Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza
Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar has been killed by Israeli troops in Gaza, the military has confirmed.
The Israeli army said Mr Sinwar was killed on Wednesday in an operation in southern Gaza "after a year-long pursuit". Israeli soldiers and intelligence officers were operating in the south "following intelligence that indicated the suspected locations of senior members of Hamas".
Mr Sinwar, Israel's most-wanted target, was killed alongside two others by soldiers from the 828th Brigade. "After completing the process of identifying the body, it can be confirmed that Yahya Sinwar was eliminated," it added.
It did not specify where he was killed in southern Gaza. There was no immediate comment from Hamas.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Mr Sinwar's killing "is the beginning of the day after Hamas" but the war in Gaza, where more than 42,400 Palestinians have been killed, will not end.
"I stand before you today to inform you that Yahya Sinwar has been eliminated,” he said in a statement. "Today evil has suffered a heavy blow, but the task before us is not yet complete ... the war is not over yet."
Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Foreign Minister Israel Katz also issued statements praising the army for the killing, which they said paved the way for a hostage deal in Gaza.
Mr Netanyahu also referred to the 101 hostages still held in Gaza, saying their return is his "highest commitment."
Mr Sinwar took over the leadership of Hamas after his predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in a suspected Israeli attack on an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps guesthouse in Tehran on July 31. He had previously led Hamas's operations in Gaza, and is suspected of having masterminded the October 7 attacks last year, when militants killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel and abducted about 250.
Israel responded to the attacks by launching an air and ground assault in Gaza, which has displaced millions of people, resulted in famine and disease, and destroyed most of the enclave's infrastructure.
US President Joe Biden welcomed the news, calling it a "good day for Israel, the United States, and for the world." He said the killing of the Hamas leader provided the opportunity for a "day after" in Gaza without the militant group in power.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the UK will not mourn Mr Sinwar's passing.
“As the leader of the terrorist group Hamas, Yahya Sinwar was the mastermind behind the deadliest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust, as 1,200 people were slaughtered in Israel. Today my thoughts are with the families of those victims," Mr Starmer said.
He also called for the release of all hostages, an immediate ceasefire and an increase in humanitarian aid "so we can move towards a long-term, sustainable peace in the Middle East.”
Mr Sinwar had not been seen in public since before the war began and was believed to be hiding in Hamas's vast tunnel network beneath Gaza.
Israeli troops were not targeting him and did not know he might be in the building, local media reported, saying soldiers saw several militants enter a building on Wednesday before ordering an air strike. They then reportedly realised one of the dead resembled the Hamas leader while inspecting the scene.
A DNA sample has been sent to Israel for urgent testing, Channel 12 quoted security sources as saying, but the body, which was reportedly wearing a grenade-filled vest, has not been removed due to "booby traps" in the area.
A test result is expected within hours, it added, as Israeli authorities hold Mr Sinwar's DNA and fingerprints from his 23 years in the country's prisons.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant also appeared to respond to rumours of Mr Sinwar's death. In a post on social media, Mr Gallant posted photographs of assassinated Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif with red crosses over their faces, with a third cross covering a black rectangle in the centre.
“Our enemies cannot hide. We will pursue and eliminate them,” Mr Gallant wrote.
The relatives of hostages still held in Gaza commended Israeli security forces for the rumoured killing and urged Israeli leaders to use it as leverage for a ceasefire deal which would see their loved ones released.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum described Mr Sinwar as "one of the major obstacles to a deal" and is "responsible for the murder of thousands and the abduction of hundreds”.
The forum expressed "grave concern" for the 101 hostages still held in the enclave, 33 of whom have been confirmed killed. "This military success be leveraged into an immediate deal for their return," it said.
Israeli media has long claimed Mr Sinwar may be hiding in the tunnels with hostages, while the army confirmed that none were present at the scene of the strike.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also spoken to hostage families to confirm none of them were harmed, local media reported.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid also called for Mr Netanyahu to use the Hamas leader's death to secure the release of the hostages. "Israel should take advantage of the opportunity for a decisive move regarding the hostages," Mr Lapid said on X.
