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Monaco bomb mystery deepens as Ukraine’s security services are linked to murder of prime suspect

The case of a suspected bomber accused of targeting a Ukrainian oligarch has taken another murky turn, after details of her subsequent murder were revealed in court with evidence suggesting the involvement of Kyiv’s intelligence agencies. French police last week named Anastasia Berezovska as the person captured on CCTV leaving a rucksack outside a Monaco apartment block. It blew up, injuring the Ukrainian businessman Vadym Iermolaiev as he emerged from the building with his partner and their 13-year-old child. Prosecutors said that Berezovska, 39, who had disguised herself as a man, fled in a car with German registration plates, crossing into France and then Italy. On 1 July, she travelled to Ukraine, catching a bus to her home town of Zhytomyr, west of Kyiv. Officials announced on Tuesday that her body had been found in woods near the capital. According to Ukraine’s SBU intelligence agency, Berezovska was met by two men, who had made payments to her bank and crypto accounts. One of them, Vladyslav Reut, appeared in court on Thursday, accused of her murder. Reut identified his alleged accomplice as Vitaliy Zhykovych, a former Kyiv region policeman. Ukrainian media reported that Reut, 33, studied law at the national university in Kyiv, and worked for Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency. He served in unit A2772, a training centre for special operations forces, Radio Liberty reported. Appearing in a Kyiv court on Thursday, Reut claimed Zhykovych was responsible for Berezovska’s cold-blooded killing. The two men took her at gunpoint to a forest near the village of Yuriv, 60km (40 miles) west of the capital. “Zhykovych fired the first shot at her in the back of the head. She fell down. He came up and fired another shot. I was standing a few metres away at that moment,” Reut told the judge. He said four shots were fired before Zhykovych forced him to dig a hole, took all of Berezovska’s personal belongings and removed her trainers. He added: “I will insist on taking a polygraph to prove my innocence.” Zhykovych’s lawyer, Anatoliy Ivanov, said his client denied the allegations. The SBU said it found Berezovska’s body after the men confessed and its officers recovered bullet casings from the forest. It also published grainy footage of what was described as a “torture chamber” in the basement of Zhykovych’s home in the town of Bilogorodka. Investigators later clarified that Berezovska was not tortured before her woodland murder. Given the connection with Ukrainian military intelligence, the case is embarrassing for Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, even if – as officials say – the two men were acting alone. France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, urged Zelenskyy to get to the bottom of the shady affair, and to punish those responsible. Responding to a question from the Guardian, Zelenskyy said he expected to receive “further reports” in the next few days about the “widely reported” incident in Monaco. “I will update the public,” he promised. Mykhailo Tkach, an investigative journalist with Ukrainska Pravda, said: “It would be hard to imagine a worse scenario. It will be very difficult to explain whether certain government officials – in particular from the GUR – were involved. It is obvious that an explanation will be required at the highest level.” In 2023, Ukraine imposed personal sanctions on Iermolaiev, one of Ukraine’s richest citizens, with a fortune estimated by Forbes at $220m (£164m). The SBU accused him of continuing to trade alcohol in occupied Crimea and paying millions of dollars in taxes to the Russian treasury. Iermolaiev, 58, described the charges as “absolutely surreal” and said he donated money to Ukraine’s military. Iermolaiev’s son, Artur, was accused of creating a criminal organisation engaged in telephone fraud in his father’s home city of Dnipro. According to Estonian investigators, Artur and three other defendants set up fraudulent call centres. He received a suspended sentence, paid €8.5m (£7.2m) and left Estonia shortly afterwards. One source who knows Iermolaiev socially said the bombing in Monaco and Berezovska’s subsequent murder were criminal rather than political acts. “Vadym or members of his family didn’t want to pay someone,” they suggested. The source suggested the dispute was over protection money, adding: “The woman was disposable.” Details of Berezovska’s life are still emerging. She had been staying in Frankfurt, where German police last week searched her apartment. Before that, she had lived in Zhytomyr, where she made a living from breeding dogs. In 2021 a court in the city reportedly found her guilty of petty hooliganism. According to a ruling, she had “insulted another woman while intoxicated, used obscene language and pushed her”. The speed of the suspects’ arrests has surprised observers, with the SBU directly blaming an employee from the rival GUR agency. Some have speculated this reflects animosity between the two organisations. There are also unanswered questions as to how Berezovska managed to cross back into Ukraine, and whether or not she acted alone in Monaco. In a statement, Ukraine’s state border service said she entered the country “lawfully” on 1 July, via a regular border crossing point. It said the French authorities had not issued a warrant at that time for her arrest. “During her border control checks, no database alerts – including those from Interpol – indicated that she was wanted,” it said. In Kyiv, the mysterious events have raised concerns about damage to Ukraine’s reputation. “I hope it will not have a serious impact. But our allies deserve an explanation,” said the parliamentary deputy Oleksandr Merezhko. “The unusual thing is that the perpetrators were caught so quickly. That could be interpreted as evidence of a swift and effective operation by our law enforcement agencies.”

