US, UN call for immediate de-escalation in Gaza

Following confirmation by GOI about the killing of a Keralite woman in a Palestinian air strike on Israel,  the State government is in touch with the Ministry of External Affairs in Delhi to bring her body to her hometown. She was killed in a rocket strike in Israel while she was on a video call with her husband. The deceased, Soumya Santhosh, was a native of Idukki who had been working as a caregiver in Israel for the past seven years. Her husband heard a huge sound during the video call. Suddenly the phone got disconnected. Then he contacted fellow Malayalees working there and came to know about the incident,” Santhosh’s brother Saji told PTI.  Soumya,31,  had been attending to an old woman at a house in the southern Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon. She is survived by a nine-year-old son whom she had left with her husband in Kerala. Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan condoled her death and said he has spoken to the woman’s family. Meanwhile, the Biden administration has called for de-escalation in Gaza. It is reported hostility between Israel and Palestine sparked by weeks of tensions over control of Jerusalem has escalated as the Israeli forces unleashed new airstrikes on Gaza while Hamas militants hit back with hundreds of rockets. The exchange of fire between the two sides has killed a number of militants and civilians in Gaza and at least two Israelis, stoking fresh tension in the Middle East and renewed calls the international community for exercising restraint and dialogue for peace. There have been conflicting claims over Jerusalem – home to major holy sites of Islam, Judaism and Christianity over centuries which have resulted in the bloody clashes in West Asia. Israel unleashed new airstrikes on Gaza early Tuesday, hitting a pair of high-rise buildings believed to be housing militants, as Hamas and other armed groups bombarded southern Israel with hundreds of rockets. The conflict escalated relentlessly throughout the day, and Israel vowed that its strikes would only increase. CNN says since sundown Monday, 26 Palestinians — including nine children and a woman— were killed in Gaza, most by airstrikes, Gaza health officials said. The Israeli military said at least 16 of the dead were militants. During the same period, Gaza militants fired hundreds of rockets toward Israel killing two Israeli civilians and wounding 10 others.