A Shia militia in Iraq has claimed responsibility for a drone attack on a site in Israel.The militia, known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, said in an online statement that its fighters launched a drone attack at dawn on Saturday “on a vital site in the occupied territories” as quoted by Xinhua news agency report.

The military claimed the attack was carried out “in solidarity with the people of Gaza,” pledging more targeting of “the enemy’s strongholds”.

The statement did not provide additional details about the targeted site or any resulting casualties.

Since the outbreak of the Gaza conflict on October 7, 2023, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq has launched multiple attacks on Israeli and US bases in the region.

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The Israeli war cabinet approved a pilot plan presented by Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant to replace the rule of Hamas in the Palestinian Gaza Strip, the media reported. According to the plan, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will protect several areas in the northern Gaza Strip and allow the presence of local leadership that should be responsible for running daily life in the Strip.

The IDF will clear the area of Hamas militants and then leave the places and secure them remotely to prevent their return, Xinhua news agency reported.

Then, Israel will allow the arrival of humanitarian aid trucks in coordination with international bodies to transfer the aid to a local body for distribution.

At the same time, the IDF will prevent Hamas from reaching these places.

According to a political source cited by Israel’s state-owned Kan TV news, the plan is coming “too little and too late,” especially considering the possible imminent disintegration of the war cabinet due to the expected withdrawal of Minister Benny Gantz.

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Israeli Wartime Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz postponed his expected resignation announcement following a rescue operation in the Gaza Strip in which four Israeli hostages were released.

On May 18, Gantz announced that he would resign from the government on June 8 if the cabinet did not formulate an action plan to secure goals, including the return of the hostages held in Gaza and the defeat of Hamas, Xinhua news agency reported.

The rescue operation was carried out by Israeli forces in collaboration with the police’s elite National Counter Terror Unit and the Israel Security Agency, while at least 94 Palestinians were killed in airstrikes in the same area.

The hostages, 25-year-old Noa Argamani, Shlomi Ziv, 40, Almog Meir Jan, 21, and Andrey Kozlov, 27, were abducted while attending the Nova festival, an outdoor music event in a rural area near the Gaza-Israel fence.

The Israel Defense Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari said that the four were located in proper medical condition in two buildings at the heart of Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp.

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Pakistan reported the fifth polio case so far this year after a child was paralyzed in Quetta city of southwest Balochistan province and eventually died, the Pakistani Health Ministry said Saturday.The affected two-year-old child developed an onset of paralysis on April 29 in his legs, the ministry said in a statement, adding that “he became progressively ill with weakness spreading to his arms, and unfortunately passed away in a hospital in the southern port city of Karachi a few weeks later.”The samples taken from him, his brother, and his cousin, who live in the same house, confirmed the presence of wild poliovirus type 1, said the statement.The virus isolated from the samples belongs to the imported YB3A cluster of WPV1, it added.The government is focusing its efforts on closing the outbreak and enhancing polio vaccine and routine vaccination coverage rates in the province to ensure strengthened immunity for children, the ministry said.More than 50 environmental samples have tested positive for poliovirus this year in Balochistan, including 21 from the provincial capital Quetta alone, according to the statement.In 2024, four cases have been detected from Balochistan while the other one came from the southern Sindh province.  AGENCIES

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has instructed Palestine’s envoy to the UN to request an emergency session of the UN Security Council to discuss the repercussions of the Israeli attacks on the central Gaza Strip, the media reported.

Abbas is engaged in intensive diplomatic efforts with Arab and international stakeholders to convene the emergency session, the aim of which is to address the “ongoing Israeli aggression” against the Palestinian people and compel Israel to comply with the resolutions of international legitimacy, the Palestinian official news agency WAFA said on Saturday.He emphasised the urgent need for international intervention to halt the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza and the West Bank, adding that Israel continues to exploit “international silence and US support” to “perpetrate crimes,” according to the report.On Saturday, at least 210 Palestinians were killed and more than 400 others injured in Israeli airstrikes on central Gaza, Xinhua news agency reported.Since its onset last October, the deadly conflict between Israel and Gaza-ruling Hamas has led to 36,801 Palestinians killed and 83,680 others injured in the strip, local health authorities said in an update earlier on Saturday.  AGENCIES

 The second meeting of the regional contact group for Afghanistan was held in the Iranian capital Tehran, the media reported.

Special representatives of Iran, China, Russia and Pakistan attended the meeting held at the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s Institute for Political and International Studies on Saturday, the official news agency IRNA report said.

In a message sent to the meeting, Iranian caretaker Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani said that the US should release Afghanistan’s assets, which had previously been frozen, Xinhua news agency reported.

He added nearly three years had elapsed since the US troops’ withdrawal from Afghanistan, the country was still struggling to solve outstanding problems in economy and development.

Bagheri Kani noted that although Afghanistan’s caretaker government had managed to attain achievements in tackling certain challenges, the freezing of the country’s assets had hindered post-war recovery.

Speaking at a press conference following the meeting in Tehran, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, the Iranian president’s special envoy on Afghanistan affairs, said the participants highlighted the necessity to resolve Afghanistan’s issues through regional dialogue and cooperation.

