At least six people were killed and 16 others injured after a Russian missile strike on a postal terminal in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine, officials have said.

Russian forces fired two missiles from the Belgorod region, near the Ukrainian border, at “a building belonging to a logistics company located in the Kharkiv region” on Saturday, according to Dmytro Chubenko, the spokesperson for the Kharkiv region prosecutor’s office.

Chubenko added that search and rescue operations were ongoing and that the identities of the victims were still being established.

“Terror and murder will not get Russia anywhere. Terrorists will end up facing justice for everything they have done,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

The United States Ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, called the deadly attack on the postal office in Kharkiv “horrific.”

“Again, overnight horrific images of Russian violence against civilians in Ukraine – a missile attack on a postal office in Kharkiv killed 6 people and seriously injured more. The Kremlin’s disregard for life is for all the world to see. The United States stands with Ukraine to hold Russia accountable,” Brink posted on social media Sunday.

Kharkiv, in northeastern Ukraine, was liberated from Russian occupation by Kyiv’s troops last year, but has been the target of frequent aerial assaults by Moscow.

Russian troops are battling to push westwards towards Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, while also hitting several regions with missile attacks.

Separate Russian airstrikes on the town of Beryslav, in the southern Kherson region, killed an elderly woman on Friday morning, the head of Kherson region military official Oleksandr Prokudin wrote in a post on Telegram.

“The occupiers launched four guided aerial bombs at Beryslav. An 80-year-old woman sustained severe injuries in her own house. The woman died on the spot from her injuries,” he said in a Telegram post. Seven people were injured due to the strikes, he said.

Over the last week, a secret delivery of long-range American ATACMS missiles weapons has aided Ukraine’s long-stalled counteroffensive, while Ukrainian troops appeared to have crossed the Dnipro River into the Russian-occupied Kherson region, according to pro-Kremlin military bloggers.

The mountain chicken frog was once so abundant in Dominica, with thousands found across the island, that it became a national delicacy, supposedly tasting of chicken. Now, a new survey has found only 21 left in the Caribbean island nation.

The species’ population has declined over 99% since 2002 when Chytridiomycosis struck, according to the Zoological Society of London, or ZSL. Chytridiomycosis is a fungal infectious disease that affects more than 500 frog species across the world.

The species once lived across seven Caribbean islands, but researchers believe that Dominica is the last place on Earth where the frogs can be found in the wild today, according to a news release from the ZSL.

The survey was conducted over 26 nights by a research team with the Mountain Chicken Recovery Programme, a project made up of 10 European and Caribbean conservation institutes with a goal to see healthy populations of the frog back in Dominica and Montserrat by 2034.

The research team spent hundreds of hours searching for the chicken frog during the months of July and August. The survey found 23 frogs, but two of those were dead on the road, said Andrés Valenzuela Sánchez, a research fellow in wildlife health with ZSL who was involved with the survey.

The international collaboration on the survey and efforts to save the mountain chicken frogs were inspiring for Sánchez. “But at the end, as we found so few animals, it was kind of sad as well. … The situation of the species in nature is even worse than what we thought before the survey.”

Frog considered critically endangered

Otherwise known as the giant ditch frog, the amphibian is one of the largest frogs in the world, weighing in at over 2 pounds (almost 1 kilogram) with a length of up to 8 inches. At night, the male’s reedy croaks used to reverberate throughout the rainforests and could be heard from more than 200 meters (656 feet) away, Sánchez said.

Now, the rainforests are quieter without the distinctive sound.

“We want to bring this sound back to our island, for our people,” Dominica ecologist Jeanelle Brisbane said in the ZSL news release. “It’s devastating that future generations may never hear this iconic soundscape which defines our island.”

After the spread of the deadly disease in 2002, the frog was classified as critically endangered with the Red List, Sánchez said, but it has faced threats for even longer than that, particularly from hunting — due to humans and other predators such as cats — as well as environmental issues.

“Sadly, we’re finding the frogs closer and closer to busy roads as they search for water, due to our rivers being so dry due to the changing climate in Dominica,” Brisbane said in the release.

Efforts to conserve the frogs

Chytrid disease has caused 90 extinctions of species within the past 50 years, according to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute. Currently, no vaccine exists, but there is hope, said Alyssa Wetterau Kaganer, a postdoctoral associate with the Cornell Wildlife Health Lab who studies the disease. She was not involved with the survey.

“There is innovative research going on all around the world as stellar scientists explore different frog immunity, genetics, microbiome, and environmental treatment options,” Kaganer said via email.

“Moreover, the frogs themselves provide hope for a bright future; even species that have been particularly hard-hit by chytrid like the mountain chicken frog have individual animals that survive long periods of time in landscapes where the fungus is found — these individuals may provide the key to understanding how to best fight the fungus.”

The research team was discouraged to find the devastatingly low number of frogs in Dominica — it had expected to find at least 50, Sánchez said. A captive breeding program across several institutions, including London Zoo, a ZSL conservation zoo, featured an initial 50 frogs that now have offspring, Sánchez said.

During the survey, the team with ZSL took mouth swabs of the resident frogs found in Dominica and plan to study these for any evidence of the remaining frogs developing resistance to the fungus.

How to help the frogs

Some frogs are better equipped against the disease than others, Kaganer said. Certain frog species, such as the American bullfrog, according to the Amphibian Ark organization, have immune defenses that are fully tolerant of the disease, and others live in environments that the fungus has a hard time growing in, Kaganer said.

Often, the chytrid fungus is spread by human activity, Kaganer said, such as transporting infected animals or disposing of animal products or waste into the environment. It can even be spread through the tread in footwear.

“There are many things that people can do to prevent the spread of chytrid and help protect frogs,” Kaganer said in an email. “One great option is by taking care to clean footwear after spending time outdoors; take a minute to scrub all the mud out of your boot treads before you head home. … Just make sure to safely dispose of the waste!”

Financially supporting or volunteering with local conservation institutions and other organizations that prioritize biosecurity — measures that aim to prevent the spread of harmful diseases to animals in the wild — can also be crucial to conserving this frog species and others, Kaganer said.

