Karnataka faces oxygen shortage even as active covid cases remain high

The director general of the Ministry of Health in Gaza has described as “hell” the situation in the north of the strip which has been under an Israeli ground offensive and siege for “100 days”.

“The situation is literally like hell,” Munir al-Barsh said on Sunday, referring to daily Israeli attacks and the regime’s ban on food delivery to medical staff trapped in the north’s hospitals.

He added that “hospitals in northern Gaza have turned into mass graves.”

Al-Barsh noted that the offensive and the destruction of hospitals and infrastructure and any sign of life in the north are aimed to empty the region of its residents.

“The Israeli occupation has been deliberately destroying the health system since the very first moment,” he said, adding that “the destruction of hospitals was the greatest evidence of the [Israeli] genocide.”

According to his statements, 5,000 people have been killed or gone missing, while 9,500 others have been injured since the start of Israel’s offensive on the north of Gaza in early October 2024. The regime’s forces have also abducted about 2,300 people, including 65 medical staff, during the ongoing offensive.

Al-Barsh slammed the “disgraceful” silence of the international community on Israel’s atrocities, which he said, has “deepened the suffering of innocent civilians.”

Israel launched a genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023 after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas waged the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Flood against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime's decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.

The regime’s bloody onslaught on Gaza has so far killed at least 46,565 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured more than 109,660 others. Thousands more are also missing and presumed dead under rubble.

However, the UK’s Lancet medical journal estimates the actual number of deaths in the war is much higher than the official toll.

According to the study, figures reported by the Palestinian health ministry likely undercounted the death toll by 41 percent in the first nine months of the war as the Gaza Strip’s healthcare infrastructure unraveled.

The US consulate in Bengaluru will hold its ‘site-dedication ceremony’ on January 17, with officials confirming that the location of the upcoming consulate will be disclosed during the event. Sources indicate that the site could be in either the Central Business District or Whitefield.

While the consulate building is under development, visa services may temporarily begin at the JW Marriott hotel, which currently houses the United States Commercial Service (USCS) office.

Bengaluru has long advocated for the establishment of a US consulate, and with its opening, residents of the city and Karnataka will no longer need to travel to other states for their US visa applications.

It was in January of the previous year that External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, during his visit to Bengaluru, expressed his intention to urge the US Ambassador to India to establish a consulate in the city. This move follows the announcement during Prime Minister Modi’s June 2023 visit to the US, where it was revealed that two new US consulates would open in Bengaluru and Ahmedabad, and India would set up a mission in Seattle.

Israeli settlers shielded by the occupation troops have stormed several villages in the West Bank, setting Palestinian homes, farms and vehicles on fire.

Palestinian media reported that the violent settler attacks took place on Monday night in the villages of Turmus Ayya, Tuqu', Hajjah, Fara'ata, al-Funduq and Immatain.

Prior to the raids, far-right Israeli social media groups had posted messages calling on members to join in on rampages against Palestinian villages.

The attacks took place although Israeli rights groups had demanded preventative actions by the regime's authorities.

“Once again, the army is doing nothing to prevent settler violence. This time, too, the writing was on the wall, and notices calling for riots in the villages were distributed publicly among settlers,” the Yesh Din right group said.

Settler violence has escalated significantly since October 7, 2023, when Israel unleashed a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

So far, the Tel Aviv regime has killed at least 45,854 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 109,139 others, in its brutal Gaza onslaught. 

Israel confiscates more Palestinian land

Separately on Monday, the Wafa news agency reported that Israeli authorities had seized 262,000 square meters of Palestinian land in Jaba’, al-Ram, Kafr 'Aqab, and Mukhmas, all situated in the al-Quds governorate.

Israeli human rights organization Ir Amim said that the occupying regime is seeking to annex the confiscated area to the illegal Geva Binyamin settlement.

More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East al-Quds.

While all Israeli settlements are illegal under international law, Israel keeps expanding them in blatant violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.