Jam’iyyatul Falah Dammam unit holds 34th AGBM; new office bearers elected for 2024-2025

The Palestinian Civil Defense in the Gaza Strip says at least 30 people were killed by Israeli strikes in the northern Gaza Strip city of Jabalia and its refugee camp Friday.

The agency’s spokesman Mahmud Bassal said the Israeli regime targeted Jabalia before 9:40 p.m. local time (1840 GMT) and left “12 dead, including women and children” in the city.

Bassal added that 14 people were still missing and likely trapped under the rubble.

Before that incident, Ahmad al-Kahlut, the director of the agency in northern Gaza, said 18 people had been killed by several Israeli strikes, including hits on “eight schools” in the camp that were serving as shelters for displaced Palestinian people.

The day’s aggression left at least 110 injured, according to figures provided by Bassal and Kahlut.

Human rights organizations have repeatedly warned against Israel’s fresh round of aggression on the Gaza Strip’s northern areas, home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians having sought refuge from the regime’s year-long genocide in the south.

The Israeli regime announced earlier in the week that one of its largest forced displacement orders since October last year, calling for the expulsion of 37 neighborhoods across northern Gaza, which targets over 400,000 Palestinians in the entirety of the blockaded area.

In a statement, the medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders, also known as MSF, said the Israeli regime’s forced expulsion orders in the northern Gaza Strip were turning the war-ravaged besieged area into a “lifeless desert.”

The Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor also warned earlier that the Israeli regime was subjecting the northern part of the Gaza Strip to “one of the most violent campaigns of genocide.”

The aggression comes as part of the regime’s October 7, 2023-present war on the coastal sliver, which has so far claimed the lives of more than 42,000 people and wounded over 97,500 others, most of them women and children.

Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have since been displaced and humanitarian conditions have deteriorated sharply.

Israel’s expulsion plan ‘could last several months’

An Israeli report based on conversations with military officials said the regime is enacting a plan that will effectively ethnically cleanse the Palestinian population in northern Gaza after a siege that could last months.

Conceived by retired Major-General Giora Eiland, the plan aims to empty northern Gaza of its 400,000 residents to make way for a “closed military zone.”

“The general’s plan,” which was launched in an Israeli TV campaign in September, called for the ethnic cleansing of northern Gaza, warning that those that remain will face starvation.

“The right thing to do is to inform the approximately 300,000 residents who remained in the northern Gaza Strip… we are ordering you to leave,” Eiland said last month.

“In a week, the entire territory of the northern Gaza Strip will become military territory.”

According to a report published on Friday in the Israeli daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, the occupation is now implementing a “scaled-down” version of the plan in the Jabalia refugee camp.

Even though the “general’s plan” aims to create conditions to force the population in Jabalia and nearby Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia to flee south, most people have refused to leave their homes so far, the report added.

Hamas ‘remains steadfast’ in face of Jabalia aggression

Hamas political bureau member Izzat al-Rishq said on Friday that the Gaza-based resistance movement “remains steadfast” in the face of the Israeli aggression on the Jabalia refugee camp, which has continued for the past six days.

“Our people’s choice will always remain … steadfastness on the ground, resilience, and resistance against the occupation’s aggression,” Rishq said in a statement.

He characterized the Israeli actions as akin to “Nazi terrorism,” highlighting that “since Oct. 7 of last year, the Israeli army has engaged in various forms of aggression against Palestinians in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, and [al-Quds] without achieving any of its violent objectives.”

“Those who hold firmly to their land and defend their rights will have the final word, while this fascist enemy will only reap further disappointment, failure, and defeat, despite international silence and complicity,” he added.

Mumbai: The final rites of Ratan Naval Tata - the industrialist with a heart of gold - were performed with full State honours at a Mumbai crematorium this afternoon.

Home Minister Amit Shah was among the many high-profile dignitaries on hand to pay their final respects to Mr Tata; he stands in for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is en route to Laos to attend the ASEAN-India and East Asia summits. Mr Modi last night hailed Mr Tata as a "an extraordinary human being".

Mr Shah was accompanied by Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, and Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his deputies, Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar.

Earlier today  Ratan Tata lay in state, wrapped in the national flag, at the National Centre for Performing Arts in Nariman Point, before his body was transported to the crematorium in Worli, a distance of 12 km.

Thousands lined the streets to bid goodbye to one of their own, an unassuming Mumbai-born and bred 'chhotu' who transformed the Tata brand into a global powerhouse.

And the country's most powerful politicians were joined by its most influential celebrities - actors and sportspersons - and the country's richest, including the Ambanis and the Adanis, in paying their respects.

Maharashtra has announced a day of mourning as a mark of respect for a business leader and philanthropist admired in India and abroad for his simplicity, sincerity, and humanity.

Ratan Tata's contributions to the industrial and development sectors, to the economy and to the lives of tens of thousands of men and women, are too many to count.

Some, perhaps, deserve mention, such as the 'revenge' purchase of luxury brands Jaguar and Land Rover, which heralded India's arrival on the global automotive stage, and his commitment to the welfare of dogs, exemplified by the ₹ 165 crore hospital in Mumbai.

But his death unquestionably marks the end of an era; he was, perhaps, the last of his kind, someone who, despite fabulous privilege, never appeared to flaunt his wealth.

Indeed, Mr Tata could never be found on a list of billionaires simply because he donated the vast majority - 60 to 65 per cent, if some sources are to be believed - of his income.

Ratan Tata died at Mumbai's Breach Candy Hospital late last night at the age of 86.

He was admitted Monday but, as was his nature, played down any fuss, declaring he was undergoing routine age-related medical check-ups. "There is no cause for concern. Thank you for thinking of me..."

Hours later, just as discreetly and quietly, the Tata family broke the news.

"It is with a profound sense of loss that we bid farewell to Mr Ratan Naval Tata, a truly uncommon leader whose immeasurable contributions have shaped not only the Tata Group but also the very fabric of our nation," the group's Chairperson, N Chandrasekaran, said.

As the news spread the outpouring of grief underlined Mr Tata's stature, but it was a fellow industrial titan, Anand Mahindra, who best captured the emotions of 145 crore Indians.

"I am unable to accept..." he said.

New Delhi: After the MUDA chairman stepped down from his post on Wednesday, the BJP demanded that Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah also resign immediately as he is "deeply embroiled" in the land "scam".

Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) chairman K Marigowda resigned from his post amid the row over alleged irregularities in allotment of sites to Siddaramaiah's wife Parvathi B M.

"MUDA chairman has tendered his resignation... I call upon Siddaramaiah that if you have the slightest morality left in you, you should step down immediately. You should not wait for today's sunset," BJP national spokesperson and MP Sambit Patra said at a press conference here.

He said Marigowda's resignation and Siddaramaiah's wife "offering" to return the MUDA sites allocated to her make it clear that the chief minister is "deeply involved in the scam from head to toe".

"There is no doubt about it," Patra said.

Earlier in the day, Marigowda submitted his resignation to the Urban Development Department secretary.

"I have resigned following directions from the CM. Also, as I had health issues, I have resigned... there was no pressure on me, as I had health issues I have resigned," Marigowda told reporters in Bengaluru.

Responding to a question, he said, "The investigation is on, and it will continue...it will be known from the probe whether there were any irregularities." Siddaramaiah is facing probes by the Lokayukta and the Enforcement Directorate into alleged irregularities in the allotment of 14 sites to his wife by the MUDA.

The chief minister has denied any wrongdoing and rejected the opposition's calls for his resignation.