money

Viswashkumar Ramesh, the only survivor of the Boeing 787 plane crash, said he witnessed other passengers die.

The only survivor of the Air India plane crash says he couldn’t believe he made it out alive after escaping from a broken emergency exit in a deadly crash that killed 241 people.

Shortly after Thursday’s crash, social media footage showed Viswashkumar Ramesh limping down the street in a blood-stained t-shirt and with bruises on his body.

The British national was sitting in seat 11A on the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner that was flying in to London when the plane crashed into a medical college hostel moments after taking off from India’s northwestern city of Ahmedabad.

Ramesh, 40, told India’s national broadcaster DD News from his hospital bed on Friday that he thought he was “also going to die”.

“But when I opened my eyes, I realised I was alive and I tried to unbuckle myself from the seat and escape from where I could. It was in front of my eyes that the air hostess and others [died],” he said.

He was travelling with his brother Ajay, who had been seated in a different row, members of his family said.

“The side of the plane I was in landed on the ground, and I could see that there was space outside the aircraft, so when my door broke, I tried to escape through it and I did,” Ramesh said.

“The opposite side of the aircraft was blocked by the building wall so nobody could have come out of there,” he added.

He explained that the plane had seemed to have come to a standstill midair for a few seconds shortly after taking off and felt the engine thrust, which later “crashed with speed into the hostel”.

Ramesh’s cousin Hiren Kantilal, 19, told the AFP news agency that he called his family in Leicester, in the East Midlands in England, after the crash to tell them he was alive.

“Our plane has been crashed,” Ramesh told his dad, according to his cousin.

“He was bleeding all over him, in the face and everything, and he said, ‘I am just waiting for my brother and I don’t know how I get out of the plane.’

“He said: ‘Do not worry about me, try to find about Ajay Kumar’ and he said: ‘I am totally fine.’”

Kantilal said his cousin had spent about 10 to 15 minutes seeking his brother, and then was whisked away to hospital by the rescue services.

“We are happy Vishwash has been saved, but on the other hand, we are just heartbroken about Ajay,” he told AFP.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the crash site on Friday and met Ramesh at the hospital.

Rescue workers continued to search for missing people and aircraft parts on Friday following the worst aviation crash in a decade.

In this episode of Reframe, Ken Roth and Silvia Fernandez discuss what international justice means today, exploring the significance of the ICC and asking if the “court of last resort” can withstand threats and sanctions by global superpowers and uphold the rule of law.

President Donald Trump has urged Iran to agree to US demands to restrict its nuclear programme as Tehran promised a strong response to Israeli air strikes targeting its nuclear sites and military facilities, killing at least two senior military commanders and several nuclear scientists.

Writing on his Truth Social platform on Friday, Trump warned that the “next already planned attacks” on Iran would be “even more brutal” and urged Iranian officials to “make a deal before there is nothing left”.

“Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left… JUST DO IT, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE,” he said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier said that the United States had no part in the Israeli attacks and urged Iran not to target American interests or personnel in the region in retaliation, but Tehran said Washington would be “responsible for consequences”.

Iran promised a harsh response to the barrage, and Israel said it was trying to intercept about 100 drones launched towards Israeli territory in retaliation.

Iranian state media has reported that Hossein Salami, commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and Mohammad Bagheri, the chief of staff of Iran’s Armed Forces, were both killed in the attacks. Nuclear scientists Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi and Fereydoun Abbasi were also killed.

Some 200 Israeli warplanes took part in overnight air strikes on Iran, hitting more than 100 targets in the country, according to Israeli army spokesman, Brigadier General Effie Defrin.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel struck at the “heart of Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme”, taking aim at the main uranium enrichment facility in Natanz.

The attacks would “continue as many days as it takes”, he said.

Iranian media reported explosions, including some at the main uranium enrichment facility at Natanz. Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation said Natanz had sustained damage but no casualties had been reported.

On Friday afternoon, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported a new Israeli attack in the city of Tabriz, northwest of Iran.

‘Severe punishment for Israel’

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Israel that it “must expect severe punishment” after the assault. The country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs added that Tehran has a “legal and legitimate” right to respond.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who is expected to address the public, also said in a statement on his official X account: “The Zionist regime will regret its action today.”

Israel’s military said on Friday it was intercepting Iranian drones. The country’s public broadcaster and Channel 12 reported that Israel also intercepted drones over Saudi Arabia.

At about 08:00 GMT, Israeli media reported that an earlier order requiring citizens to remain near protected areas had been lifted.

In the Iranian city of Qom, hundreds of protesters gathered at the Jamkaran Mosque to demand a “severe punishment” for Israel in response to the strikes.

Mohammad Eslami, a research fellow at Tehran University, said Iranian leaders are preparing an imminent strike on Israel targeting military and nuclear facilities.

“The Iranian military were thinking about this scenario for many years and also in recent days, we have heard lots of statements by the Defence Ministry of Iran that they are ready for any strike by the Israelis,” he told Al Jazeera from Tehran.

“Most Iranian political parties support defending the country because all Iranians [know] the history of Iraq attacking Iran. This is not about political points of view,” he added.

Nuclear talks

US and Iranian officials are due to attend a sixth round of talks over Iran’s nuclear programme in Oman on Sunday.

The two sides have been negotiating over Iran’s enrichment of uranium, with Trump stating recently that “zero” enrichment should be allowed in Iran. He has also said repeatedly that Iran will not be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons.

Tehran has consistently said that its nuclear programme is only for civilian purposes.

Iran said in a statement that Israel’s “cowardly” attack showed why Iran had to insist on enrichment, nuclear technology and missile power.

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors on Thursday declared Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in almost 20 years.

One black box found as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits the scene and calls the devastation ‘saddening’.

Investigators and rescue teams are searching the site of one of India’s worst aviation disasters, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has met with the lone surviving passenger, a day after an Air India flight fell from the sky and killed 241 people on the plane and multiple people on the ground.

The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, en route from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick Airport with 242 people on board, went down shortly after takeoff on Thursday, striking a medical college hostel in the western Indian city.

One of the plane’s black boxes has been found, local media reported, and operations on Friday were focused on locating missing people and recovering aircraft fragments and the remaining black box.

An official from the National Disaster Response Force said it deployed seven teams to the crash site and they have recovered 81 bodies so far.

The crash caused extensive damage and left bodies scattered both inside the aircraft and among buildings at the site.

‘The devastation is saddening’

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the scene in his home state of Gujarat on Friday, meeting with rescue officials and some of the injured in hospital. “The scene of devastation is saddening,” he posted on X.

Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau launched an investigation into the incident.

Medics are conducting DNA tests to identify those killed, said the president of the Federation of All India Medical Association, Akshay Dongardiv.

Meanwhile, grieving families gathered outside the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad.

Two doctors at the hospital said the bodies of four medical students killed on the ground were released to their families. They said at least 30 injured students were admitted to the hospital and at least four were in critical condition.

Witnesses described hearing a blast on Thursday before dark smoke engulfed the area. “We were at home and heard a massive sound. It appeared like a big blast,” the Reuters news agency quoted 63-year-old resident Nitin Joshi as saying.

Footage from CCTV cameras captured a fireball rising above the crash site shortly after the Dreamliner took off. Parts of the fuselage were found scattered across the hostel complex, and the aircraft’s tail was lodged in the building’s roof.

Boeing said it was ready to send experts to assist in the investigation, which Air India warned would take time. The crash marks the first fatal accident involving a Dreamliner since the aircraft began commercial service in 2011.

Air India CEO Campbell Wilson arrived in Ahmedabad early on Friday.

Modi meets lone survivor

The sole survivor of the crash was seen in television footage meeting Modi at the government hospital where he was being treated for burns and other injuries.

Viswashkumar Ramesh told India’s national broadcaster he still could not believe he is alive. He said the aircraft seemed to become stuck immediately after takeoff. He said the lights came on and right after that, the plane accelerated but seemed unable to gain height before it crashed.

He said the side of the plane where he was seated fell onto the ground floor of a building and there was space for him to escape after the door broke open. He unfastened his seatbelt and forced himself out of the plane.

“When I opened my eyes, I realised I was alive,” he said.

The crash claimed the life of Vijay Rupani, Gujarat’s former chief minister. Police said most passengers were still strapped in their seats when found.

The passengers included 217 adults, 11 children and two infants, a source told Reuters. Air India said 169 were Indian nationals, 53 were Britons, seven were Portuguese and one was Canadian.

Israel on Friday morning struck multiple Iranian military and nuclear facilities, as well as residential homes in Tehran known to house senior security officials, pulling the region to the brink of a full-fledged war between the rivals.

The attacks killed multiple senior members of Iran’s military. They included General Mohammad Bagheri, the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces and the country’s highest-ranking military official.

Who was Bagheri?

Bagheri was born Mohammad Hossein Afshordi in the 1960s. In his current role, he oversaw both the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and the rest of the country’s military, also ensuring coordination between those different arms of the country’s security apparatus.

He reportedly had a distinguished military career with the IRGC; however, little is known about him outside of his record of service, academic achievements and multiple sanctions imposed by various international bodies.

“A lot [of] higher-ranked intelligence and military officials in Iran tend to be more on the secretive side,” Reza H Akbari, Middle East and North Africa programme manager at the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, told Al Jazeera.

Bagheri joined the IRGC in 1980, a year after the Iranian revolution and the same year the Iran-Iraq war began. That conflict lasted eight years and saw hundreds of thousands of people killed on both sides, with Iran enduring the greater losses.

One of those killed was Bagheri’s older brother, Hassan, who had reportedly founded the IRGC’s military intelligence branch in 1980 and who, aged 27, led a division.

Bagheri fought in the Iran-Iraq war, according to a United States congressional research report, which described him as “an early IRGC recruit who fought against a post-revolution Kurdish uprising and in the Iran-Iraq War”.

According to Iranian media, Bagheri became the head of the IRGC’s intelligence operations in 1983, after the death of his brother. After the war, he also served as deputy head of intelligence and operations, and as the head of the armed forces’ common affairs.

He played a “special role” in a 1997 operation in Iraq against Kurdish forces, according to Rokna, an Iranian state-affiliated news agency. In 2016, he replaced Major-General Seyyed Hassan Firoozabadi as the chief of staff of the IRGC.

He was affiliated with an “elite force within the IRGC,” according to Akbari, tasked with “carrying out the most sensitive missions, especially those related to the air force unit”.

Bagheri was sanctioned by the US in 2019, when the first Trump administration levelled sanctions against what they called the “inner circle” of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

The European Union, meanwhile, reportedly sanctioned Bagheri for supplying Russia with drones, while he was further sanctioned by the US, Canada and the United Kingdom for his role in the crackdown on the 2022 protests in Iran following the killing of Mahsa Amini.

Following Bagheri’s assassination, Iran appointed Ahmad Vahidi, a former defence and interior minister, as his interim replacement.

In addition to Bagheri, Israel also assassinated Hossein Salami, commander in chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, and Gholamali Rashid, deputy commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

They also killed multiple nuclear scientists in the Friday morning attacks.

The attacks came as the US and Iran were preparing for their next round of nuclear talks on Sunday in Muscat. Rhetoric over a possible attack from Israel and the US had intensified in recent days and US embassy staff had been put on alert in numerous locations, while Iran had responded with its own warnings of potential retaliation if struck.

The attacks were condemned by many in the international community, including many Gulf states, such as Saudi Arabia, Oman and Qatar, who called it a “flagrant violation” of international law.

US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff said on Friday morning that he still expected talks to continue on Sunday.

But Akbari of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting said he saw little likelihood of the US-Iran negotiations continuing. “I find the plausibility of talks continuing as slim to none,” he said.

ADVERTISEMENT

European equities tumbled when the market opened on Friday and oil prices surged, as investors reacted to Israel’s large-scale air strikes on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, fuelling fears of a broader Middle East conflict.

The operation, named Rising Lion, marks the most extensive Israeli military action on Iranian soil to date, targeting over 100 facilities including the Natanz complex and missile sites near Tehran.

As of 9.15am CEST, the Euro STOXX 50 had dropped 1.5%, extending weekly losses to 2.7% — the worst performance since early April.

Financials led the downturn among Eurozone blue chips. Deutsche Bank fell 2.73%, UniCredit 2.56%, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria 2.48% and Banco Santander 2.46%.

Germany’s DAX lost 1.34% to 23,453, France’s CAC 40 dropped 1.35% to 7,660, Italy’s FTSE MIB retreated 1.68% to 39,271, and Spain’s IBEX 35 fell 1.70% to 13,849.

Oil prices surged following the Israeli strike, as markets began to price in a higher geopolitical risk premium. Brent crude jumped over 5% to trade at $73 (€68) per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate rose to $71.5 (€66.60). For the week, oil prices are up more than 10%, on track for the strongest weekly gain since October 2022.