Deadly H5 bird flu found in local Australian seabird for first time

The first case of deadly H5 bird flu in local wildlife has been recorded in a bird found on the South Australian coast. The federal agriculture minister, Julie Collins, said on Friday that a greater crested tern – a common coastal bird – had tested positive for the disease. The dead bird was found at Robe on SA’s Limestone Coast. “While this, of course, is a concerning development, it is not unexpected and is another sign that our strong biosecurity system is working,” Collins said. Until Friday, cases of bird flu had been detected in migratory subantarctic seabirds, mostly giant petrels, found on the coasts of SA, Western Australia and New South Wales. Collins said the South Australian government was leading the response to the discovery of the greater crested tern by conducting extra surveillance to help establish whether there had been further spread in local wildlife. “What we do know is that this is a coastal seabird that has an overlapping coastal range with migratory seabirds that have previously tested positive for H5,” she said. Earlier this week, the SA government said it had completed the largest aerial survey of the state’s coastline, islands and reefs in 40 years and found “no widespread evidence of sick or dead seabirds or seals”.

‘A lot of red flags’: plans for New Zealand’s first datacentre spark concern as locals demand greater transparency

People living near the site of New Zealand’s first planned AI datacentre are calling for more transparency about the project, especially about how the centre’s huge electricity and water use and potential noise pollution could affect them. Singapore-based company Datagrid has secured approval to build a NZ$3.5bn (US$2bn) AI datacentre on a 49-hectare site in Makarewa, just north of New Zealand’s southern-most city, Invercargill. Construction is due to begin this year, with the centre becoming operational by 2028. The facility will be used for AI training, processing and data storage and will serve global AI and cloud providers, says the company’s website. Datagrid also plans to build a high-speed internet cable between Invercargill and Australia. Datacentres require large amounts of electricity, water and land, and their rapid growth is igniting debate and protest around the world, as communities grapple with the associated environmental issues, increasing power bills and claims that they are not seeing local economic benefits, despite data company promises. The centre in Makarewa will become New Zealand’s second largest user of electricity, after the nearby Tiwai Point aluminium smelter, using 280MW of electricity. Local authorities have hailed the project as a win for the region, saying it will create jobs and sped up the internet. The company says about 1,200 jobs will be created during the construction phase, and about 50 permanent positions on completion. But Angus Dowell, an economic geographer whose PhD project looks at the construction of datacentres said there were “a lot of red flags,” about the project, and about New Zealand’s push to become an AI hub. “[The centres] provide short term economic benefits in the form of construction, but they’re very, very low employers long term, and so the long term benefits to local economic development are just not there, they don’t stack up,” he said. Residents in the neighbouring community are worried about the development. “Locals down here kind of feel like we’ve had our region sold out from underneath us,” said Kelly Blomfield, the chair of the Southland Sustainable Resource coalition, an advocacy group that monitors regional infrastructure projects. “I think that most people’s actual concern is that we don’t find out anything until its done,” she said, adding that attempts to gather more information from Datagrid have been unsuccessful. The centre is part of the New Zealand government’s attempts to attract foreign investment and build datacentres. Government agency Invest New Zealand wants to secure NZ$25-30bn in foreign investment to build datacentres and AI infrastructure, the agency said. New Zealand “offers a compelling opportunity” and “a safe harbour” for investment because of its access to renewable energy, available land and cool climate, the agency says on its website. “These fundamentals are supported by excellent digital connectivity, a skilled workforce, internationally competitive pricing, and a strong rule of law.” Meanwhile, a report from Boston Consulting Group for the agency claims the industry could “unlock up to $70bn of economic activity” over the next decade. But Makarewa resident, Amanda, who wished to give her first name only, says her early ambivalence about the project has changed to concern. “Now that I know a lot more from what I’ve seen overseas, I am alarmed … not just for Makarewa, but for New Zealand.” Amanda is worried about water and power use, the potential running of 84 diesel generators if there is a power shortage, and how round-the-clock noise and light will affect the community and farm animals. Datagrid has approval to discharge air contaminants from up to 84 diesel back-up generators, to draw up to 604,800 litres of groundwater per day, discharge up to 5000 litres of treated wastewater a day and remove a nearby wetland, an Environment Southland regional council reports show. While direct neighbours to the datacentre site were consulted, the broader community was not, and anti-datacentre sentiment is growing, she said. “I know many people in the community who are not on board with it – the talk is either of apprehension or negativity.” Blomfield says she feels like New Zealand has put itself in the race to become an AI datacentre hub “but no one asked us if we want to be in that race”. “People are starting to understand the scope of it, and people are starting to say: I don’t want this in my back yard.” Datagrid did not respond to the Guardian’s request for comment but its chief executive, Rémi Galasso, has previously said that concerns about water and power use were unfounded. Southland’s cool climate minimises the need to use water, and the company would be operating under long-term renewable energy arrangements, not competing for household electricity, he said. Invest New Zealand’s chief executive, Robert Wall, was not available for an interview. Dowell says there is was “a lot of opacity” around the Datagrid project, which raises questions over its impacts, how it will function within the broader AI ecosystem, and how it will benefit New Zealand. “It’s fair for us to look at other places in the world and see the environmental impacts of datacentres, the highly asymmetrical distribution of value as part of the big tech AI economy, and say: we need to know more,” he said. “We should demand more, because there’s a lot at stake.”

