21/08/2026

FRIDAY | AUG 21, 2026

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Israeli strike on police station in Gaza kills nine GAZA CITY: Health officials have said an Israeli strike on the municipal police headquarters here killed nine people, including a child, on Wednesday, while the Israeli military said it had targeted a Hamas commander. Attacks have continued in the Palestinian territory in recent days, despite a renewed push by the United States to advance a long-term Gaza peace plan. Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital reported the arrival of nine bodies, including a woman and 13-year-old Dana Haitham al-Jamasi. It said it also received at least 20 wounded people following the strike in Gaza City. The territory’s civil defence agency, which operates as a rescue service under Hamas, confirmed the death toll. At Al-Shifa Hospital, AFP footage showed mourners weeping over plastic body bags containing their loved ones. “Where is the ceasefire when our Palestinian people are losing dozens of their sons every day, including police officers?” asked Mahmoud Jundiya outside the hospital. “Where do we turn? Where do we raise our voices?” The Israeli military said the strike on the police headquarters targeted a “gathering of terrorists” inside the facility, including four Hamas members and one of the Popular Resistance Committees militant group, alleging that they had planned to carry out attacks against troops in the territory. “Prior to the strike, steps were taken to mitigate harm to civilians, including the use of precise munitions and aerial surveillance.“ It added that it had struck a commander in Hamas’s military wing in the Nuseirat area in the central Gaza Strip, saying he had participated in the Oct 7, 2023 attack on Israel. The Al-Awda hospital in central Gaza said it received the body of a man killed in a strike in the Nuseirat camp while he was riding his motorcycle. Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem condemned what he called Israel’s “complete disregard for all calls for a ceasefire”. He said US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, which is tasked with implementing the ceasefire plan agreed last October, “bears responsibility for this escalation due to its failure to fulfil its obligations by pressuring the occupation” to abide by its commitments. Hamas political bureau member Bassem Naim emphasised that the situation is “unsustainable”. Trump’s envoy Jared Kushner had said on Monday progress towards disarming Hamas and moving forward with the Gaza peace plan could begin within a month, following a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The sit-down came two weeks after Hamas endorsed the latest stage of Trump’s Gaza plan. However, Netanyahu has refused to support the roadmap, vowing not to withdraw troops until the Palestinian Islamist movement is “genuinely disarmed”. Gaza health officials said on Tuesday an Israeli airstrike killed six people in the port of Gaza City, with the Israeli army saying it had targeted several Hamas commanders. – AFP

Trump threatens Iran partners with economic costs

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he was launching a major new campaign to target Iran’s economy, threatening “tremendous” punishment on any country that helps or does business with the Islamic republic. The intensified economic pressure campaign comes as the war nears its sixth month, with no immediate diplomatic or military off-ramp in sight and the vital Strait of Hormuz still significantly choked off. With November elections quickly approaching, Trump is also facing renewed domestic scrutiny over the war’s costs on US consumers and toll on the military. o With November elections approaching, president faces renewed domestic scrutiny over price of war on US consumers

with targeted sanctions. Iran has struck a defiant tone, having survived months of US military operations that failed to bring a decisive end to the war and has, according to US media reports, severely drawn down US munition stockpiles. The Pentagon has denied these reports. The conflict broke out on Feb 28 with US-Israeli attacks on the Islamic republic, which retaliated with missile and drone strikes across the region. Tehran’s missile and drone threat has curtailed shipping traffic through the Strait, as a framework US-Iran deal to reopen it collapsed. However, Trump on Wednesday touted US military efforts to aid ships out of the strait, saying “a lot of boats are coming through”. Digital media outlet Axios reported that US forces were facilitating the transit of between 15 and 20 ships in and out of the Hormuz each night in recent weeks, carrying “roughly half the pre-war volume” of daily oil shipments. In recent days, both sides have said messages were being exchanged, but Trump on Tuesday insisted that talks were off and posted a message on social media suggesting that the strait could be a “new US territory”. – AFP

“Today, I am announcing the MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER TAKEN AGAINST ANY COUNTRY! This will be economic warfare and isolation on an unprecedented scale,” he wrote on Truth Social. “ANY country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will itself face TREMENDOUS economic consequences.” He did not specify what punishment countries would face, and none other than Iran were mentioned by name. He listed several activities that he said need to stop immediately, including “oil smuggling, swap lines, cash transfers, exchange houses, ship registries, front companies”. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had similarly said last week the United States would soon be ramping up efforts at economically isolating Iran, as part of a two-pronged approach with a US naval blockade. “It will be a combination of economic isolation, like the world has never seen before.” The US Treasury has for months been carrying out an effort, dubbed Operation Economic Fury, aiming to cut off Iran’s funding

Firefighters working near a site of an apartment building hit by a Russian strike yesterday. – REUTERSPIC

Twelve dead in Russian missile attack on Ukraine KYIV: Russian bombardments killed at least 12 people and wounded dozens in Ukraine’s capital and its surrounding region overnight, authorities said yesterday. included in Klitschko’s tally. “One industrial facility has been damaged. All relevant services are on site, working to extinguish the fire,“ added Tkachenko.

force helicopter. The ministry said a drone entered Romanian airspace near Galati before crashing in an unpopulated area in the country of Tulcea. Russia also reported a large Ukrainian drone attack. Moscow’s Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 250 drones had flown towards the Moscow region between Wednesday night and yesterday morning, with most destroyed at a significant distance from the capital itself. “Twenty-eight drones were destroyed in the Moscow region,“ he said. While Kyiv has faced near-nightly attacks, Ukraine has also escalated its retaliatory strikes on Russia in recent months, in part to try to pressure Moscow into coming to the negotiating table to end Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II. – AFP

Ukraine’s air force had warned of Russian “Kalibr” missiles in the vicinity of the village of Kagarlyk within the Kyiv region, heading towards the capital. The attacks also prompted security responses in neighbouring Nato member states. Poland’s military command said it had mobilised aircraft and activated air defences aimed at protecting its airspace, particularly in areas bordering Ukraine. Romania’s Defence Ministry said radar systems detected aerial targets near the Ukrainian border overnight, prompting the scrambling of two Spanish fighter jets deployed on Nato missions and a Romanian air

The two countries have ramped up long-range attacks in recent months, driving up the civilian death toll on both sides in the four-and-a-half-year war. The massive missile attack on Kyiv struck residential areas and warehouses, said Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko. A medical facility and an educational institution were also damaged, according to the city’s military administration. An attack in the Brovary district of the broader Kyiv region also killed one man and wounded another, said Kyiv Regional Governor Tymur Tkachenko. It was unclear whether that death was