Mangaluru: Youth dies of alleged self-immolation after his pregnant wife starts avoiding him

The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued its new assessment of the situation in the Gaza Strip's al-Shifa Hospital, describing it as a "death zone" and the situation as "desperate."

The United Nations health organization released its report early Sunday, just a day after a short and "very high-risk" mission into the hospital on Saturday.

The regime has turned Gaza's hospitals into a specific target of its ongoing war of genocide against the coastal sliver, alleging that those facilities house Palestinian resistance fighters and their equipment.

On Saturday, Mai Alkaila, the Palestinian health minister in the occupied West Bank, strongly condemned Israel for committing genocide against the healthcare system in the Gaza Strip.

Al-Shifa, Gaza's biggest hospital, has taken the brunt of the Israeli assaults on the territory's healthcare system, with the regime claiming that it houses a "command center" belonging to the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas.

The situation has forced "scores of sick and injured, some of them amputees" to flee the hospital towards the seafront without ambulances, along with displaced people, doctors and nurses, the WHO said. It added that only 291 patients, including 32 babies "in extremely critical condition," and 25 health workers have remained inside the complex.

"Signs of shelling and gunfire were evident. The [WHO] team saw a mass grave at the entrance of the hospital and were told more than 80 people were buried there," the world body said in its statement.

A lack of clean water, fuel, medicines, food, and other essential aid has caused the hospital to basically stop functioning as a medical facility, it noted.

"Corridors and the hospital grounds were filled with medical and solid waste, increasing the risk of infection," the WHO said.

Also on Sunday, WHO's chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X social media platform that the world body was "working with partners to develop an urgent evacuation plan and ask for full facilitation of this plan."

"We continue to call for protection of health and of civilians," he said, lamenting that "the current situation is unbearable and unjustifiable. Ceasefire. NOW."

The regime launched its devastating war on October 7 following a surprise operation by Gaza-based resistance movements. At least 12,300 Palestinians have been killed, including more than 5,000 children, and over 29,800 people sustained injuries during the war.

Bengaluru, Nov 17: After more than six months since the assembly elections in Karnataka, the opposition BJP has elected the Leader of the Opposition. R Ashoka, leader of Vokkaliga community, former Deputy Chief Minister, MLA from Padmanabhanagar constituency in Bengaluru, has been given the responsibility of the Leader of Opposition. 

This decision was taken at the BJP Legislature Party Meeting (BJP Meeting) held at the ITC Hotel in Bangalore on Friday evening. Just last week, BY Vijayendra was appointed as the president of the BJP state unit.

High command observers Nirmala Sitharaman and Dushyant Kumar were present in the BLP meeting held at ITC Hotel in Bangalore under the leadership of state BJP unit president Vijayendra. Former CMs BS Yeddyurappa, Basavaraja Bommai, former minister Kota Srinivasa Pujari and state BJP unit organizing secretary Rajesh and others participated.

Dushyant Kumar Gautam and BS Yeddyurappa implicitly mentioned the High Command's instruction regarding the opposition leaders during their speech to the MLAs. Former CM Basavaraja Bommai suggested the announcement of Ashok's name, while former minister Sunil Kumar approved it.

No one is disappointed, Bellad said that the meeting was not boycotted

Responding to the outburst of discontent before the BJP legislative party meeting, Aravind Bellad said that no one was upset, the BLP meeting was not boycotted, observers got a one to one opinion. He said that there are more MLAs from North Karnataka.

Other than them, Bengaluru's Yeshwantpur constituency MLA ST Somasekhar was absent from the legislative party meeting. 

A far-right member of Israel’s legislature has called for burning down the Gaza Strip and blocking humanitarian aid to the besieged area amid the occupying regime’s brutal onslaught on the coastal silver, which has so far claimed more than 12,000 Palestinian lives.

Nissim Vaturi, deputy speaker of the Knesset and a member of the legislature's foreign affairs and security committee, made the call on Friday and said Tel Aviv must hold off on providing Gaza with relief aid until the more than 200 Israelis captured by Palestinian resistance movement Hamas are released.

Vaturi claimed that the Israeli regime has been “too humane” after the extremist cabinet of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu — under the international community’s pressure — approved the entry of two trucks of fuel per day into Gaza.

The fuel delivery was ordered to prevent the collapse of the war-ravaged city’s sewage treatment system, which risked a mass outbreak of viral diseases, as the besieged area is already beset by power outages and telecommunication disruptions.

“All of this preoccupation with whether or not there is internet in Gaza shows that we have learned nothing. We are too humane. Burn Gaza now, nothing less!” Vaturi wrote in a post on his X social media account.

“Don’t allow fuel in, don’t allow water in until the hostages are returned back!” he adds.

The Egyptian Red Crescent said 15 tons of diesel entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing from Egypt on Friday after the United Nations had warned of widespread starvation in the wake of intermittent shutdowns in internet and telephone services across the strip over the lack of fuel.