As energy prices rallied, oil majors such as Italy’s Eni and Spain’s Repsol gained 2%.

German defence powerhouse Rheinmetall also rose 2% as investors turned to military and security-exposed stocks.

Dutch TTF natural gas futures climbed 2% to €37.12 per megawatt hour, amid concerns over potential disruptions to energy flows.

The Israeli campaign involved over 200 fighter jets, according to the IDF, and reportedly resulted in the death of senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders Hossein Salami and Mohammad Bagheri.

Gold eyes new record, dollar rebounds

Demand for safe-haven assets surged. Gold rose 1% to $3,430 (€3,200) per ounce, nearing its all-time high of $3,500. Silver also held ground, hitting $36.5 per ounce overnight.

The dollar gained strength following days of steady declines. The euro fell 0.5% to $1.1540 after touching a three-year high of 1.16 on Thursday. On the data front, Germany’s final inflation reading for May was confirmed at 2.1% year-over-year. Spain’s annual inflation was upwardly revised from 1.9% to 2%.

The pound also slipped 0.5% to $1.1350.

The Israeli shekel tumbled 1.8% against the dollar, heading for its steepest daily loss since the Hamas attack of October 2023.

Analysts see upside risks for oil prices

“The Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities has sent oil prices spiking and has offered the oversold and undervalued dollar a catalyst for a rebound,” said Francesco Pesole, currency strategist at ING.

While there are currently no confirmed disruptions to oil production, analysts warn that the situation could escalate rapidly.

“The key difference from previous standoffs is that nuclear facilities have now been targeted,” Pesole added.

Warren Patterson, head of commodities research at ING, noted: “In a scenario where we see continued escalation, there’s the potential for disruptions to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Almost a third of global seaborne oil trade moves through that route.”

He warned that up to 14 million barrels per day could be at risk, with oil potentially surging to $120 per barrel in the event of a prolonged disruption — levels not seen since 2008.

North Korean leader says restoration of new vessel named Kang Kon has not delayed Pyongyang’s bid to boost naval power.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has promised to build more warships and deploy them to the Pacific Ocean, as he officiated at the relaunching of a destroyer that partially sank during its inauguration last month, state media reports.

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Friday that Kim presided over the ceremony for the 5,000-tonne destroyer at the Rajin shipyard in the country’s far north. The ship has been named Kang Kon after a senior North Korean military official who was killed in action during the Korean War.

In a speech at the ceremony on Thursday, Kim was quoted as saying that repairs to the destroyer “had not delayed” North Korea’s attempts to enhance naval power.

“In two weeks’ time, the vessel was brought upright safely and set afloat, accomplishing its complete restoration today as planned,” Kim said, according to KCNA.

The North Korean leader also announced that plans were in place “to build two more 5,000-tonne destroyers next year”, as he called for his country to strengthen its maritime military presence in the Pacific Ocean in the face of what he said were provocations by the United States and its allies.

“Soon, enemies will experience, themselves, how provocative and unpleasant it is to sit and watch the ships of an adversary run rampant on the fringes of sovereign waters,” Kim said.

“I’m sure that in the near future, the routes of our battleships … will be opened on the Pacific Ocean toward the outposts of aggression,” he said.

Recent satellite images had shown ongoing repairs of the Kang Kon destroyer that had partially capsized in May during a botched inaugural launch that Kim described as a “criminal act”.

The newly launched Kang Kon is North Korea’s second known destroyer and is seen as a crucial asset in Kim’s goal of modernising his country’s naval forces.

The South Korean military estimates, based on its size and scale, that the new warship is similarly equipped to the 5,000-tonne destroyer-class vessel Choe Hyon, which North Korea built with Russian assistance and launched in May.

Kim has been pushing for the modernisation of his military and calling for an aggressive response to threats from the US and South Korea, who are key allies and regularly conduct military drills together.

On Wednesday, the White House said that US President Donald Trump would welcome communications with Kim after having had friendly relations with him during his first term in office.

But the South Korea-based NK News, which monitors North Korea, reported recently that Pyongyang’s delegation at the United Nations in New York had repeatedly refused to accept a letter from Trump to Kim.

Published on
13/06/2025 – 7:57 GMT+2

ADVERTISEMENT

European indexes prepared to take a hit on Friday as Asian markets dropped on news that Israel had attacked Iran’s capital. The strikes came amid the ramping up of tensions over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program.

Oil prices, on the other hand, soared — linked to concerns that the conflict could restrict supply.

US benchmark crude oil rose 8.8%, to just under $74 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, increased by 8.28% to $75.10 per barrel.

In share trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.2% to 37,719.82 while the Kospi in Seoul edged 1.4% lower to 2,879.08.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng retreated 0.9% to 23,831.85 and the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.8% to 3,375.16.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 drifted 0.3% lower to 8,535.90.

An Israeli attack on Iran is in “our top ten of global risks”, but “Asian markets are expected to recover quickly as they have relatively limited exposure to the conflict and growing ties to unaffected Saudi Arabia and the UAE”, said Xu Tiachen of The Economist Intelligence.

Following the strikes on Iran, S&P 500 futures dropped 1.5%, Nasdaq 100 futures fell 1.7% and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 1.4% by around 1.30am ET.

On Thursday, US stock indexes had ticked higher following another encouraging update on inflation across the country.

The S&P 500 rose 0.4% to 6,045.26. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.2% to 42,967.62, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.2% to 19,662.48.

Oracle pushed upward on the market after jumping 13.3%. The tech giant delivered stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected, and CEO Safra Catz said it expects revenue growth “will be dramatically higher” in its upcoming fiscal year.

That helped offset a 4.8% loss for Boeing after Air India said a London-bound flight crashed shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad airport on Thursday with 242 passengers and crew onboard. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed into a residential area near the airport five minutes after taking off.

Stocks broadly got some help from easing Treasury yields in the bond market following the latest update on inflation. Thursday’s update said inflation at the wholesale level wasn’t as bad last month as economists expected.

Wall Street took it as a signal that the Federal Reserve will have more leeway to cut interest rates later this year in order to give the economy a boost.

The Fed’s next meeting on interest rates is scheduled for next week, but the nearly unanimous expectation on Wall Street is that officials won’t cut.

In currency trading early Friday, the US dollar rose slightly to 143,67 Japanese yen. The euro fell about 0.5% against the US dollar, to $1.1528.