Hamas fighters and Israeli forces engaged in limited clashes inside Gaza on Sunday as the Israeli military ramped up airstrikes on the Palestinian enclave ahead of what its spokesperson described as the “next stage” of its war on the militant group.

Hamas claimed its fighters had destroyed two Israeli military bulldozers and a tank in an ambush near the Gazan city of Khan Younis, forcing Israeli troops to retreat without their vehicles. The Israel Defense Forces confirmed its forces had been operating inside Gaza during the incident, and said an IDF tank struck militants who had fired onb its troops.

The episode appeared to be one of the first skirmishes between the two sides on the ground inside the strip since war broke out after Hamas’ deadly October 7 attack on Israel which killed more than 1,400 people. The clashes came as the IDF prepares for a potential ground operation in Gaza, amassing huge numbers of troops at the border and pounding the densely populated enclave with near-constant airstrikes in the last two weeks.

Officials at several hospitals in Gaza said they were overwhelmed with casualties on Sunday, with one describing a “bloody day” and another hospital scaling back dialysis treatments amid electricity and fuel shortages. More than 4,600 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel’s retaliation for the Hamas attack began more than two weeks ago, the Gazan health ministry said.

The US government has pressed Israel to delay its ground operations in Gaza to allow for the release of more Hamas hostages and aid into Gaza, according to two sources briefed on the discussions. The Friday release of two Americans held by Hamas signaled the possible freeing of more of the around 200 believed to be kidnapped by the militant group after its deadly attacks two week ago.

Israel has offered no timeline for the possible ground offensive on Gaza, but military officials have repeatedly told troops an incursion is imminent.

“We will increase our strikes, minimize the risk to our troops in the next stages of the war, and we will intensify the strikes, starting from today,” IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said on Saturday. Hagari added that Israeli forces will “continue to destroy terror targets ahead of the next stage of the war, and are focusing on our readiness to the next stage.”

An IDF soldier died and three were others were injured during preparations for the Gaza ground operation, an Israeli Defense spokesman said Sunday.

The US and its allies have urged Israel to be strategic and clear about its goals during any ground operation in Gaza, warning against a prolonged occupation and placing a particular emphasis on avoiding civilian casualties.

The leaders of Spain and the Netherlands spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday, reiterating support for Israel but urging restraint.

“I reiterated my condemnation of Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel and its right to defend itself against them, within the limits of international and humanitarian law,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“Israel must do everything possible to prevent civilians from becoming victims of the fight against Hamas,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte posted on X. “Regional escalation must also be avoided at all costs. All this also requires restraint on the part of Israel in the use of force.”

UN independent experts have warned that Israeli actions in Gaza could result in “crimes against humanity.” “The complete siege of Gaza coupled with unfeasible evacuation orders and forcible population transfers, is a violation of international humanitarian and criminal law. It is also unspeakably cruel,” the experts said in a statement Thursday.

Increasing violence

Israel’s military carried out dozens of airstrikes on Hamas targets late Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces said.

A senior Israeli official meanwhile ruled out the possibility of a ceasefire for Gaza, amid ongoing US and Qatari efforts to free hostages held there by Hamas.

“Humanitarian efforts cannot be allowed to impact the mission to dismantle Hamas,” the official also said.

Violence has also flared in the occupied West Bank. The IDF on Sunday launched an airstrike on the Al-Ansar mosque in the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin, which it said was being used by militant groups to plan for “an imminent terror attack.” It would not say whether the strike came from a jet, in what would be the first fighter jet strike in the West Bank in nearly two decades.

Three people were killed in the Israeli strike, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said in a statement on Sunday. Two people were also killed following clashes in the West Bank cities of Toubas and Nablus, it said.

The IDF also said an Israeli tank “accidentally fired and hit an Egyptian post” Sunday near two countries’ border. Egypt said some border guards suffered minor injuries. The IDF apologized for the incident that took place in the area of Kerem Shalom and said it was investigating the matter.

Kerem Shalom is one of Israel’s two border crossings with Gaza. It has been closed since the Israelis imposed a “complete siege” on the enclave. The area also came under attack on October 7 when Hamas militants went on a killing spree against civilians after they bulldozed through the Gaza border.

Since the war erupted, Israel authorities have placed additional restrictions on movement of Palestinians living in the West Bank, and attacks by Israeli forces and settlers have surged.

At least 90 people have been killed in the occupied Palestinian territory since October 7, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Telling hospitals to evacuate

In a statement, the IDF confirmed it had dropped the flyers, but said there was “no intention to consider those who have not evacuated from the affected area of fighting as a member of the terrorist group.”

The IDF “treats civilians as such, and does not target them,” the statement added.

Israeli war planes have been pounding Gaza, leveling entire neighborhoods, including schools and mosques. Israel says it strikes Hamas targets and that the group has used civilians as human shields.

As of Sunday, Israeli airstrikes have killed 4,651 people in Gaza, including more than 1,900 children and 1,023 women, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza. More than 14,245 people have been wounded, it added.

In northern Gaza, more than 1 million residents have been told by Israel to leave their homes and move to the south.

Israel has also ordered the evacuation of more than 20 hospitals in northern Gaza where thousands of patients are being treated, according to the United Nations and the Palestinian Red Crescent, which say the order could be tantamount to a death sentence.

The IDF has said it does not target hospitals, though the UN and Doctors Without Borders say Israeli airstrikes have hit medical facilities, including hospitals and ambulances.

“It’s impossible for any hospital in the world to admit this number of injured,” he said.

“There is no room or hospital beds for these injuries, the injured are at the doors of the operating theaters and on top of each other, each waiting their turn for an operation and the situation is catastrophic,” he said.

Insufficient aid

However, the trucks did not bring in fuel, which is vital for running hospitals and treating water in the isolated territory, according to UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma.

The delivery follows an initial convoy of 20 trucks carrying food, water, medicine and medical supplies on Saturday.

But aid workers and international leaders have warned that much more is needed to combat the “catastrophic” humanitarian situation in the enclave that is home to more than 2 million people.

WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has stressed that “the needs are far higher” than the aid people in Gaza have received.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza said the initial aid convoy constituted “only 3% of the daily health and humanitarian needs that used to enter the Gaza Strip before the aggression.”

One UN official warned on Sunday that the UN’s fuel supply in Gaza will run out in three days. “Without fuel, there will be no water, no functioning hospitals and bakeries,” Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), said. “Without fuel, aid will not reach many civilians in desperate need.”

Citing an acute shortage of food, water, power, and medical supplies that is pushing civilian lives in Gaza “to the edge of catastrophe,” the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said it urgently requires $74 million to sustain its emergency response in Gaza for the next 90 days.

Wider conflict

As it prepares for the next stage of war, the Israeli military has warned other regional actors against getting involved in the conflict.

Conricus, the IDF spokesperson, said Sunday the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah is “playing a very dangerous game” that could drag Lebanon “into a war that it will gain nothing from.”

Conricus said Hezbollah has been attacking Israeli positions near the Lebanon border, which had led to both civilian and military casualties.

In response, the IDF has used tanks, drones, artillery, and infantry to strike various Hezbollah infrastructure, as well as Hezbollah squads manning anti-tank missiles, he added. 

On Sunday, Israel’s Ministry of Defense and the IDF announced the expansion of a state-funded evacuation plan to 14 additional communities in northern areas near the border with Lebanon.

The evacuation, which is voluntary, was initially rolled out on Monday for 28 communities. Around 123,000 civilians had been evacuated from their homes in northern and southern Israel as of Friday.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated

Polls have closed in Argentina’s presidential elections, with the leading candidates highlighting sharp contrasts between the country’s political center and its margins amid a severe economic crisis.

Leading polls ahead of the vote on Sunday were far-right libertarian Javier Milei; center-right Patricia Bullrich, a former security minister; and current economy minister Sergio Massa. Each is vying for the nation’s trust at a moment of widespread disillusionment with the country’s elite and its management of the country.

Inflation in Argentina has soared to 138%, Reuters reports, piling pressure on ordinary people trying to manage the cost of living.

“It’s so hard. Each day things costs a little more, it’s like always racing against the clock, searching and searching,” Laura Celiz told the news agency last month, she shopped on the outskirts of capital Buenos Aires. “You buy whatever is cheaper in one place and go to the next place and buy something else.”

After casting his vote in Buenos Aires on Sunday, current president Alberto Fernández celebrated the nation’s democracy on the social media platform X.

“I call on every Argentine to defend it and decide the future of the country at the polls,” he wrote.

Boasting lengthy experience in national politics, she recently has worked to refresh her image to appeal to younger voters, uploading viral challenges to YouTube and making reference in interviews to her relationship with her cousin, singer Fabiana Cantilo.

Massa, who is in the current government, balances a heavy ministerial portolio including inflation control, soybeans (the country’s main export) and Argnetina’s relationship with the International Monetary Fund.

He has been trying to position himself as a more pragmatic voice from the left, compared to the current government coalition, and has worked to distance himself politically from Argentina’s high-profile vice-president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner – without alienating her power base.

Unlike his main rivals, political upstart Milei offers little governmental experience and promises to upend Argentina’s existing economic structures. For his supporters, Milei’s promises of overhaul have been seductive.

Milei, a former financial analyst and self-described “anarcho-capitalist” who wields a chainsaw at rallies, has suggested a raft of radical changes: dollarizing Argentina, slashing public subsidies and eliminating the ministries of culture; education; environment; and women, gender, and diversity.

To win in the first round of voting, a presidential candidate must obtain more than 45% of all votes or a minimum of 40% and at least a 10-point lead over the second-place candidate.

The next president will take office in December to start a 4-year term.

Japan’s government on Friday asked a court to order the dissolution of the Unification Church branch in Japan following the assassination of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe in July 2022.

The government’s move comes after a months-long probe into the church, formally known in Japan as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.

The investigation followed claims by the suspected shooter, Tetsuya Yamagami, that he fatally shot Abe because he believed the leader was associated with the church, which Yamagami blamed for bankrupting his family through the excessive donations of his mother, a member.

Earlier in January, Japanese prosecutors indicted Yamagami on murder and firearm charges.

The government’s investigation concluded that the group’s practices – including fund-raising activities that allegedly pressured followers to make exorbitant donations – violated the 1951 Religious Corporations Act.

That law allows Japanese courts to order the dissolution of a religious group if it has committed an act “clearly found to harm public welfare substantially.”

The Tokyo District Court will now make a judgment based on the evidence submitted by the government, according to Japan’s public broadcaster NHK.

This is the third time the Japanese government has sought a dissolution order for a religious group accused of violating the act.

It also sought to dissolve the Aum Shinrikyo cult, after some of its members carried out a deadly 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system, which left dozens dead and thousands injured, and Myokaku-ji Temple, whose priests defrauded people by charging them for exorcisms. The courts ruled with the government on both orders.

The Unification Church in Japan has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, pledging reform and labeling the news coverage against it as “biased” and “fake.”

On Thursday, it issued a statement, saying it was “very regrettable” that the government was seeking the dissolution order, particularly as it had been “working on reforming the church” since 2009. It added that it would make legal counterarguments against the order in court.

If disbanded, the Unification Church, founded by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon in South Korea in 1954, would lose its status as a religious corporation in Japan and be deprived of tax benefits. However, it could still operate as a corporate entity.

Experts argue that an order to disband the group completely could take years to process and could even risk pushing the entity’s activities underground.

Why this order?

The Unification Church became known worldwide for mass weddings, in which thousands of couples get married simultaneously, with some brides and grooms meeting their betrothed for the first time on their wedding day.

Public scrutiny of the church in Japan increased after Abe was fatally shot during an election campaign speech last July.

Abe’s alleged assailant told police that his family had been ruined because of the huge donations his mother made to a religious group, which he alleged had close ties to the late former prime minister, according to NHK.

A spokesperson for the Unification Church confirmed to reporters in Tokyo that the suspect’s mother was a member, Reuters reported, but said neither Abe nor the suspected killer were members.

