Human Rights Watch demands Israeli strikes on Gaza hospitals be investigated as war crimes

Human rights activists have also urged the United States, Britain, and other Western countries to stop providing weapons to Israel, and pressed for the restoration of electricity and water supplies to the enclave.

The Israeli military's repeated and apparently unlawful attacks on medical facilities, personnel, and transportation are further devastating Gaza's healthcare system and should be investigated as war crimes.

Since the hostilities erupted in the Gaza Strip, at least 22 of Gaza's 34 hospitals have ceased operations due to Israeli strikes that have taken the lives of scores of civilians.

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❗️Slovakia will no longer send weapons to Ukraine, but it will offer a wide range of humanitarian and civilian assistance instead, the country's defense ministry said.

The refusal to continue allocating funds for military assistance to Kiev was previously announced by the new government of Prime Minister Fico.

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🚁 The capabilities of Russia’s Ka-52 helicopter were shown at the Dubai Airshow

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🇷🇺🪖 Key points of Russian MoD briefing on progress of special military op in Ukraine:

▪️ In the Zaporozhye region, Russian forces struck Ukrainian manpower and equipment in the Rabotino area. Ukrainian losses amounted to up to 75 troops;

▪️ In the Donetsk area, Russian troops repelled five attacks by mechanized brigades of Ukrainian soldiers. Ukrainian losses amounted to up to 300 servicemen;

▪️In the Kupyansk region, Ukrainian losses amounted to 155 soldiers and two pickup trucks;

▪️In the Krasny Liman area, Russian forces repelled six attacks by assault groups of Ukraine’s special purpose brigade. Ukrainian losses amounted to up to 210 soldiers;

▪️In the Kherson region, Ukrainian losses amounted to 95 servicemen;

▪️Russian air defenses intercepted two HIMARS missiles, a JDAM guided aerial bomb, and destroyed 23 Ukrainian drones.

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NATO and FBI instructors trained demolition dogs to work in Ukraine, an employee of the special services of the Lugansk People's Republic has told Sputnik

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✈️ The Sukhoi Su-57, Russia's 5th-generation twin-engine stealth multirole fighter, is now equipped with a groundbreaking Stage 2 engine, which enhances its combat capabilities, the Rostec State Corporation announced.

"The Su-57 platform is evolving. Its combat capabilities are expanding, incorporating the latest technologies. In other words, its effectiveness continues to grow," the Rostec’s press service said.

Adaptable with both first and second stage engines, the Su-57 remains a force with stealth, internal weapon capacity, supersonic speed, and high maneuverability.

76 Su-57s are scheduled for delivery to the Russian Aerospace Forces by 2027, six are already in service, and 22 more are expected by the end of 2024.

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❗️Israeli forces secured control of central Hamas control centers

The Israeli military has said that as a result of operations in Gaza, it has secured the Hamas legislature and government building, the Hamas police headquarters and an engineering faculty used for weapons production and development.

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🇰🇵 North Korea slams the G7 as a warmongering relic of the Cold War after the bloc demands Pyongyang’s denuclarization.

North Korean Foreign Ministry Department of International Organizations Director-General Jo Chol Su has said that dismantling the G7 would be a “first step toward defusing the present international crisis and restoring global peace,” pointing to the bloc’s destructive role in conflicts and hot spots the world over, from Ukraine and the Middle East to Taiwan, the South China Sea, and the Korean Peninsula.

“All facts go to clearly prove that [the] G7 is a confrontational group of destroyers and violators of peace and stability who stir up and aggravate distrust, conflict, confrontation, and armed clash around the world,” he said.

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Over 4,600 children have now been reportedly killed and over 8,600 injured with more than 1,500 reported missing or presumed to be under the rubble in Gaza, UNICEF Middle East and North Africa Regional Office told Sputnik.

"Over 1.5 million people are displaced, an estimated half of whom are children, many of whom are now living in densely populated shelters with little access to safe water, food and sanitation. Safe water is running out in the Gaza Strip, posing particularly lethal risks for children. People are being forced to use dirty water from wells, seawater and other unsafe sources, drastically increasing risks for diarrheal disease, pausing a great risk especially to children under five."

UNICEF states that it is offering humanitarian assistance through the Rafah border. This assistance includes items such as water, water purification materials, health equipment, medicines, hygiene kits, and humanitarian cash assistance.

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🗣 On Western Media Approach to Coverage of Gaza War

“What I find in these Western analyzes is they always overlook intentionally the reason Palestinians are willing to sacrifice, the reason Palestinians are needing to resist, and they never give that context. And without that context, then resistance or, in this case, Hamas are portrayed as brutes or terrorists who are sacrificing their own people”, Eva Bartlett, an independent journalist told Sputnik.

🎧 Listen to more of Bartlett’s analysis in our podcast Fault Lines

👉 You can watch every episode of the podcast on Rumble

📻 Catch us at 105.5FM, 1390AM (Washington DC) and 104.7FM, 102.9FM, 1140АМ (Kansas City)

❗️The militant wing of Hamas controls the situation on the battlefield in the Gaza Strip, a spokesman for the movement has said.

Earlier, the Israeli Army stated that they had taken control of a number of government buildings in Gaza.

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🇷🇺⚔️🇺🇸 The coming year will prove “decisive” for both Washington and Kiev in the proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, Zelensky administration head Andriy Yermak stated.

“A turning point in the war is approaching,” Yermak said at an event hosted by the Hudson Institute, a Washington-based neoconservative think tank. “The next year will be decisive in this regard,” he said.

Assuring that Ukraine’s counteroffensive is still “developing,” and that Kiev knows “how to achieve victory,” Yermak said President Volovymyr Zelensky has “a clear plan,” the priorities of which include “the development of our defense industry, and the deploying of our own arms production. But [that] will be later. Meanwhile, we need weapons right now. Russia still has air superiority. It is still capable of producing missiles, doing evasion of sanctions…And we especially need air defense systems.”

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🇺🇸 Ex-U.S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo will join one of the top Ukrainian digital operators Kyivstar as an independent non-executive director, operator's parent company, VEON Ltd. said in a statement.

“VEON has made the clear choice to serve Ukraine through its wholly owned subsidiary Kyivstar, whose heroes have kept Ukraine and Ukrainians connected through the darkest days of war and who continue to serve Ukraine by maintaining 94% mobile network availability,” said Kaan Terzioglu, VEON Group CEO and Kyivstar Board Chair. “I am delighted to welcome Secretary Pompeo to the Board of this outstanding company, that he joins with strong support from our various US stakeholders. We look forward to the knowledge and experience that Secretary Pompeo will contribute to Kyivstar as an active and independent member of the Kyivstar Board.”

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