BREAKINGBREAKING,

US officials tell news agencies that Israel has started attacking sites in Iran as blasts reported in Tehran.

Explosions have been reported northeast of Iran’s capital Tehran, according to the state-run news agency Nour News.

The Israeli Air Force has reportedly conducted a strike in Iran, the Axios news agency reports, citing two unnamed sources with knowledge of the operation.

Two unnamed US officials have also told the Reuters news agency that Israel has carried out an attack in Iran. The officials said Washington did not assist in the attack and declined to provide further details.

The Israeli military is yet to publicly confirm the attack. But in a post on X, the military announced that Israel’s civil and public security guidelines had been changed to “essential activity” as of 03:00 local time (00:00 GMT).

“The guidelines include: a ban on educational activities, gatherings, and workplaces, except for essential businesses,” it said.

More to follow shortly …

Israel has been pushing to strike Iran for months, if not years. Signs this week that an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities was potentially imminent have ratcheted up fears of a regional conflict, particularly in light of the US withdrawal of some diplomatic staff and their dependents from Iraq and the wider region.

US President Donald Trump’s comments have added to the sense that a military confrontation is coming, saying on Thursday that a strike “could very well happen”.

And yet, at the same time, Trump said that he would not call the strike imminent, and wanted to avoid a conflict.

Earlier in the week, Israeli media reported that Trump had also asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to dial down talk of a strike against Iran, adding to the sense that Trump himself wanted to avoid any conflict with Iran, especially as nuclear talks between Iran and the US are ongoing – with the next round set to take place on Sunday.

Whether an Israeli strike will take place in the short term is thus still unclear.

“One way of looking at this is that it may be part of the larger picture,” Yossi Mekelberg, a senior consulting fellow at Chatham House, said of the role the threat of unilateral action from Israel may play in US negotiations with Iran. “It may be that the US is using their ‘crazy friend’ as a tactic to bring pressure upon Iran … On the other hand, it may be that the crazy friend means business.”

Possibility of a strike

Israel’s opposition to Iran is longstanding.

Through the course of its 20-month-long war on Gaza, Netanyahu has seized on the opportunity to confront a foe he has consistently pitched as his country’s ultimate nemesis.

In addition to boasting that he was responsible for Trump’s decision to withdraw from the nuclear deal limiting Iran’s nuclear programme in 2018, Netanyahu has also ordered air strikes, assassinations and cyberattacks designed to either slow or halt Iran’s nuclear programme.

The Israeli right-wing, led by Netanyahu, has long considered Iran an existential threat and believes that the country seeks a nuclear weapon, despite Iranian denials.

Iran also supports anti-Israeli groups across the region, including the Lebanese group Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis. With many of Iran’s allies, particularly Hezbollah, severely weakened after fighting Israel since 2023, some in Israel view this as the perfect opportunity to also deliver a knockout blow to Iran itself.

Speaking to the New York Times on Wednesday, a senior Iranian official said that military and government officials have already met in anticipation of a potential Israeli strike.

According to the unnamed official, any strike by Israel would be met with the immediate launch of hundreds of ballistic missiles.

“Logically, and I’m stressing ‘logically,’ Israel shouldn’t strike at Iran,” Mekelberg said, “Even with US support, it likely wouldn’t be a good idea.”

“However, in this environment, there are no voices that are going to restrain Netanyahu: not the foreign minister, not the defence minister,” he said.

“The head of the Shin Bet [domestic intelligence service], who would normally counsel Netanyahu, has been forced out, and the attorney general, who might also advise him, [Netanyahu is] trying to get dismissed,” Mekelberg added. “That leaves no one, perhaps other than some voices in the military and Mossad, that could act as a check on Netanyahu.”

In need of a friend

Internationally, both Israel and Netanyahu have become increasingly isolated, throwing their relationship with the US into sharp focus.

In the last few weeks, many Western states have increased their opposition towards Israel’s war on Gaza.

Earlier in the week, five countries – Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom – sanctioned two of Netanyahu’s government ministers, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, leaving Israel more reliant upon US support than ever, observers said.

“I can’t see Israel taking any action without the US,” Mitchell Barak, an Israeli pollster and former political aide to several senior Israeli political figures, including Netanyahu, told Al Jazeera.

“Something is definitely going on, but I can’t see Israel doing anything without the tacit or active support of the US.”

“This could be a negotiating tactic on the part of Trump. He’s entered negotiations, and he wants results. Now, he sees Iran stalling, the IAEA report condemning them, and suddenly, he’s got Netanyahu threatening to strike if they don’t cut a deal,” he said.

Other observers questioned the timing of both reports of Trump restraining Netanyahu’s threat of strikes, as well as the International Atomic Energy Agency report – which determined that Iran was not complying with its commitment to international nuclear safeguards – falling so close to Sunday’s talks.

“Right now, every taxi in Tel Aviv will tell you that Israel’s about to strike at Iran,” Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli ambassador and consul general in New York, told Al Jazeera. “I may be wrong, but I really doubt it.

“Netanyahu’s unlikely to do anything without the US’s greenlight. It’s not the way he or Israel works,” he said.

“I don’t think that’s going to let up,” Pinkas said of negotiations likely to continue beyond Sunday, “I fully expect Trump to again speak of having to restrain Netanyahu. It’s just another means of exerting pressure on Iran.”

However, that is not to rule out a strike from Israel altogether.

“There may be one, but if there is, it’ll come at the US’s request and be of some peripheral target with no real value.”

The FIFA Club World Cup 2025 kicks off in the United States on Saturday, with 32 teams vying for the title in the new-look expanded intercontinental club competition.

Here’s everything you need to know about the tournament:

What is the FIFA Club World Cup?

Until 2023, the FIFA Club World Cup was staged as an annual tournament every December and participation was limited to the winners of the continental club competitions, with the number ranging between six to eight clubs.

Starting in 2025, football’s governing body expanded the tournament to 32 teams and decided to run the revamped competition on a quadrennial cycle instead, similar to its showpiece FIFA World Cup.

A new FIFA Intercontinental Cup replaced the old Club World Cup as an annual competition in December 2024 with Real Madrid winning the inaugural edition held in Qatar.

How does the new Club World Cup work?

Historically, the Club World Cup has featured no more than eight teams, but the 2025 edition is vastly different.

This year’s edition on US soil will be the first in the tournament’s 24-year history to feature 32 clubs – the same number of teams as recent FIFA World Cups – including the winners of the four previous continental championships.