US and Iran trade escalating strikes as supreme leader is buried after days-long funeral

The US and Iran traded retaliatory strikes on Thursday as US president Donald Trump threatened to escalate the conflict unless Iran stopped attacking ships in the strait of Hormuz. Iran responded to the latest round of attacks by targeting US-allied Kuwait and Qatar and accused the US of striking near its sole nuclear power plant. The second consecutive day of tit-for-tat strikes came hours before Iran buried former supreme leader Ali Khamenei in his home city of Mashhad. Khamenei was killed in US and Israeli airstrikes this February at the outbreak of the war. The “body of the martyred leader of the Islamic Revolution was buried in the memorial hall of the shrine of Imam Reza”, state broadcaster IRIB reported on Friday. Khamenei’s funeral procession reached the country’s holiest shrine with a ‌huge crowd packing the courtyard, some bearing banners denouncing the ‌US president and reading, “We Will Kill Trump.” The ayatollah’s son and successor was not seen at the ceremony. Mojtaba Khamenei was wounded in the same series of strikes that killed his father and has since communicated only through written statements. The renewed attacks on Thursday were the largest since Tehran and Washington signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on 17 June aimed at extending the ceasefire and giving space for negotiations for a permanent truce. Washington was still committed to finding a resolution with Iran and “technical talks continue”, a US official told Reuters, even as president Trump declared the truce was “over”. Responding to the escalation, Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, said his country was prepared to resume its military campaign against Iran if needed, threatening to do so “with even greater force”. In Iran, officials said strikes targeted the perimeter of Iran’s only civilian nuclear plant in Bushehr province, an area where the UN’s nuclear watchdog has previously warned that attacks could “pose a very real danger to nuclear safety ”. “Several areas in Bushehr province were targeted today, including the perimeter of the nuclear power plant, a military base in the town of Choghadak and a fishing pier in the south of the province,” said Ehsan Jahanian, the deputy governor of Bushehr, adding there were no reports of casualties so far. After the strikes, the US president posted videos of explosions in Iran and threatened the country once again. “This is in retribution for yesterday’s bombing of ships by Iran. If it happens again, it will get much worse!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. Hours before, he had promised strikes would not lead to long-term fighting but would be “very fast”. His comments and the exchange of fire prompted worries that the ceasefire could break down and raised concerns about the long-term prospects of negotiations. Significant gaps remain between the two countries over issues such as Iran’s control over the strait, as well as inspections of nuclear facilities. The US military said it hit about 90 targets in Iran, showing footage of strikes on missile launchers and a runway. It said the attacks were meant to degrade Iran’s capacity to “threaten freedom of navigation” in the strait of Hormuz, a critical chokepoint for about 20% of the world’s oil and gas. The attacks caused oil prices to rise, before they recovered later in the day after calm was restored. Iran accused the US of war crimes after it said two bridges in the eastern provinces leading to Mashhad were targeted. The bridges constitute key infrastructure for Iran’s cross-border trade with China, which has sharply increased since the start of the war. Trump has repeatedly threatened to hit bridges, power plants and other civilian infrastructure in Iran. Targeting civilian infrastructure if it is not a military objective could amount to a war crime. Iranian state media also