Following Abe’s death local media carried a series of reports claiming various other lawmakers of the country’s ruling party had links to the church, prompting Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to order an investigation.

Kishida told reporters Thursday that ruling party lawmakers had cut ties with the religious group, amid concerns that the Unification Church had been trying to wield political influence.

Since last November, Japan’s Ministry of Cultural Affairs has questioned and sought to obtain documents from the Unification Church while also collecting testimonies from around 170 people who say they were pressured into making massive donations known in Japan as “spiritual sales.”

The practice involves asking followers to buy objects like urns and amulets on the grounds that doing so will appease their ancestors and save future generations, according to Yoshihide Sakurai, a religious studies expert at Hokkaido University.

Previous controversies

This is not the first time the Unification Church has been at the center of a controversy.

This, they argued, had the potential to violate the freedom of thought and conscience upheld by Article 20 of Japan’s constitution.

After a 14-year trial, multiple plaintiff testimonies and a 999-page report outlining the “mind control” process of the group, the trial had its moment.

The Sapporo District Court made a landmark ruling in favor of 20 former Unification Church members who had sued the group as part of the case. It ordered the Unification Church to pay roughly 29.5 million yen ($200,000) in damages for recruiting and indoctrinating people “while hiding the church’s true identity” and for “coercing some former members into purchasing expensive items and donating large amounts of money.”

In a separate controversy, between 1987 and 2021, the Unification Church in Japan incurred claims for damages over the sale of amulets and urns that totaled around $1 billion, according to the National Lawyers Network against Spiritual Sales – a group established in 1987 specifically to oppose the Unification Church.

Nobutaka Inoue, an expert on contemporary Japanese religion at Kokugakuin University, is critical of the techniques used by the church to recruit and raise funds. However, he also notes that some of its members felt happy and at peace after making donations to the Unification Church.

What’s next?

Some critics of the Unification Church say the government’s actions don’t go far enough as it could still operate as a non-religious group. One option for the government would be to seek a court order stripping the church of its corporate status, too, but experts say that could take up to two years to process.

Sakurai, the religious studies expert, cautioned that if the Unification Church loses its status as a religious corporation, it would no longer be under the control of Japan’s Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs, making it harder to regulate its activities.

Sakurai pointed to the case of Aum, noting that after the sarin gas attack the Japanese government revoked recognition of the group as a religious organization but continued to regulate it through a new law passed in 1999 that authorized continued police surveillance of its activities.

But making a new law that would allow the government to continue to watch over the Unification Church’s activities – even if one could be passed – would not work as well, Sakurai warned.

“(Aum) only numbers over 1,200 members or so; however, the Unification Church has penetrated many layers of Japan’s society – some members are housewives, some work in factories, others are teachers, so the police cannot watch all the movements or activities of the Unification Church,” Sakurai said.

Time for religious education?

Some experts say Japan needs to do more to educate the public about non-traditional religions, which some see as having a rising influence in society.

Kimiaki Nishida, a social psychologist and chairman of the Japan Society for Cult Prevention and Recovery (JSCPR), pointed out that state and religion were separated in Japan following World War II, and the new constitution forbade teaching religious studies at school.

This made religion essentially a taboo topic, Nishida said, and to this day, religious education is not provided at elementary, junior, or high schools in Japan, unlike in most EU member states.

This, according to Toshiyuki Tachikake, a professor at Osaka University specializing in cult countermeasures since 2009, has left students – particularly at university campuses – vulnerable to being pressured into recruitment.

He and other experts say more should be done to educate young Japanese about religion.

“We need religious education in schools. Giving someone a broad understanding of different religions and their teachings allows them to make an informed decision on whether they want to join a certain group if a recruiter ever approached them,” said Tachikake.

China and the Philippines on Sunday accused each other of causing collisions in a disputed area of the South China Sea, the latest in a string of maritime confrontations between the two countries that have heightened regional tensions.

In a statement, Philippine authorities said a Chinese Coast Guard ship carried out “dangerous blocking maneuvers” that caused it to collide with a Philippine vessel carrying supplies to troops stationed in Ayungin Shoal, also known as Second Thomas Shoal, in the Spratly Islands chain.

China’s move was “provocative, irresponsible and illegal” and “imperiled the safety of the crew” of the Philippine boats, the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea said.

In a second incident Sunday, the Philippine task force said a Chinese maritime militia vessel collided with a Philippine coast guard ship, which was on the same mission to resupply the BRP Sierra Madre. Manila grounded the navy transport ship on Second Thomas Shoal in 1999 and has manned it with Filipino marines to enforce its claims to the area.

In a statement Sunday, the Chinese Coast Guard accused the Philippines of violating international marine law and threatening the navigation safety of Chinese ships.

It accused the first Philippine ship of trespassing into the waters of what it calls the Nansha islands and Renai Reef, prompting the Chinese Coast Guard ship to intercept “in accordance with the law,” and resulting in a “minor collision.”

In the second incident, the Chinese Coast Guard said the Philippine Coast Guard vessel “purposely provoked trouble and reversed course,” causing a collision with a Chinese fishing boat.

Beijing claims “indisputable sovereignty” over almost all of the 1.3 million square miles of the South China Sea, as well as most of the islands and sandbars within it, including many features that are hundreds of miles away from China’s mainland.

In 2016, an international tribunal in The Hague ruled in favor of the Philippines in a landmark maritime dispute, which concluded that China has no legal basis to claim historic rights to the bulk of the South China Sea.

Beijing has ignored the ruling.

No injuries were reported in either collision Sunday, which marks the latest in a series of recent flashpoints between Beijing and Manila in the disputed waterway.

In September, the Philippine Coast Guard released video of a Filipino diver cutting a Chinese-installed floating barrier in a disputed area of the waterway that had prevented Filipino boats from entering.

It came just days after after the Philippine Coast Guard accused China’s maritime militia of turning vast patches of coral near the Palawan island chain into a bleached and broken wasteland.

China’s foreign ministry dismissed those allegations as “false and groundless.”