The teams will be divided into eight groups of four competing in a round-robin group stage with the top two clubs from each group advancing to the knockouts, which begin with the round of 16 and end with the final.

When is the FIFA Club World Cup?

The competition will begin on June 14, with the final scheduled for July 13. Here’s a breakdown of the schedule.

• Group stage: June 14 to 26
• Round of 16: June 28 to July 1
• Quarterfinals: July 4 and 5
• Semifinals: July 8 and 9
• Final: July 13

Which teams will participate in the Club World Cup?

“Soccer” fans in the US will have the chance to watch some of the most popular clubs, including last season’s UEFA Champions League winners Real Madrid, Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich, 10-time English champions Manchester City and Italian heavyweights Inter Milan.

Qualified teams were determined by the winners of the continental club competitions, such as the Champions League, and the confederation’s four-year rankings.

Outside of Europe, Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami is also part of the tournament, having controversially earned a spot as a representative of the host nation. Inter Miami won the Supporters’ Shield, handed to the team with the best regular-season record.

Of the 32 clubs, Europe (UEFA) is the best-represented confederation with 12 teams, followed by South America (CONMEBOL) with six. Asia (AFC), Africa (AFC) and North, Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF) have four teams each.

Oceania is represented by one club, while the final slot has been allocated to the host nation’s representative, Inter Miami.

Mexican club Leon had qualified by winning the CONCACAF Champions Cup in 2023, but were removed by FIFA due to an ownership rule breach. FIFA said that Club Leon and another Mexican club in the tournament, Pachuca, did not meet regulations on multi-club ownership. Pachuca’s spot in the competition was unaffected.

After the Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected Leon’s appeal, FIFA confirmed a playoff between Los Angeles FC and Mexican side Club America that was won by LAFC.

Here is a list of the eight groups:

• Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami
• Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle Sounders
• Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica
• Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, LAFC
• Group E: River Plate, Urawa Red Diamonds, Monterrey, Inter Milan
• Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan HD FC, Mamelodi Sundowns
• Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus
• Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, FC Salzburg

Why are Chelsea, Inter Miami in, and Barcelona, Liverpool out of the FIFA Club World Cup?

FIFA rules for the Club World Cup state that only two teams from each country can play in the tournament, and European clubs’ participation was decided by their performances in the Champions League over the last four seasons.

Man City (2023) and Chelsea (2021) won the Champions League during that four-year window, taking up the two spots.

Other popular clubs such as Napoli, AC Milan, Barcelona, RB Leipzig and Sevilla also missed out due to UEFA’s four-year club coefficient rankings and two-team restrictions.

Where are the Club World Cup venues?

The 63 matches will be played across 12 venues in 11 cities. The opening match, Al Ahly vs Inter Miami, will be played at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, which has a spectator capacity of 65,000.

The MetLife Stadium, which serves as the home for the New York Giants and New York Jets of the National Football League (NFL), will host both the semifinals and the final. MetLife is an 82,500-seat venue and was also chosen as the venue of the 2026 FIFA World Cup final.

Pasadena’s Rose Bowl, best known as a college American football venue, is the biggest stadium with a capacity of 88,500. It is no stranger to hosting big events: the Rose Bowl was the site for the football gold medal match at the Los Angeles Games in 1984, as well as the men’s World Cup final a decade later. It will also be a venue for the Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028.

Here’s the full list of venues:

• MetLife Stadium (East Rutherford, New Jersey)
• Hard Rock Stadium (Miami, Florida)
• Mercedes-Benz Stadium (Atlanta, Georgia)
• Lumen Field (Seattle, Washington)
• Bank of America Stadium (Charlotte, North Carolina)
• TQL Stadium (Cincinnati, Ohio)
• Rose Bowl Stadium (Los Angeles, California)
• GEODIS Park (Nashville, Tennessee)
• Camping World Stadium (Orlando, Florida)
• Inter&Co Stadium (Orlando, Florida)
• Lincoln Financial Field (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
• Audi Field (Washington, DC)

Will Messi and Ronaldo play in the FIFA Club World Cup?

Messi will, thanks to Inter Miami’s surprise qualification.

Messi’s club found a place as the club with the most points in Major League Soccer’s (MLS) regular season, instead of LA Galaxy, who won the MLS Cup, which is regarded as the highest prize in the MLS.

FIFA announced Miami’s addition to the Club World Cup in October after they broke MLS’s regular-season points record with a 6-2 win over New England Revolution to reach 74 points. New England had set the previous record in 2021 with 73 points.

Meanwhile, Ronaldo and his Saudi Arabian club Al Nassr did not qualify for the tournament, but it didn’t stop FIFA President Gianni Infantino from suggesting that the Portugal star could switch to one of the teams participating in the tournament.

“Cristiano Ronaldo might play in the Club World Cup,” Infantino told online streamer IShowSpeed in late May. “There are discussions with some clubs, so if any club is watching and is interested in hiring Ronaldo for the Club World Cup, who knows? Still, a few weeks’ time, will be fun.”

However, Ronaldo cleared his position by saying, “You can’t take part in everything.”

“You have to think about the short, medium and long term. It’s a decision practically made on my part not to go to the Club World Cup, but I’ve had quite a few invitations to go.”

How much is the prize money for the Club World Cup?

The total prize pot is $1bn, with the champions earning up to $125m.

About half of the $1bn will be divided between the 32 clubs, with the amount per club based on sporting and commercial criteria. It means that clubs such as Manchester City and Real Madrid will receive a greater percentage than smaller clubs in a model FIFA developed with the European Club Association.

A further $475m will be awarded on a performance-related basis. Hence, the team with the most wins over a potential seven matches will bank more cash, with a maximum pot of $125m available.

How to follow and stream the Club World Cup live

Al Jazeera Sport will run a live photo and text commentary stream for a selection of the biggest group stage and knockout games.

Online provider DAZN will stream the tournament worldwide, with territorial sublicensing to local free-to-air linear broadcast networks a possibility.

Protests take place almost a year after several killed and seized by Kenyan police in finance bill protests.

Protesters took to the streets of Kenya’s capital Nairobi to express their fury over the death of a blogger arrested by police last week, as the country’s police watchdog reported that 20 people had died in custody over the last four months.

Police used tear gas to disperse crowds gathered close to the capital’s parliamentary building on Thursday to protest against the death of Albert Ojwang, a 31-year-old blogger arrested in the western town of Homa Bay last week for criticising the country’s deputy police chief Eliud Lagat.

