Reuters World News Summary
Following is a summary of current world news briefs.
WHO: north Gaza hospitals are under bombardment
The biggest hospital in the Gaza Strip and another with children on life support was coming under bombardment on Friday, the World Health Organization said. Twenty hospitals in Gaza were now out of action entirely, it said.
Exclusive-Even Indonesian president's loyalists outraged over election moves-sources
Indonesia's president is facing discontent within his administration over perceived meddling in next year's elections, with some cabinet ministers personally expressing outrage to colleagues, two sources with direct knowledge said. A third government source and longtime loyalist to President Joko Widodo also expressed disappointment with what they viewed as an effort by Jokowi, as the president is known, to cling to power through his son, who is running for vice president on the ticket of a former Jokowi rival.
Verified social media shows dead and wounded at Gaza's Shifa hospital
Graphic video shared on social media and verified by Reuters on Friday shows a number of dead and wounded, including children in an area of Al Shifa hospital in Gaza, which a Gaza health ministry spokesman said had been hit by Israeli airstrikes. There was no immediate Israeli military comment on the video, which a Reuters correspondent said appeared to have been made in a covered, outdoor area near the hospital's outpatient department, where displaced people had been sleeping.
In Gaza, hospital procedures without anesthetics prompted screams, prayers
The little girl was weeping in pain and screaming "Mummy, Mummy" while the nurse stitched up her head wound without using any anesthetic, because none was available at the time at Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. That was one of the worst moments nurse Abu Emad Hassanein could recall as he described the struggle to deal with an unprecedented influx of wounded people and a dearth of pain relief medication since the war in Gaza started a month ago.
India and US push defense deals amid 'global challenges'
India and the United States announced progress on key defense deals and said they would expand their growing partnership in the face of geopolitical challenges as their top diplomats and senior ministers met on Friday. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi as part of their annual "2+2 Dialogue," focused on the Indo-Pacific region.
Palestinian officials say Israeli air strikes hit Gaza hospitals
Israeli air strikes hit Gaza's biggest hospital, the Al Shifa, on Friday, killing one person and wounding others sheltering there, Palestinian officials said, one of several hospitals reported struck as Israeli troops battled Hamas in the heart of the enclave. Officials said other strikes had damaged parts of the Indonesian Hospital and reportedly set fire to the Rantissi pediatric and cancer hospital in the northern part of Gaza, where Israel says Hamas militants who attacked it last month are concentrated.
Analysis-Losing ground to rebel alliance, Myanmar junta faces biggest test since coup
A rebel alliance has overrun parts of northern Myanmar, including areas bordering China, with resistance to the military junta notching its most significant win since the 2021 coup, according to a rebel commander, diplomats and analysts. The fiercest fighting has been near Myanmar's border with China in northern Shan state where three powerful ethnic armed groups have combined to lead an offensive that has taken multiple towns and military outposts in recent weeks.
Hamas fires rockets deep into Israel, setting off sirens in Tel Aviv
Sirens were sounded in Tel Aviv and surrounding areas on Friday as Hamas said it fired rockets deep into Israel in what the Palestinian militant group described as a response to mounting civilian deaths in the Gaza war. Medics reported two women in Tel Aviv suffered shrapnel wounds from the salvo, which followed a relative lull in rocket fire as Israeli forces press a ground offensive in Gaza in the fifth week of the war.
Taiwan, facing Chinese pressure, to stress importance of peace at APEC summit
Taiwan will stress the importance of peace in the region at next week's APEC summit, President Tsai Ing-wen said on Friday, one of the few international bodies both Taiwan and China are members of and where their officials meet. The 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum will meet in San Francisco for the 30th APEC summit, the first hosted by the United States since 2011.
Ukraine military says onslaught on Avdiivka in the east intensifies
Russian troops are intensifying their attacks on the key eastern town of Avdiivka, a senior Ukraine officer said on Thursday, while the country's general staff reported its military repelled many Russian assaults in widely separated sectors of the front. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy hailed Ukraine's counteroffensive launched in June as "inspiring," but gave no details.