Israel’s military said it would increase its aerial bombardment of Gaza, and carried out an airstrike on what it said was a militant compound under a mosque in the occupied West Bank, as it signaled it was readying for a new phase of war against Hamas.

As the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) prepares for a potential ground operation, it has amassed huge numbers of troops outside Gaza and pounded the densely populated enclave with near-constant airstrikes since Hamas’ deadly October 7 attack on Israel.

“We will increase our strikes, minimize the risk to our troops in the next stages of the war, and we will intensify the strikes, starting from today,” Daniel Hagari, an IDF spokesman, said Saturday, adding that a ground offensive in Gaza would be launched when the conditions were right.

“We continue to destroy terror targets ahead of the next stage of the war, and are focusing on our readiness to the next stage,” he said.

The IDF on Sunday launched an airstrike on the Al-Ansar mosque in the Jenin refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which it said was being used by militant groups to plan for “an imminent terror attack.” It wound not say whether the strike came from a jet, in what would be the first fighter jet strike in the West Bank in nearly two decades.

Three people were killed in the Israeli strike, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said in a statement on Sunday.

Since the war erupted two weeks ago, violence has flared in the occupied West Bank, where Palestinians have been killed in confrontations with both Israeli forces and settlers.

Two people were killed following clashes in the West Bank cities of Toubas and Nablus, bringing the death toll in the occupied Palestinian territory to at least 90 since October 7, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Sunday.

Ground incursion looms

In a statement, the IDF confirmed it had dropped the flyers, but said there was “no intention to consider those who have not evacuated from the affected area of fighting as a member of the terrorist group.”

The IDF “treats civilians as such, and does not target them,” the statement added.

Israeli war planes have been pounding Gaza, leveling entire neighborhoods, including schools and mosques. Israel says it strikes Hamas targets and that the group has used civilians as human shields.

As of Saturday, Israeli airstrikes have killed more than 4,300 people in Gaza, including hundreds of women and children, according to the Hamas-run government media office in Gaza.

More than 1 million residents in northern Gaza have been told by Israel to leave their homes and move to the south.

Israel has also ordered the evacuation of more than 20 hospitals in northern Gaza where thousands of patients are being treated, according to the United Nations and the Palestinian Red Crescent, which say the order could be tantamount to a death sentence.

The IDF has said it does not target hospitals, though the UN and Doctors Without Borders say Israeli airstrikes have hit medical facilities, including hospitals and ambulances.

Israel has offered no timeline for the possible ground offensive on Gaza, but military officials have repeatedly told troops an incursion is imminent.

The Israeli Military Chief of Staff, Herzl Halevi, told IDF commanders Saturday that the military will initiate an operation to “destroy” Hamas.

“We’ll enter the Gaza Strip. We’ll embark on an operational and professional task to destroy Hamas operatives and infrastructures,” the chief said in comments to the Golani Brigade of the IDF.

The United States and its allies have urged Israel to be strategic and clear about its goals during any ground invasion of Gaza, warning against a prolonged occupation and placing a particular emphasis on avoiding civilian casualties.

Meanwhile, the US military is sending more missile defense systems to the Middle East and placing additional US troops on prepare-to-deploy orders in response to escalations throughout the region in recent days.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Saturday he had “activated the deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery as well as additional Patriot battalions to locations throughout the region to increase force protection for US forces.”

The order for troops to prepare for deployment is meant “to increase their readiness and ability to quickly respond as required,” he said.

Both the THAAD and Patriots systems are air defense systems designed to shoot down short, medium and intermediate ballistic missiles.

‘Catastrophic’ humanitarian situation

Conditions in Gaza have become increasingly dire following two weeks of bombardment and a complete siege by Israel, which was unleashed in response to a rampage by Hamas that killed more than 1,400 people in Israel.

Hamas fighters have also abducted about 210 people into Gaza as hostages, according to an estimate released Saturday by the IDF. Two American hostages, a mother and her 17-year-old daughter, were released Friday.

A humanitarian aid truck entered the border from Egypt to Gaza through the Rafah crossing on Sunday, a day after the first convoy of 20 trucks carrying food, water, medicine and medical supplies was allowed through following intense diplomatic efforts.

Seventeen aid trucks were preparing to enter the strip through the Rafah crossing on Sunday, the Egyptian Red Crescent said.

But aid workers and international leaders have warned that much more is needed to combat the “catastrophic” humanitarian situation in the enclave that is home to more than 2 million people.

WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has stressed that “the needs are far higher” than the aid people in Gaza have received.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza said the initial aid convoy constituted “only 3% of the daily health and humanitarian needs that used to enter the Gaza Strip before the aggression.”

From Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, head of the Palestinian National Initiative Mustafa Barghouti said Gaza needs “7,000 trucks of immediate aid,” adding, “20 trucks will not really change much.”

None of those 20 trucks brought fuel to the enclave, raising concerns as it is needed to run hospitals and to desalinate or treat water, according to aid agencies.

Citing an acute shortage of food, water, power, and medical supplies that is pushing civilian lives in Gaza “to the edge of catastrophe,” the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said it urgently requires $74 million to sustain its emergency response in Gaza for the next 90 days.

The appeal came in a Palestinian Territories situation report Saturday that said the coastal enclave’s stores have food reserves of less than a week and that the ability to replenish these stocks is “compromised by damaged roads, safety concerns, and fuel shortages.”

Three WFP trucks were part of the convoy of that moved through the Rafah crossing into Gaza on Saturday. Another 40 WFP trucks are waiting at Al-Arish, Egypt, to enter Gaza, the report said.

Wider conflict

As it prepares for the next stage of war, the Israeli military has warned other regional actors against getting involved in the conflict.

Conricus, the IDF spokesperson, said Sunday the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah is “playing a very dangerous game” that could drag Lebanon “into a war that it will gain nothing from.”

Conricus said Hezbollah has been attacking Israeli positions near the Lebanon border, which had led to both civilian and military casualties.

In response, the IDF has used tanks, drones, artillery, and infantry to strike various Hezbollah infrastructure, as well as Hezbollah squads manning anti-tank missiles, he added. 