Police had initially said Ojwang died “after hitting his head against a cell wall”, but pathologist Bernard Midia, part of a team that conducted an autopsy, said the wounds – including a head injury, neck compression and soft tissue damage – pointed to assault as the cause of death.

On Wednesday, President William Ruto admitted Ojwang had died “at the hands of the police”, reversing earlier official accounts of his death, saying in a statement that it was “heartbreaking and unacceptable”.

Kenyan media outlets reported on Thursday that a police constable had been arrested over Ojwang’s death.

Reporting from the protests in Nairobi, Al Jazeera’s Malcolm Webb said that Ojwang, who wrote about political and social issues, had posted online about Lagat’s alleged role in a “bribery scandal”, in which the deputy police chief had already been implicated by a newspaper investigation.

“It’s angered people that he was detained for that, and then days later, dead in a police station,” said Webb, who added that people were calling for Lagat to be held to account, and “persisting in throwing stones at the police in spite of one volley of tear gas after the next being fired at them”.

Finance bill protests: one year on

The case has shone a light on the country’s security services, who have been accused of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances for years.

On Thursday, Independent Policing Oversight Authority chairperson Issak Hassan told lawmakers that there had been “20 deaths in police custody in the last four months”.

The authorities are now conducting an official investigation into Ojwang’s death.

On Wednesday, Inspector General Douglas Kanja apologised for police having previously implied that Ojwang died by suicide, telling a Senate hearing: “He did not hit his head against the wall.”

Ojwang’s death comes almost a year after several activists and protesters were killed and taken by police during finance bill protests – many are still missing.

The rallies led to calls for the removal of Ruto, who was criticised for the crackdown.

Amnesty International said Ojwang’s death in custody on Saturday “must be urgently, thoroughly and independently investigated”.

Video shows Indian Coast Guard crews dropping dry chemical powder and taking other steps to try to douse a blaze that’s been burning for days on a cargo ship carrying hazardous materials. The ship was off the Kerala coast en route to Mumbai when explosions sparked the blaze. Four crew members are missing.

CONCORD, Calif. — On Saturday, on the streets of Washington, Donald Trump will throw himself a costly and ostentatious military parade, a gaudy display of waste and vainglory staged solely to inflate the president’s dirigible-sized ego.

The estimated price tag: As much as $45 million.

That same day, the volunteers and staff of White Pony Express will do what they’ve done for nearly a dozen years, taking perfectly good food that would otherwise be tossed out and using it to feed hungry and needy people living in one of the most comfortable and affluent regions of California.

Since its founding, White Pony has processed and passed along more than 26 million pounds of food — the equivalent of about 22 million meals — thanks to such Bay Area benefactors as Whole Foods, Starbucks and Trader Joe’s. That’s 13,000 tons of food that would have otherwise gone to landfills, rotting and emitting 31,000 tons of CO2 emissions into our overheated atmosphere.

It’s such a righteous thing, you can practically hear the angels sing.

“Our mission is to connect abundance and need,” said Eve Birge, White Pony’s chief executive officer, who said the nonprofit’s guiding principle is the notion “we are one human family and when one of us moves up, we all move up.”

That mission has become more difficult of late as the Trump administration takes a scythe to the nation’s social safety net.

White Pony receives most of its support from corporations, foundations, community organizations and individual donors. But a sizable chunk comes from the federal government; the nonprofit could lose up to a third of its $3-million annual budget due to cuts by the Trump administration.

“We serve 130,000 people each year,” Birge said. “That puts in jeopardy one-third of the people we’re serving, because if I don’t find another way to raise that money, then we’ll have to scale back programs. I’ll have to consider letting go staff.” (White Pony has 17 employees and about 1,200 active volunteers.)

“We’re a seven-day-a-week operation, because people are hungry seven days a week,” Birge said. “We’ve talked about having to pull back to five or six days.”

She had no comment on Trump’s big, braggadocious celebration of self, a Soviet-style display of military hardware — tanks, horses, mules, parachute jumpers, thousands of marching troops — celebrating the Army’s 250th anniversary and, oh yes, the president’s 79th birthday.

Marivel Mendoza wasn’t so reticent.

“All of the programs that are being gutted and we’re using taxpayer dollars to pay for a parade?” she asked after a White Pony delivery truck pulled up with several pallets of fruit, veggies and other groceries.

Mendoza’s organization, which operates from a small office center in Brentwood, serves more than 500 migrant farmworkers and their families in the far eastern reaches of the Bay Area. “We’re going to see people starving at some point,” Mendoza said. “It’s unethical and immoral. I don’t know how [Trump] sleeps at night.”

Certainly not lightheaded, or with his empty belly growling from hunger.

All the food processed at White Pony Express, including these bell peppers, is checked for quality and freshness before distribution.

(Mark Z. Barabak / Los Angeles Times)

Those who work at White Pony speak of it with a spiritual reverence.

Paula Keeler, 74, took a break from her recent shift inspecting produce to discuss the organization’s beneficence. (Every bit of food that comes through the door is checked for quality and freshness before being trucked from White Pony’s Concord warehouse and headquarters to one of more than 100 community nonprofits.)

Keeler retired about a decade ago from a number-crunching job with a Bay Area school district. She’s volunteered at White Pony for the last nine years, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

“It’s become my church, my gym and my therapist,” she said, as pulsing rhythm and blues played from a portable speaker inside the large sorting room. “Tuesdays, I deliver to two senior homes. They’re mostly little women and they can go to bed at night knowing their refrigerator is full tomorrow, and that’s what touches my heart.”

Keeler hadn’t heard about Trump’s parade. “I don’t watch the news because it makes me want to throw up,” she said. Told of the spectacle and its cost, she responded with equanimity.

“It’s kind of like the Serenity Prayer,” Keeler said. “What can you do and what can’t you do? I try to stick with what I can do.”

It’s not much in vogue these days to quote Joe Biden, but the former president used to say something worth recollecting. “Don’t tell me what you value,” he often stated. “Show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.”

Trump’s priorities — I, me, mine — are the same as they’ve ever been. But there’s something particularly stomach-turning about squandering tens of millions of dollars on a vanity parade while slashing funds that could help feed those in need.

Michael Bagby has been volunteering at White Pony for three years, delivering food and training others to drive the nonprofit’s fleet of trucks.

(Mark Z. Barabak / Los Angeles Times)

Michael Bagby, 66, works part time at White Pony. He retired after a career piloting big rigs and started making deliveries and training White Pony drivers about three years ago. His passion is fishing — Bagby dreams of reeling in a deep-sea marlin — but no hobby can nourish his soul as much as helping others.