He noted that addressing issues such as fighting terrorism and improving humanitarian conditions relied on regional cooperation.

Among the other issues discussed during the meeting were ensuring common borders’ security and those about Afghan refugees, said Kazemi Qomi.

He added the US, “which faced a failure in Afghanistan after 20 years of occupation,” should be held to account for the country’s current problems.

The US troops pulled out of Afghanistan in August 2021 after 20 years of occupying the country following waging a war against it in 2001 on the pretext of fighting terrorism.  AGENCIES 

The General Command of the Syrian Army and Armed Forces issued an administrative order to end the call-up of reserve officers and terminate the retention and call-up of non-commissioned officers and reserve personnel.Effective on July 1, 2024, the call-up of reserve officers who have completed one year or more of actual reserve service by June 30, 2024, will be terminated, Xinhua news agency reported.

Additionally, the retention and call-up of non-commissioned officers and reserve personnel who have completed six years or more of actual reserve service by the same date will cease. The order also included the discharge of those who have reached the age of 40.

The order specified that the retention and call-up of non-commissioned officers and reserve personnel will end for those who have reached the age of 40 and have completed two years or more of actual reserve service by June 30, 2024.

Subsequent discharges will follow for those who reach the age of 40 and complete two-year service.

This decision represents a change in how reserve forces are managed, due to the changing situation on the ground in the country.

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Following the release of four hostages from the Gaza Strip, tens of thousands of people once again protested in Israel in favour of an agreement with Hamas for the release of the 120 remaining abductees.

Tens of thousands gathered at the main rally in the coastal city of Tel Aviv on Saturday, Israeli media reported.

Thousands of anti-government protesters also gathered in Haifa and Jerusalem to demand a hostage deal and new elections.

Protests also took place in Caesarea, Beersheba and many other places in the country.

For months, there have been repeated mass protests in Israel against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and in favour of the release of the hostages still being held in the Gaza Strip.

In a speech, the son of a man killed in captivity asked his father for forgiveness for the failure of the country and of Netanyahu to free him and the other hostages from captivity.

The army had recently announced his death and that of three other hostages.

There were clashes with police in Tel Aviv when protesters attempted to block a motorway, according to reports.

The police also used water cannon on the protesters.

According to the military, there are still 120 Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip. However, it is feared that the majority of them are no longer alive.

The US, Qatar and Egypt have been indirectly mediating between Israel and Hamas for some time to achieve a ceasefire and an exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

Last week, US President Joe Biden unexpectedly presented details of a draft agreement to end the war in three phases.

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 The UK Navy on Sunday said that a vessel caught fire after being hit by a projectile in the Gulf of Aden.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency, which is part of Britain’s Royal Navy, said that the vessel was hit “by an unknown projectile on the aft section” at about 2340 GMT on Saturday, about 70 nautical miles (130 kilometres) south-west of Aden in Yemen.

The hit “resulted in a fire,” the UKMTO said, adding that no casualties were reported. Damage control was underway, and the vessel was proceeding to its next port of call. The agency did not provide details about the vessel hit but advised to transit the area with caution.

The Gulf of Aden, off the Yemeni coast, links the Arabian Sea and the Red Sea. The Houthi militia has repeatedly fired on merchant ships in the area since the start of the war in Gaza in October.

The Houthi militants have said the attacks are intended to support the Palestinian militant group Hamas by making it more difficult for cargo ships to reach Israel.

In late March, the UKMTO said that the number of maritime incidents in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden has risen by 475 per cent since the Yemeni Houthi attacks on merchant ships began.

The route, which runs along Yemen, is one of the most important shipping routes for world trade. Freighters used it to travel from the Indian Ocean to reach the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal in Egypt. In response to the attacks, the United States and the UK have carried out several military strikes against Houthi positions in Yemen.

The European Union has also launched a military operation to protect merchant shipping in the Red Sea. AGENCIES

 The US military said that the delivery of urgently needed humanitarian aid for Gaza residents has resumed after a temporary pier on the territory’s coast was repaired.

The temporary harbour had been damaged in rough seas at the end of May, just a few days after its completion. Due to strong waves, four US military ships anchored in the area broke free from their moorings.

The regional command Centcom on Saturday said in a statement that at about 10:30 am local time (0730 GMT), it “began delivery of humanitarian assistance ashore in Gaza.”

“Today, a total of approximately 492 metric tonnes (1.1 million pounds) of much-needed humanitarian assistance was delivered to the people of Gaza. To date, USCENTCOM has assisted in the delivery of more than 1,573 metric tonnes (3.5 million pounds) of humanitarian aid,” the statement continued.

The regional command stressed that “no US military personnel went ashore in Gaza.”

“This ongoing effort in support of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to deliver additional aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza is entirely humanitarian in nature and involves aid commodities donated by several countries and humanitarian organisations,” Centcom said.

Under the provisional arrangement, freighters will initially bring aid supplies from Cyprus to a floating platform a few kilometres off the coast of the Gaza Strip.

The goods are then loaded onto smaller ships that can sail closer to the coast. These then dock at the temporary pier attached to the coast. There, the supplies are received by aid organisations and then distributed in the Gaza Strip by lorry. AGENCIES