to complete the operation," Netanyahu was quoted as saying in a statement released on Tuesday.

"There will be no situation where we stop the war. A temporary ceasefire might happen, but we are going all the way," he added.

His remarks came after UN relief chief Tom Fletcher called on the UN Security Council to take action "to prevent genocide" in Gaza as he gave a scathing account of Israel's aggression in the territory. 

"Will you act -- decisively -- to prevent genocide and to ensure respect for international humanitarian law?" he said to UN ambassadors in New York.

Late Tuesday, the Israeli military urged civilians in several parts of northern Gaza to evacuate after it intercepted "two projectiles" fired from the territory. 

The armed wing of Hamas ally Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for rocket fire into Israel, which has been rare in recent weeks. 

In Paris, President Emmanuel Macron said in critical remarks not typical of France that Netanyahu's actions in blocking aid to Gaza were "shameful".

Meanwhile, Russia, China and the UK have rejected Israel’s plans for distributing aid in Gaza, instead urging Tel Aviv to lift its two-month blockade on the territory.

Since the Israeli military broke a two-month ceasefire agreement with the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas in mid-March, the occupying entity has blocked the entry of all humanitarian aid, including medicine, fuel, and food supplies into Gaza, drastically worsening the humanitarian crisis in the territory, where even clean water is critically scarce.

Dozens of people, mostly children, have died from starvation. Since the aid blockade began on March 2, at least 57 children have reportedly died from the effects of malnutrition, according to the Ministry of Health.

“People are trapped in this cycle where a lack of diversified food, malnutrition and disease fuel each other,” WHO’s representative in the Occupied Palestinian Territory Dr. Rik Peeperkorn said.

“This is one of the world’s worst hunger crises, unfolding in real time,” he added.

According to a World Bank report, the current crisis in Gaza has now made nearly all of its population almost entirely dependent on humanitarian aid due to prolonged war and blockade.

Nearly all of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has been displaced, often multiple times, since the regime launched its genocidal war on the territory in October 2023.

Over 52,900 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in the brutal Israeli onslaught since October 2023, most of them women and children.

Border Security Force (BSF) jawan Purnam Kumar Shaw who was in Pakistan’s custody since April 23, has been handed over to India. The BSF said in a statement that Shaw was handed over to India at 10:30 am through the Attari border check post in Amritsar. 

BSF stated that Shaw is being debriefed after his handover. 

The handover was conducted peacefully and in accordance with established protocols, said the force. 

"With the consistent efforts of BSF through regular flag meetings with Pakistan rangers and through other communication channels, the repatriation of BSF constable has become possible," said BSF. 

Shaw, a jawan of the 182nd Battalion, was detained by the Pakistan Rangers after he inadvertently crossed the International Border near Punjab’s Ferozepur. 

The jawan on duty was stationed near the border fence. He was in uniform and was carrying his service rifle, when he moved towards a shaded area for some rest. In doing so, he had crossed into Pakistani territory, where he was apprehended by the Pakistani Rangers. 

Riyadh: Dismantling years of US government policy of treating Syria like a pariah, President Donald Trump on Wednesday met Syria's interim president, Ahmad al-Sharaa-- former leader of a rebel group Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which was an offshoot of al-Qaeda and designated as a terrorist organisation by the American government. The meeting was held in Riyadh at the request of Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a day after President Trump lifted sweeping sanctions against Syria, which the US began imposing in 1979.

After the meeting, Trump, who often judges people based on how they look, suggested that al-Sharaa has a "real shot at doing a good job" with war-torn Syria. He also called the former terrorist a "young, attractive, tough guy" with a "very strong" past. 

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, he said al-Sharaa is a “young, attractive guy. Tough guy. Strong past. Very strong past. Fighter.”

“He's got a real shot at holding it together."

Trump said he spoke with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, "who is very friendly with him. He feels he's got a shot of doing a good job. It's a torn-up country.”

Trump is the first US president to meet a Syrian leader in a quarter of a century, and urged the onetime jihadist to normalise ties with Israel. He, however, gave no indication that the United States would remove Syria from its blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism -- a designation dating back to 1979 over support to Palestinian militants that severely impedes investment.

But the US president's offer to lift sanctions on Syria, mostly imposed during the repressive rule of ousted president Bashar al-Assad, comes as a major boost to the war-ravaged country, still getting to grips with Sharaa's December toppling of Assad.

Why Meeting Raised Eyebrows?

The meeting between the two leaders raised eyebrows globally due to al-Sharaa's murky past. Previously known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani, al-Sharaa was linked to the terror group al-Qaeda and fought against US forces in Iraq, and had even spent years in American custody. However, the former jihadist has abandoned his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, trimmed his beard and donned a suit and tie to receive foreign dignitaries since ousting Assad from power on December 8, 2024.

He was later appointed to lead Syria for an unspecified transitional period, and has been tasked with forming an interim legislature after the dissolution of the Assad era parliament and the suspension of the 2012 constitution.