He was aware of Trump’s pretentious pageant and its heedless price tag.

“Nothing I say is going to make a difference whether the parade goes on or not,” Bagby said, settling into the cab of a 26-foot refrigerated box truck. “But it would be better to show an interest in the true needs of the country rather than a parade.”

His route that day called for stops at a middle school and a church in working-class Antioch, then Mendoza’s nonprofit in neighboring Brentwood.

As Bagby pulled up to the church, the pastor and several volunteers were waiting outside. The modest white stucco building was fringed with dead grass. Traffic from nearby Highway 4 produced an insistent, thrumming soundtrack.

“There are a lot of people in need. A lot,” said Tania Hernandez, 45, who runs the church’s food pantry. Eighty percent of the food it provides comes from White Pony, helping feed around 100 families a week. “If it wasn’t for them,” Hernandez said, “we wouldn’t be able to do it.”

With help, Bagby dropped off several pallets. He raised the tailgate, battened down the latches and headed for the cab. A church member walked up and stuck out his hand. “God bless you,” he said.

Then it was off to the next stop.

Protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids, which began on June 6 in Los Angeles, have spread beyond the California city, across the United States.

This comes days before a military parade scheduled on Saturday in Washington, DC, which marks the US Army’s 250th anniversary. More protests across the US are scheduled on Saturday.

Here is what we know about what is happening and where.

Why are there protests in LA?

On June 6, ICE carried out immigration enforcement raids in LA, in which uniformed ICE agents arrived at various sites in LA in groups of unmarked vehicles, arresting 44 people in a military-style operation.

The operation triggered protests in LA on the same day, and crowds rallied outside a facility where some of the detainees were believed to be held. They were dispersed by police, but protests began again soon after.

US President Donald Trump ordered 2,000 National Guard troops into the city on June 8, a move condemned as an “illegal takeover” by California Governor Gavin Newsom, who then filed a lawsuit to try to prevent their deployment onto the city streets. The next day, Trump doubled the number of active National Guard troops in the city to 4,000.

On Monday, Trump also ordered 700 marines to be deployed from the Twentynine Palms base east of Los Angeles, describing the city as a “trash heap” that was in danger of burning to the ground.

A federal court hearing about whether or not Trump can legally deploy the National Guard and marines to assist with immigration raids in LA is scheduled for Thursday.

Marines arrived in the city on Tuesday. However, as of Wednesday, they had still not completed training, The Hill reported, citing an unnamed US Northern Command official. The marines are now expected to join the National Guard troops on the streets of LA on Friday.

On Tuesday night, LA Mayor Karen Bass announced a curfew in downtown LA, and the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) made several arrests.

A sixth day of protests continued on Wednesday. These were mostly peaceful but featured occasional outbursts of violence.

Where have the protests spread to?

By June 9, protests against the ICE raids and Trump’s deployment of the military had spilled over to several other US cities in solidarity with the LA protesters.

By Wednesday, protests had appeared in 12 other cities across several states. Here is the situation in each city:

California

LA is not the only city in California which is experiencing protests.

San Francisco

Soon after the start of the LA protests, a peaceful protest began in San Francisco with demonstrators gathering outside an ICE building on financial hub Sansome Street in the north of the city.

Local media reported that police arrived in riot gear and made arrests.

On Sunday, June 8, San Francisco police arrested about 60 people, and declared the protest an “unlawful assembly”.

On Monday, the San Francisco police released a statement on X, saying the demonstrations had been “overwhelmingly peaceful” but that “two small groups broke off and committed vandalism and other criminal acts”. It said police had made more arrests, without specifying the number of people arrested. Local media reports suggest the number could be above 150.

Local media reported that ICE agents were also arresting migrants in San Francisco. The city’s mayor, Democrat Daniel Lurie, shared this news on X on Monday, saying: “I have been briefed on the ongoing immigration enforcement actions taking place downtown.”

Lurie added: “I have been and will continue to be clear that these federal immigration enforcement tactics are intended to instil fear, and they make our city less safe.”

He stated the police force would not be involved in making immigration arrests. “Under our city’s longstanding policies, local law enforcement does not participate in federal immigration enforcement. Those are our policies, and they make our city safer.”

On Tuesday, 200 protesters rallied outside the San Francisco Immigration Court. Protests were also reported in the nearby city of Oakland.

Santa Ana

On Monday, protests broke out in Santa Ana in Orange County, a largely Mexican-American city just south of LA.

The protests broke out following reports of ICE raids in the city.

Local media reported that several hundred people were protesting outside the Ronald Reagan Federal Building and court.

The Santa Ana Police Department released a statement on X saying it was aware of the immigration enforcement actions and would not participate in them.

However, the police department posted another statement on X later on Monday saying: “When a peaceful demonstration escalates into rocks, bottles, mortars, and fireworks being used against public service personnel, and property is destroyed, it is no longer a lawful assembly. It is a violation of the law.” Local media reported that several arrests were made.

Police chief Robert Rodriguez said peaceful protesters would be protected but urged residents not to participate in violent protests or vandalism. “Those who participate in unlawful activities will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”

On Tuesday, National Guard troops were deployed to Santa Ana and clashes with protesters were reported.

Washington State

Protests have broken out in Seattle, Washington State’s most populous city.

Seattle

About 50 protesters gathered outside the immigration court in downtown Seattle on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, hundreds of protesters marched downtown from Capitol Hill. According to the Seattle Police Department, this demonstration was mostly peaceful, but some individuals set fire to a dumpster, which prompted police intervention.

Several clashes were also reported between protesters and the police, who arrested eight people for assault and obstruction.

Spokane

Protests also broke out in Spokane, a city towards the eastern side of Washington State.

The police arrested more than 30 protesters and dispersed the crowd using pepper balls, Spokane police chief Kevin Hall told a news conference.

Mayor Lisa Brown imposed a night curfew in the city, which was set to last until 5am (12:00 GMT) on Thursday.

Texas

Protests have broken out in several cities in Texas. Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott wrote on X on Tuesday: “Texas National Guard will be deployed to locations across the state to ensure peace & order. Peaceful protest is legal. Harming a person or property is illegal & will lead to arrest.”

San Antonio

On Tuesday, Abbott deployed the National Guard ahead of protests in San Antonio. The city’s mayor, Democrat Ron Nirenberg, said on Wednesday that he had not been informed in advance about the National Guard deployment and had not requested it.

More than 400 protesters gathered outside the city hall on Wednesday in a largely peaceful protest.