On Sunday, Israel’s Ministry of Defense and the IDF announced the expansion of a state-funded evacuation plan to 14 additional communities in northern areas near the border with Lebanon. The evacuation, which is voluntary, was initially rolled out on Monday for 28 communities. Around 123,000 civilians had been evacuated from their homes in northern and southern Israel as of Friday.

Meanwhile, Syrian state news agency, citing an unnamed military source, reported that Israel had targeted airports in the capital Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo at around 5:25 a.m. on Sunday morning, damaging runways and putting both out of service. The agency reported that one worker at Damascus airport was killed and another injured, and all air traffic was being diverted to the city of Latakia.

Too often seaweed is portrayed as a slimy, smelly nuisance that disrupts beach trips and ocean swims. In fact, seaweed, officially a type of marine algae, is an untapped resource that could transform the planet and our health.

Seaweed grows fast and is nutrient-rich, can be made into an alternative to plastic and some textiles, and is a potential store of carbon that can absorb pollutants, according to “The Seaweed Revolution,” a new book by Vincent Doumeizel, a senior adviser at the United Nations Global Compact on Oceans.

As well as offering hope for the future, seaweed indelibly shaped our past, as a fascinating finding released this week has revealed.

Dig this

The bacterial gunk and food debris that builds up on teeth over time can be an invaluable source of information for archaeologists.

This fossilized dental plaque — which can survive for millennia, particularly when it’s from eras before modern dentistry — holds a trove of tantalizing information about diet and disease.

A new study of biological markers contained in fossilized plaque found that, before they largely disappeared from Western diets, different types of seaweed were once a staple food for Europeans for thousands of years — even in some prehistoric landlocked communities.

Other worlds

Space scientists have made an unexpected discovery in the atmosphere of a blazing-hot planet called WASP-17b, located 1,300 light-years from Earth.

Using the James Webb Space Telescope, an international team of scientists detected tiny quartz crystals containing pure silica, a mineral that’s common on Earth. The silicates that have been previously detected in exoplanet atmospheres are magnesium-based, not quartz, so this finding was unexpected.

The revelation could help scientists get a broader sense of WASP-17b’s composition and what the environment may be like on this captivating planet outside of our solar system.

Trailblazers

A University of Nebraska computer science student has won an unusual scientific contest.

With the help of artificial intelligence and computer tomography, Luke Farritor was the first to decode a word written in ancient Greek on a scroll burnt to a crisp during the eruption of Vesuvius almost 2,000 years ago.

The document was one of some 1,100 carbonized scrolls that were recovered from volcanic mud in the 1700s. The collection, known as the Herculaneum scrolls, is perhaps the largest known library from classical antiquity, but the documents’ contents have remained a mystery.

Being able to read just one word was a “quantum leap forward,” said papyrologist Michael McOsker of the University College London, who wasn’t involved with the feat. Farritor was awarded $40,000, and another researcher who made the same discovery independently earned $10,000.

Researchers are hopeful that it won’t be long until entire scrolls can be deciphered using the technique.

We are family

The finding that Neanderthals shaped our DNA in prehistoric sexual encounters with modern human ancestors was on its own a startling discovery, revealed by Nobel Prize winner Svante Pääbo more than a decade ago.

However, so much is still unknown about this intriguing genetic legacy, including why Neanderthal DNA is slightly more abundant today in the genomes of East Asian populations than European ones.

This discrepancy is perplexing because Neanderthal skeletal remains are found extensively across Europe and the Middle East but not farther east of the Altai Mountains in Central Asia.

Now, a critical mass of invaluable data has allowed scientists to come up with an explanation for this puzzling inconsistency, and it comes down to a shift in how early hominins obtained their food.

Once upon a planet

Caffeine crystals in a kaleidoscope of color. A tarantula’s venomous fangs. Pink and green wing scales of a Chinese moon moth.

These are some of the striking images commended in an international photography contest that capture the stunning beauty of life under a microscope.

Now in its 49th year, the Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition celebrates artistic prowess as well as technical perfection.

The winning shot of a rodent’s optic nerve head at 20 times magnification was taken by Hassanain Qambari, assisted by Jayden Dickson, at the Lions Eye Institute in Australia. Qambari studies an eye disease called diabetic retinopathy, which is a top cause of vision loss worldwide.

The wonder

Prepare to be awed by these fascinating stories.

— Billions of snow crabs have gone missing from the ocean around Alaska in recent years. Scientists now know what happened.

— The “Mona Lisa” is perhaps the world’s most famous work of art, but we’re still learning about the techniques Leonardo da Vinci employed to create it.

— Astronomers detected a mysteriously distant and powerful blast of radio waves that has taken 8 billion years to reach Earth.

And be on the lookout this weekend for the Orionid meteor shower, which is predicted to peak on Sunday.

Tal and Zak have no idea how long they’ll be deployed in what the Israelis call “the Gaza envelope,” the area in southern Israel that was attacked by Hamas terrorists two weeks ago.

Their unit is part of a massive buildup of Israeli troops and military material on the Gaza border. On top of its regular force, the IDF has also called up 300,000 reservists who reported to their bases within hours. Across Israel, highways in the vicinity of major bases are lined with thousands and thousands of cars, abandoned by reservists rushing to take up arms.

A ground incursion by Israel into Gaza now seems inevitable. On Thursday, the Israeli Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, told troops gathered near the border that they would “soon see” the enclave “from the inside” and said Gaza will “never be the same.”

But what that operation might look like remains unknown. The IDF could launch a full-scale invasion, or conduct more precise incursions aimed at recovering the hostages and targeting Hamas operatives.

What will happen after that is an even bigger question. While the Israeli leadership speaks about the need to get rid of Hamas, the plan for the future of Gaza and its more than 2 million people people remains unknown.

“There is a consensus that any other option than to totally eliminate Hamas would be terrible, not just for Israel, but for the entire area, and then even globally,” said Harel Chorev, senior researcher at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at the Tel Aviv University.

But Hasan Alhasan, a research fellow for Middle East Policy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said the plan to annihilate Hamas could be dangerous and complicated – and may have unforeseen consequences.

