Israel, Palestinians exchange more fire despite truce efforts
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israeli airstrikes killed a senior militant commander in the Gaza Strip and Palestinian militants fired rockets toward Jerusalem on Friday, further escalating the most violent flare-up in months despite efforts to broker a cease-fire.
An Israeli airstrike killed two Palestinians in a residential building in Gaza City in the afternoon, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
The Israeli military said it had targeted a senior commander of the Islamic Jihad movement. The Islamic Jihad confirmed that the airstrike killed Iyad Al-Hassani, a member of the decision-making council in the group’s armed wing. He is the sixth senior Islamic Jihad member to be killed in this round of fighting.
Earlier in the day, bursts of rocket fire from Gaza sent warning sirens wailing as far north as the contested capital of Jerusalem — 48 miles from the Gaza border — breaking a 12-hour lull that had raised hopes regional powers could soon broker a truce.
The fighting, which started Tuesday between Israel and Islamic Jihad — the second-largest militant group in Gaza after the territory’s Hamas rulers — has killed at least 33 Palestinians in the strip and an 80-yearold woman in central Israel.
As Islamic Jihad stepped up its longer-range rocket attacks, a projectile slammed into an open field in the Israeli settlement of Bat Ayin, south of Jerusalem, said Josh Hasten, a spokesperson for the area. Residents in nearby Israeli settlements reported hearing explosions. Dull thuds could be heard inside Jerusalem, home to major sites holy to Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
“The bombing of Jerusalem sends a message,” Islamic Jihad said in a statement. “What is happening in Jerusalem is not separate from Gaza.”
Israeli officials and Islamic Jihad figures have sent mixed signals about negotiations for a cease-fire that neighboring Egypt has pushed for.
Doomsday sentence: Idaho mother Lori Vallow Daybell was convicted Friday in the murders of her two youngest children and a romantic rival, a verdict that culminates a three-year investigation that included bizarre claims that her son and daughter were zombies and she was a goddess sent to usher in the Biblical apocalypse.
Vallow Daybell was convicted of conspiring to commit the murders of Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 7, Tylee Ryan, 16, and Tammy Daybell.
She was also convicted of grand theft as well as firstdegree murder of the two children, a charge that indicates a more direct role in the crimes.
Vallow Daybell’s fifth husband, Chad Daybell, faces the same charges, but his trial is still months away.
Prosecutors say the two worked with Vallow Daybell’s brother, Alex Cox, to carry out the crimes. Cox died in December 2019 and was never charged.
Top baby names: Dutton and Wrenlee are on the rise but they’re no match for champs Liam and Olivia as the top baby names in the U.S. last year.
The Social Security Administration released the annual list Friday. The agency tracks baby names in each state based on applications for Social Security cards, with names dating to
1880.
It’s Liam’s sixth consecutive year as No. 1. Other names rising fast for boys: Chosen, Khaza and Eithan. For girls, Wrenlee is followed by Neriah, Arlet, Georgina and Amiri.
Olivia has reigned since the name unseated Emma four years ago. Emma is No. 2.
Coming in third for girls’ names is Charlotte, followed by Amelia, Sophia, Isabella, Ava, Mia, Evelyn and Luna.
For boys’ names, Liam is followed by Noah, Oliver, James, Elijah, William, Henry, Lucas, Benjamin and Theodore.
The agency has been compiling the list since 1997.
More babies, not pets:
Pope Francis joined Italy’s conservative Premier Giorgia Meloni on Friday in encouraging Italians to have more children, denouncing the financial precariousness facing couples and “selfish, egotistical” choices that have led to a record low birth rate that is threatening the
country’s economic future.
Francis urged political action to invert the “demographic winter.” Blasting couples who have pets instead of children, Francis called for resources to be dedicated to helping couples grow their families, saying it was necessary to “plant the future” with hope.
Italy recorded a record low number of live births last year, 392,598, which combined with an elevated number of deaths, 713,499, has accelerated the demographic trend that threatens to crash the country’s social security system. The government is backing a campaign to encourage at least 500,000 births annually by 2033, a rate that demographers say is necessary to prevent the economy from collapsing by growing the wage-earning population as retirees draw on pensions.
Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan left a high court in Islamabad on Friday after
Pakistani ruling:
being granted broad protection from arrest in multiple legal cases against him. The ruling struck a blow to the government in a standoff that has sparked days of rioting by Khan’s followers and raised the specter of widespread unrest in the country.
The list of around 100 court cases, on charges ranging from fomenting violence to corruption, still stands against Khan. After he was abruptly arrested Tuesday, protests erupted, turning into clashes with police and mob attacks on government buildings and even military installations.
The Islamabad High Court gave Khan, 70, protection for two weeks on one graft charge and protection until Monday on a host of other charges in a measure called “anticipatory bail.” The protections in each case can be extended.
Serbian protest: Tens of thousands of people marched through the Serbian capital, Belgrade, and blocked a key bridge
Friday in the second large protest since two mass shootings that rattled the Balkan country and killed 17 people.
Protesters gathered in front of the Parliament building before filing past the government’s headquarters and onto a highway bridge spanning the Sava River, where evening commuters had to turn their vehicles around to avoid getting stuck. At the head of the column was a black banner reading “Serbia Against Violence.”
Pro-government media criticized the bridge blockade, with the Novosti newspaper reporting that “harassment has begun, hooligans have blocked the bridge.”
The shootings happened within days of each other and left 17 people dead and 21 injured. On May 3, a 13-year-old boy used his father’s gun to open fire at his school in Belgrade. The next day, a 20-year-old man fired at people in a rural area south of the capital.