Austin

Hundreds of protesters gathered on Monday between the Texas State Capitol building and a federal building which holds an ICE staff office.

More than a dozen people were arrested, Abbott wrote in an X post. The police used tear gas and pepper spray to disperse protesters. Some protesters threw rocks at officers and graffitied a federal building, according to local media reports.

Protesters also gathered in the Texas cities of Dallas and Houston.

Denver, Colorado

Protesters gathered outside the Colorado State Capitol in Denver on Tuesday. Police said they arrested 18 people when protesters tried to cross Interstate 25, a highway that runs through New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming.

Chicago, Illinois

On Tuesday, thousands of protesters gathered near an immigration centre in Chicago and marched downtown, blocking a plaza.

Some 17 people were arrested, according to the police and some clashes between protesters and police were reported. On the same day, a 66-year-old woman was treated for a fractured arm after she was hit by a car that drove through the protest. No other injuries have been reported.

Omaha, Nebraska

On Tuesday morning, immigration authorities raided a meat production plant in Nebraska’s Omaha city, taking dozens of workers away with them in buses.

Local media reported that about 400 people protested against this raid on Tuesday along the 33rd and L streets.

Boston, Massachusetts

On Monday, hundreds of people gathered outside Boston City Hall, calling for the release of trade union leader David Huerta, who was arrested during the LA protests. Huerta was released on Monday afternoon on a $50,000 bond. However, he remains charged with conspiracy to impede an officer, a felony which could result in a maximum of six years in prison, according to the office of the US Attorney.

New York

Thousands of people protested in Lower Manhattan in New York City on Tuesday. The protesters rallied near an ICE facility and federal courts.

On Tuesday, New York police took 86 people into custody. Some 34 of them were charged, while the rest received a criminal court summons. The police took more people into custody on Wednesday, but did not specify how many.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

On Tuesday afternoon, about 150 people gathered outside the Federal Detention Center and marched between the centre and ICE’s headquarters in the city.

After a group defied police orders to disperse from a major road, 15 people were arrested.

Washington, DC

Demonstrators marched past the Justice Department building in the US capital on Monday. The protesters were calling for the release of union leader David Huerta. There have been no reports of violence or arrests.

Will more protests take place?

Yes. On Saturday, protests opposing Trump’s policies in general are planned in nearly 2,000 locations from parks to cities to small towns.

They will coincide with a military parade in Washington, DC, commemorating the US army’s anniversary, and with Trump’s 79th birthday. No protests are planned in Washington, DC.

At least 26 people were killed in Israeli drone strikes while waiting for basic aid distributed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

Israeli attacks have killed at least 42 people across Gaza since dawn, medical sources told Al Jazeera, as the United Nations General Assembly prepares for a vote urging an unconditional ceasefire in the besieged enclave.

Sources told Al Jazeera that at least 26 of the people killed on Thursday died in Israeli drone attacks while waiting for food and basic supplies being distributed by the controversial United States and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Gaza civil defence official Mohammed el-Mougher told AFP news agency that al-Awda Hospital received at least 10 bodies and about 200 others who were wounded “after Israeli drones dropped multiple bombs on gatherings of civilians near an aid distribution point around the Netzarim checkpoint in central Gaza”.

El-Mougher said that Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital also received six bodies after Israeli attacks on aid queues near Netzarim and in the as-Sudaniya area in northwestern Gaza.

Since the GHF began its operation in Gaza in late May, dozens of Palestinians have been killed while trying to reach the aid distribution points, according to Gaza’s civil defence agency.

The previously unknown GHF has come under intense criticism from the United Nations, which says its distribution model is deeply flawed.

“This model will not address the deepening hunger. The dystopian ‘Hunger Games’ cannot become the new reality,” Philippe Lazzarini, the chief of the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), wrote on X.

“The UN including @UNRWA has the knowledge, expertise & community trust to provide dignified & safe assistance. Just let the humanitarians do their jobs,” he added.

Separately, a medical source at al-Shifa Hospital told Al Jazeera that two Palestinians were killed as a result of Israeli shelling targeting the Bir an-Naaja area west of Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.

Meanwhile, Hamas condemned on Thursday the decision of Israel to cut off communication lines in Gaza, describing it as “a new aggressive step” in the country’s “war of extermination”.

“We call on the international community to assume its responsibility to stop the aggression and ensure the protection of civilians and humanitarian and civilian facilities.”

The disruption of communications has resulted in the UNRWA losing contact with its colleagues in the agency in Gaza, the UN’s main humanitarian provider in Gaza said.

The latest developments come as the UN General Assembly is set to vote on a draft resolution that demands an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in the war in Gaza.

The 193-member General Assembly is likely to adopt the text with overwhelming support, diplomats say, despite Israel lobbying countries this week against taking part in what it called a “politically motivated, counterproductive charade”.

Last week, the United States vetoed a similar effort in the Security Council.

“Food has become an opportunity for killing, I’ve never heard of such a thing”

Former UN aid chief Martin Griffiths slammed Israel’s killing of Palestinians seeking aid. In an interview with Al Jazeera, he said the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation was luring people to their deaths.

An Air India passenger plane bound for London with more than 240 people on board has crashed in India’s northwestern city of Ahmedabad, the airline says.

Firefighters doused the smoking wreckage of the plane, which would have been fully loaded with fuel shortly after takeoff on Thursday, and an adjacent multistorey building.

The airline said the Gatwick Airport-bound flight was carrying 242 passengers and crew. Of those, Air India said, there were 169 Indians, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese and one Canadian.

Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, the director general of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, told The Associated Press news agency that Air India Flight 171 crashed into a residential area called Meghani Nagar five minutes after taking off at 1:38pm (08:08 GMT). He said 244 people were on board the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner and it was not immediately possible to reconcile the discrepancy with Air India’s numbers.

All efforts were being made to ensure medical aid and relief support at the site, Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu posted on X.

The 787 Dreamliner is a wide-body, twin-engine plane. This is the first crash ever of the aircraft, according to the Aviation Safety Network database.

Boeing said it was aware of the reports of the crash and was “working to gather more information”.

The last major passenger plane crash in India was in 2020 when an Air India Express Boeing 737 skidded off a hilltop runway in southern India, killing 21 people.

The deadliest air disaster in India was on November 12, 1996, when a Saudi Arabian Airlines flight collided midair with a Kazakhstan Airlines flight near Charki Dadri in Haryana state, killing all 349 people on board the two planes.