Humanitarian disaster

The IDF has told all civilians in north Gaza to evacuate to the south as it continues pounding the enclave with airstrikes. That order has created a humanitarian disaster of epic proportions.

The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Saturday that about 1.4 million people had been displaced in Gaza – more than 60% of the entire strip’s population. Gaza has been under blockade by Israel and Egypt for years, but after the Hamas attack, Israel also cut off its electricity, food, water and fuel supplies.

Israel said it restored water supply on October 15, but without electricity to run pumping station, water authorities in Gaza say they cannot even tell if water has been restored, let alone pump it.

“The concern, within Egypt especially, is that Israel’s strategy of making the humanitarian situation very difficult in Gaza is ultimately meant to force a mass expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza into the Egyptian Sinai,” Alhasan said, adding that Egypt has the backing of all of the Arab states in that it would not allow this.

“The Jordanians are also concerned that if we see a mass expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, that this would create a precedent and that Israel’s right wing government would attempt to solve the Palestinian issue once and for all by expelling them en masse from Gaza into Egypt and from the West Bank into Jordan,” he added.

‘The most just war’

The huge military buildup around the Gaza Strip border is clearly visible – as is the high morale among the troops. Just down the road from the camp where Tal and Zak are staying, volunteers from across Israel have set up a makeshift pit stop for the soldiers passing by, serving food and handing out soft drinks, religious items, cigarettes and – most importantly, according to some of the soldiers – good coffee.

Rabbi Yitzhak, a military rabbi, has been traveling around the Gaza border, visiting troops and offering his encouragement.

“I am here to make the soldiers stronger, so they can focus on their job… as time goes by, they can get tired, I want to make sure they know we love them and appreciate them. They are nervous, but they are strong,” he said, adding that his main purpose is to boost the soldiers’ morale so that they can “finish the job.”

Not that he needs to do much. The brutality of the terror attack by Hamas has shaken Israel to its core and the large number of its victims has made it personal to most.

One young reservist, who was called back just a year after finishing his compulsory military service, said the war Israel was waging on Hamas was “the most just war one can imagine.”

“There is nothing more just than this – they murdered innocent civilians. That’s why we are here,” he said, asking for his name to remain private as he is not officially allowed to speak to media.

He and the other young men he served with have been reunited near the Gaza border, training for what’s to come next – whatever that may be. “We are ready, but we hope it will end soon,” he added.

Tight grip

What is clear is that for people in Gaza, it will not end soon. What happens to them after the operation ends is anyone’s guess. Most Israeli politicians have remained vague on their plans for the enclave, hinting it could look more like the West Bank in the future.

Hamas, an Islamist organization with a military wing, has been in control of Gaza since it won a landslide victory in the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections – the last vote to be held in Gaza – and then violently expelled Fatah, the faction that makes up the backbone of the Palestinian Authority, in 2007.

Unlike some other Palestinian factions, Hamas refuses to engage with Israel. It is also in a political war with the Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank and engages in security coordination and talks with Israel.

Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel, but it also runs religious and social welfare programs in Gaza, which is partially how it maintains a tight grip on the population.

So if Israel succeeds in removing Hamas, it will need to replace the group with an alternative government.

Avi Dichter, a former head of the Israeli Security agency, or Shin Bet, and the current minister of agriculture, said that what Israel wants to achieve in Gaza is the same level of security control it currently has in the West Bank, where it maintains complete access on its own terms.

“It will be a post-Second World War like situation in the Gaza Strip in terms of destruction, so it will need to be taken care of,” he said. He said he believed there would be international cooperation on the rebuilding of Gaza, because international aid worth tens of millions of dollars has been flowing into the enclave for years – but much of it has been misused by Hamas, he said.

“You have to understand how much damage is inflicted on all of the Palestinians by Hamas. I was talking to a Palestinian Authority official and their message is clear: ‘destroy them, destroy them, this time, Israel must destroy Hamas, otherwise we’re done,’” he said. “Of course, publicly, they condemn Israel,” he added.

The Palestinian Authority is controlled by Fatah, Hamas’ political rival.

However, Alhasan said securing international help could be difficult if Israel proceeds with its plan to invade Gaza.

“I think it would be very difficult to secure cooperation from the Arab states on the post-Israeli incursion-scenario, because they weren’t on board with it from the get go … I think it will hinge on whether Israel goes for a total annexation of Gaza, or whether it opts for for something else,” he said.

He said the biggest risk is that Israel’s heavy-handed approach – which could lead to a high number of civilian casualties – will only lead to Hamas being replaced by another extremist group.

“This is what militant groups do. They provoke an overreaction, and that overreaction helps further radicalization, and essentially allows them to continue recruiting people to continue to receive support because the further down we go the path of violence, the more it seems that the only answer is violence,” he said.

The IDF campaign has so far left more than 4,000 people in Gaza dead.

“I think this is why the mass expulsion scenario becomes suddenly not inconceivable in Israel, if the objective is to eliminate Hamas, but also to prevent Hamas from regenerating or some other potentially even more radical group from emerging,” Alhasan added.

But Chorev said an international effort to rebuild Gaza economically could break this cycle of violence. “If all that international money that was invested into the (Hamas) projects could go to education, to welfare, to industry… you know, there are great people there (in Gaza) and the prospects would be better,” he said.

As they help their unit fire more missiles towards Gaza, with the goal of taking out Hamas targets one by one, Tal and Zak are not thinking about the future, not beyond the next day or so.

“We try hard not to have off times. Because if you don’t do anything, your mind goes to places you don’t want to be. All of the friends we’ve lost, the family, many of us lost their close relatives and friends, some even their boyfriends and girlfriends,” he said.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have descended on the south of the Gaza Strip as a potential Israeli ground operation looms.

But where they will go from there is anyone’s guess. The coastal enclave is blockaded by land, air and sea by Israel, which has declared war on its Hamas rulers for a brazen attack on October 7 that killed 1,400 people. Israel has also shut off the supply of water, electricity, food and fuel, leaving the impoverished territory’s 2 million residents helpless.

