Air India Express to operate daily Mangaluru – Abu Dhabi flights from July 22

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.

Bengaluru, May 15: The Karnataka Lokayukta police on Thursday conducted simultaneous raids across multiple districts, including Bengaluru and Mangaluru, targeting government officials suspected of possessing disproportionate assets (DA).

According to Lokayukta police, the raids were carried out on properties linked to seven government officials in Bengaluru city, Bengaluru Rural, Tumakuru, Yadgir, Mangaluru, and Vijayapura districts.

The officials under the scanner are:

Murali T.V., Additional Director, Directorate of Urban and Rural Planning

H.R. Nataraj, Inspector, Legal Metrology, Bengaluru

Anant Kumar, Second Division Assistant, Taluk Office, Hoskote (Bengaluru Rural)

Rajshekar, Project Director, Nirmiti Kendra, Tumakuru

Manjunath, Survey Supervisor, Dakshina Kannada (Mangaluru)

Renuka Satarle, Officer, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Abhivrudhi Nigama, Vijayapura

Umakanth, Officer, Shahpur Taluk, Yadgir district

Raids were conducted at 12 locations in Bengaluru city, eight in Bengaluru Rural, seven in Tumakuru, five in Yadgir, four in Mangaluru, and four in Vijayapura.

The raids followed complaints alleging corruption and accumulation of assets disproportionate to known sources of income. A preliminary investigation was carried out into the assets of the officials, their families, and close relatives, after which separate DA cases were registered at respective Lokayukta police stations.

The coordinated operation began at 6 a.m. and was conducted under the supervision of superintendents of police from the respective districts. Deputy superintendents, police inspectors, and other staff were also involved in the raids.

Authorities have not yet disclosed the details of movable and immovable assets seized during the operation. Further information is expected following the completion of assessments at the raided sites.

US President Donald Trump says he is willing to reach an agreement with Iran that allows Washington to “blow up” Tehran’s nuclear energy facilities.

“It’s that simple,” he said during an exchange with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, on Wednesday.

“I would much prefer a strong, verified deal where we actually blow them up…,” Trump said, referring to Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Deal’s outcome: Either ‘Nice aggression’ or ‘vicious aggression’

The 78-year-old former president added that there were only two possible outcomes, namely “blowing them up nicely or blow them up viciously.”

This is not the first time, Trump and other American officials have urged “total dismantlement” of Iran’s nuclear energy program. The US president had last made the insistence during comments on the NBC's "Meet the Press" program.

Observers said such statements underline the US administration's continued aggressive approach towards the Islamic Republic and its nuclear energy program.

The adversarial standing comes while Washington and Tehran have been engaging in indirect talks since March. The talks’ initiation marked drawn-out absence of such engagement between the two sides that had been caused by Washington’s illegal and unilateral withdrawal from a historic nuclear deal between Tehran and others in 2018.

Most recently, Trump’s regional envoy Steve Witkoff said, “The president wants to see this solved diplomatically if possible, so we’re doing everything we can to get it going."

Trump’s remarks, though, diagonally contradict Witkoff’s statement about the president’s alleged interest in a diplomatic solution.

Trump also said potential American aggression against Iran’s nuclear sites had to result in “de-nuking them.”

The US and its allies have for long been trying to accuse the Islamic Republic of pursuing “nuclear weapons,” despite the country’s repeated avowal not to either pursue, develop, or stockpile such weaponry as per moral and religious imperatives.

Tehran’s peaceful nuclear policy has been verified unexceptionally by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which has never found any indication of such pursuit, as it has put the country's nuclear activities under the most extensive investigative processes compared to any other member of the United Nations nuclear agency.

The Western narrative, though, has been used extensively to try to justify escalating sanctions, military threats, and covert operations targeting Iran and its nuclear infrastructure.

Nevertheless, the Islamic Republic has invariably vowed to deal effectively with attempts on the part of the US, its allied states, or proxies at engaging in military adventurism against the country.

The assertion was last reiterated by Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran's permanent ambassador to the United Nations, who underscored on Monday that the country would unquestionably defend its sovereignty against any threat or use of force.