'This is a war on children,' warns UNICEF after Israel resumes bombing Gaza

A family of four from Kerala, who had just returned to Kuwait after a vacation, died in a tragic fire at their Abbasiya residence on Friday night. The victims are Mathew Mulackal (40), wife Lini Abraham (38) and children Irin (14) and Issac (9), all hailing from Neerattupuram, Alappuzha.

The family returned to their Kuwait flat on Friday evening, after a month-long vacation in Kerala. The fire, believed to have been caused by an air conditioning unit malfunction, broke out around 9 p.m. Preliminary reports suggest that the family died from inhaling toxic fumes.

Mathew was employed with Reuters, while Lini worked as a nurse in Kuwait. They had returned from their vacation just ahead of the reopening of their children's school. 

The family had recently built a new home in Kerala, which was completed a year ago. During their vacation, they visited the house for a blessing ceremony but couldn't stay long due to their return schedule.

Fire brigade and police have launched an investigation. The Indian Ambassador in Kuwait, along with Union Ministers, are taking measures to repatriate the bodies to India. 

"Embassy @indembkwt expresses its deepest condolences on the tragic demise of Mr Mathews Mulackal, his wife and 2 children due to fire in his flat in Abassiya yesterday night," the Indian Embassy in Kuwait said in a post on X.

"Embassy is in touch with his family and will ensure early repatriation of mortal remains," it added. Mathews Mulackal is survived by his mother and three siblings.

"Mathew has been working there for the past 15 years. His wife is a nurse. The children are studying there. They left after their vacation on Thursday night from Nedumbassery and reached Kuwait on Friday," a relative told the media on Saturday.

Notably, this happened more than a month after a massive blaze at a building in Kuwait killed 46 Indian nations. Authorities say an electrical short circuit in the room of the guard on the ground floor of the building caused the blaze. Of the 196 residents in the housing facility, 175 are Indians, 11 are Filipinos and the rest are from Thailand, Pakistan and Egypt.

Mangaluru, July 18: Dozens of passengers had a narrow escape after a fire erupted in the engine of a KSRTC Airavat bus traveling from Bengaluru to Mangaluru at Uppinangady on National Highway 75 on Thursday morning.

The fire was quickly extinguished by the driver and conductor of the bus with the help of local residents.

At around 6:30 am on Thursday, as the bus reached Subrahmanya Curve in Uppinangady, smoke began to fill the interior. Upon stopping the bus, the fire in the engine intensified.

Panchayat staff Isaac and Iqbaal, along with local residents Snake Zakariya, Siddik Koppal, and Joy, rushed to the scene and helped extinguish the fire using water and sand from the riverbank. They had been observing the flood situation in the river from the roadside when they noticed the smoke.

The bus had departed from Bengaluru on Wednesday night at 10:30 pm. Due to traffic congestion in the Shiradi Ghat section, there was a three-hour delay. The fire erupted when the bus finally reached Uppinangady.

The passengers were transferred to another bus, according to Airavat bus conductor Ashok Jadhav.

Traffic movement was affected as the bus was parked on the road after the fire was spotted, causing a one-kilometer-long line of vehicles on both sides of the highway.

Microsoft has reportedly closed the email accounts of Palestinians living abroad, cutting off their access to online services used to contact relatives in Gaza amid the ongoing genocidal Israeli war.

Some Palestinians told the BBC on Thursday that their email accounts were closed without any explanation.

They added that this closure prevented them from accessing bank accounts, job offers, and the Skype application used to communicate with family members in the besieged Gaza.

“They killed my life online," said Eiad Hametto, who lives in Saudi Arabia.

"They’ve suspended my email account that I’ve had for nearly 20 years - It was connected to all my work.”

Hametto also said being cut off from Skype was a huge blow for his family.

Microsoft alleged that the affected users had violated its terms of service, but the Palestinians rejected the claim.

“We are civilians with no political background who just wanted to check on our families,” Hametto stressed. 

Salah Elsadi, who lives in the US, said that his Microsoft Hotmail account and all associated services were deactivated in April.

"I've had this Hotmail for 15 years," he said. "They banned me for no reason, saying I have violated their terms - what terms? Tell me. I've filled out about 50 forms and called them many many times."

Another Palestinian Khalid Obaied said he had paid for a package to make phone calls, but he was banned after 10 days for no reason.

"That means it's only because I’m a Palestinian calling Gaza,” he added.

Israel unleashed its brutal Gaza onslaught on October 7 after Hamas carried out its historic operation against the occupying entity in retaliation for the regime’s intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, the Tel Aviv regime has so far killed at least 38,345 Palestinians, mostly women and children, in Gaza, and injured 88,295 others.

The Israeli aggression has disrupted telecommunication services (landline, mobile, and internet) in the Gaza Strip.