"Strive for a comprehensive deal and also offer monetary rewards and safe passage to anyone who brings hostages to our forces."
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
The Bio
Favourite vegetable: “I really like the taste of the beetroot, the potatoes and the eggplant we are producing.”
Holiday destination: “I like Paris very much, it’s a city very close to my heart.”
Book: “Das Kapital, by Karl Marx. I am not a communist, but there are a lot of lessons for the capitalist system, if you let it get out of control, and humanity.”
Musician: “I like very much Fairuz, the Lebanese singer, and the other is Umm Kulthum. Fairuz is for listening to in the morning, Umm Kulthum for the night.”
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
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ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The candidates
Dr Ayham Ammora, scientist and business executive
Ali Azeem, business leader
Tony Booth, professor of education
Lord Browne, former BP chief executive
Dr Mohamed El-Erian, economist
Professor Wyn Evans, astrophysicist
Dr Mark Mann, scientist
Gina MIller, anti-Brexit campaigner
Lord Smith, former Cabinet minister
Sandi Toksvig, broadcaster
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Unresolved crisis
Russia and Ukraine have been locked in a bitter conflict since 2014, when Ukraine’s Kremlin-friendly president was ousted, Moscow annexed Crimea and then backed a separatist insurgency in the east.
Fighting between the Russia-backed rebels and Ukrainian forces has killed more than 14,000 people. In 2015, France and Germany helped broker a peace deal, known as the Minsk agreements, that ended large-scale hostilities but failed to bring a political settlement of the conflict.
The Kremlin has repeatedly accused Kiev of sabotaging the deal, and Ukrainian officials in recent weeks said that implementing it in full would hurt Ukraine.
Dr Amal Khalid Alias revealed a recent case of a woman with daughters, who specifically wanted a boy.
A semen analysis of the father showed abnormal sperm so the couple required IVF.
Out of 21 eggs collected, six were unused leaving 15 suitable for IVF.
A specific procedure was used, called intracytoplasmic sperm injection where a single sperm cell is inserted into the egg.
On day three of the process, 14 embryos were biopsied for gender selection.
The next day, a pre-implantation genetic report revealed four normal male embryos, three female and seven abnormal samples.
Day five of the treatment saw two male embryos transferred to the patient.
The woman recorded a positive pregnancy test two weeks later.
COMPANY PROFILE
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Janet Yellen's Firsts
- In 2014, she became the first woman to lead the US Federal Reserve
- In 1999, she became the first female chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers
Electoral College Victory
Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate.
Popular Vote Tally
The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
Wicked
Director: Jon M Chu
Stars: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
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Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
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MATCH INFO
Fixture: Ukraine v Portugal, Monday, 10.45pm (UAE)
TV: BeIN Sports
UAE v Gibraltar
What: International friendly
When: 7pm kick off
Where: Rugby Park, Dubai Sports City
Admission: Free
Online: The match will be broadcast live on Dubai Exiles’ Facebook page
UAE squad: Lucas Waddington (Dubai Exiles), Gio Fourie (Exiles), Craig Nutt (Abu Dhabi Harlequins), Phil Brady (Harlequins), Daniel Perry (Dubai Hurricanes), Esekaia Dranibota (Harlequins), Matt Mills (Exiles), Jaen Botes (Exiles), Kristian Stinson (Exiles), Murray Reason (Abu Dhabi Saracens), Dave Knight (Hurricanes), Ross Samson (Jebel Ali Dragons), DuRandt Gerber (Exiles), Saki Naisau (Dragons), Andrew Powell (Hurricanes), Emosi Vacanau (Harlequins), Niko Volavola (Dragons), Matt Richards (Dragons), Luke Stevenson (Harlequins), Josh Ives (Dubai Sports City Eagles), Sean Stevens (Saracens), Thinus Steyn (Exiles)
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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