Israel lacks ‘credible plan’ to protect Rafah civilians, says Blinken

Students among 11 dead in Indonesia bus crash

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday defended a decision to pause a delivery to Israel of 3,500 bombs over concerns they could be used in the Gazan city of Rafah, saying Israel lacked a “credible plan” to protect some 1.4 million civilians sheltering there.

Speaking to ABC News’s This Week, Mr. Blinken said that U.S. President Joe Biden remains determined to help Israel defend itself and that the shipment of 3,500 2,000-pound and 500-pound bombs was the only U.S. weapons package being withheld.

That could change, he said, if Israel launches a full-scale attack on Rafah.

Antony Blinken

Mr. Biden has made clear to Israel that if it “launches this major military operation to Rafah, then there are certain systems that we are not going to be supporting and supplying,” Mr. Blinken said.

“We have real concerns about the way they are used,” he said. Israel needs to “have a clear, credible plan to protect civilians, which we have not seen.”

A bus slammed into cars and motorbikes after its brakes apparently malfunctioned in Indonesia’s West Java province, killing at least 11 persons, mostly students, and injuring dozens of others, oŸcials said on Sunday.

The bus carrying 61 students and teachers was returning to a high school in Depok outside Jakarta, the capital, late on Saturday from the hilly resort area of Bandung after a graduation celebration, said West Java police spokesperson Jules Abraham Abast.

It sped out of control on a downhill road and crossed lanes, hitting several cars and motorbikes before it crashed into an electricity pole, he said.

Nine persons died at the scene and two others died later in the hospital, including a teacher and a local motorist, the Mr. Abast said. Fifty-three other people were hospitalised with injuries, including some in critical condition, he said.

“We are still investigating the cause of the accident, but a preliminary investigation showed the bus's brakes malfunctioned,” Abast said.

Road accidents are common in Indonesia due to poor safety standards and infrastructure.

AFP AFP At least 34 were killed and 16 missing in Indonesia after flash floods and cold lava flow from Mount Marapi, one of the archipelago’s most active volcanos, damaged homes, roads and mosques, o–icials said on Sunday. Hours of heavy rain had caused flooding in two districts in Sumatra province on Saturday evening.

PTI AFP Nepal’s legendary mountaineer Kami Rita Sherpa made history on Sunday by breaking his record for the highest number of ascents of the Everest as he scaled the world’s highest peak for the 29th time. The 54-year-old veteran climber reached the 8,849-metre peak at 7:25 am local time on Sunday.