A border crossing with Egypt in the south has been touted as the last hope for Gazans to escape as Israel’s bombs rain down, and many Palestinians have begun moving in its direction in anticipation.

That crossing at Rafah however is shut. Here’s what we know about it.

What is the situation at Rafah now?

The crossing is presently closed. It was briefly opened on Saturday morning to allow the first convoy of 20 trucks, laden with vital supplies, to cross into Gaza.

According to Egyptian authorities at the Rafah crossing, 13 trucks were carrying medicine and medical supplies, five were carrying food and two trucks had water.

While many international organizations welcomed the short reopening, aid workers said the supplies are a fraction of what’s required for the 2.2 million people crammed into Gaza under a blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt.

The World Food Programme (WFP) described the situation in Gaza as “catastrophic” due to the lack of food, water, electricity and fuel, and called for more aid to be allowed into the territory.

She added: “This cannot be the last convoy… there are too many lives at stake.”

The United States has been pressuring Egypt to establish a humanitarian corridor for civilians in Gaza, as well as for foreigners. Egypt has said it won’t allow refugees to flood its territory and has instead insisted that Israel allow it to deliver aid to Gazans.

Opening of the border is a complicated matter given the number of parties involved. It requires the approval of Egypt and Hamas, which directly control the crossing, as well as an okay from Israel, which has been bombing Gaza, including Rafah’s vicinity. Egypt has demanded assurances that Israel won’t bomb aid convoys.

There are around 200 trucks at the border waiting to get into Gaza and negotiations are ongoing between Israel and the US for an agreement that could allow more aid to get in.

The 20 trucks which crossed from Egypt through the Rafah border to deliver aid to Gaza on Saturday were carrying food, water and medical supplies, but no fuel.

Head of communications for the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing, Wael Abu Mohsen, told Saudi state media Al Hadath TV in an interview Saturday that fuel was not delivered, “despite fuel supplies running dangerously low at hospitals and schools in Gaza.”

Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari also told reporters on Saturday that no fuel entered Gaza in the aid convoy.

Why is the crossing so important right now?

Located in Egypt’s north Sinai, the Rafah crossing is the sole border crossing between Gaza and Egypt. It falls along an 8-mile (12.8-kilometer) fence that separates Gaza from the Sinai desert.

Gaza has changed hands several times over the past 70 years. It fell under Egyptian control in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, and was captured by Israel in the 1967 war, after which Israel began settling Jews there and significantly curtailed the movement of its Palestinian residents. In 2005, Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from the territory, and two years later the strip was seized by Hamas.

Since then, Egypt and Israel have imposed tight controls on their respective borders with the territory and Israel blockades it further by restricting travel by sea or air. Israel has also enclosed the territory with a heavily fortified border fence.

Before the war that started this month, Israel had two crossings with Gaza: Erez, which is for the movement of people, and Kerem Shalom, for goods. Both were heavily restricted and have been shut since the war began.

That has left the Rafah crossing with Egypt as the territory’s only entrypoint to the outside world.

According to United Nations figures, an average of 27,000 people crossed the border each month as of July this year. The border was open for 138 days and closed for 74 this year until that month.

Closures often depend on the security and political situation on the ground. While Israel has no direct control over the crossing, Egypt’s closures often coincide with Israel’s own tightening of restrictions on Gaza.

How has Rafah crossing access changed over time?

Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty in 1982, which saw the Jewish state withdraw from the Sinai Peninsula that it had captured from Egypt in 1967.

Israel then opened the Rafah crossing, which it controlled until it withdrew from Gaza in 2005. Between then and Hamas’ takeover of Gaza in 2007, the crossing was controlled by the European Union, which worked closely with Egyptian officials.

Between 2005 and 2007, some 450,000 passengers used the crossing with an average of about 1,500 people per day.

Following Hamas’ takeover, Egypt and Israel significantly tightened restrictions on the movement of goods and people in and out of the territory. But in 2008, militants blew up fortifications on the border with Egypt near Rafah, prompting at least 50,000 Gazans to flood into Egypt to buy food, fuel and other supplies.

Shortly after the breach, Egypt sealed its barrier with barbed wire and metal barricades.

The Rafah crossing has since been tightly controlled, with limited access and lengthy bureaucratic and security processes required of Palestinians wishing to cross into Egypt.

What is it usually like to cross the Rafah border?

Movement through Rafah on normal days is extremely limited; only Gazans with permits as well as foreign nationals can use it to travel between Gaza and Egypt.

Gazans wishing to cross the border often have long waits. Jason Shawa, a Palestinian American from Seattle who lives in Gaza, says the process has taken him a minimum of 30 days but wait times could last up to three months.

Travelers require an exit permit from Hamas and an entry permit from Egypt, he said. The process requires him to submit his documents to a Hamas government office for a permit to exit the territory. A few days later, he would receive a text message telling him which day he can leave, which could be up to three months later.

On the day of departure, a bus would take travelers from the Palestinian side of the border to the Egyptian one, where they would wait hours for Egyptian authorities to receive and process visa applications. Many travelers are turned away there, Shawa said, adding that Palestinians are regularly mistreated there.

Why is Egypt reluctant to open the crossing for Gazans?

Egypt, which already hosts millions of migrants, is uneasy about the prospect of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees crossing into its territory. More than 2 million Palestinians live in Gaza.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi last week said his country is trying to help – within limits.

“Of course, we sympathize. But be careful, while we sympathize, we must always be using our minds in order to reach peace and safety in a manner that doesn’t cost us much,” he said.

Many have also fumed at the idea of turning the Gazan population into refugees once again by displacing them from Gaza. Most Gazans are registered by the UN as refugees, whose ancestors came from areas that are now part of Israel.

“I think that is a plan of the usual suspects to try and create de facto issues on the ground. No refugees in Jordan. No refugees in Egypt,” Jordan’s King Abdullah said on Tuesday.

Egypt has called on Israel to allow humanitarian aid to enter via Rafah, but is yet to give in to US calls to establish a safe corridor for civilians inside Egyptian territory.