reported explosions in several cities, including Bushehr, which houses Iran’s nuclear power plant complex. At least three people were killed in Iran’s south-western Khuzestan province, while a firefighter was killed in an airport in the south-eastern city of Iranshahr. Nine members of Iran’s military also died in strikes on Wednesday. The MoU calls for the reopening of the strait to commercial shipping for 60 days. Iran says it wants to charge fees to ships transiting through the strait, conflicting with the US, which says it is an international waterway and should not have tolls. Iran continues to view its control over the strait as an important source of leverage in its negotiations with the US, while Trump appears to view strikes on Iran as a way of increasing pressure on Tehran. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, a senior Iranian negotiator and parliament speaker, said US pressure would not lead anywhere. “America still hasn’t learned that bullying and breaking promises are no longer cost-free,” he said in a post on X. “Let me put it plainly: if you strike, you’ll get hit.” Mediators attempted to de-escalate tensions between the US and Iran in an effort to salvage negotiations. The Qatari prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, a key intermediary between the countries, spoke to Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, on Thursday, condemning Tehran’s strikes on ships in the strait. Negotiations towards reaching a final deal were intended to start after the conclusion on Thursday of Khamenei’s seven-day funeral. Additional reporting by Patrick Wintour

Mexico investigates whether US lied about role in capture of drug lord

Mexico has launched an investigation into whether the US lied about its involvement in the capture and secretive transfer of a top Sinaloa cartel member in 2024, in what would be a potential violation of the country’s sovereignty. The US has long denied it played any role in the operation to detain the drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García, a founder of the Sinaloa cartel, inside Mexico. Recent reporting by the local media outlet Pie de Nota, however, suggested that the FBI was involved in his capture. “If recent reports are confirmed,” said the Mexico attorney general, Ernestina Godoy, on Wednesday, “then all signs point to three serious issues: a series of violations of Mexican and international law; a pact made outside the bounds of the law; and a lie told by a US diplomat, which would constitute a breach of the cornerstone principle of good faith in diplomatic relations.” “The issue here is whether there was a violation of sovereignty,” said the president, Claudia Sheinbaum, at a news conference on Thursday. Although the incident took place under the previous administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the row comes at an extremely delicate moment in US-Mexico relations. Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to launch a ground invasion in Mexico to attack the drug cartels, ratcheting up fears for Mexican sovereignty. Meanwhile, in April, reports emerged that several CIA agents had been involved in a raid on a drug lab in northern Mexico, apparently without the approval or knowledge of the federal government. Now, the potential direct involvement of a US agency in an operation on Mexican soil has again stirred fears over the presence of American operatives in Mexico. In July 2024, Zambada García was tricked by fellow trafficker Joaquín Guzmán López, whose father was the drug lord known as “El Chapo”, into getting on a small plane inside Mexico and flying into Texas, where US authorities arrested them both at an airport near El Paso. Mexico has questioned Washington numerous times about what role it played, and complained of being kept in the dark. The American ambassador at the time, Ken Salazar, insisted that the US was not involved. After Mexican authorities insinuated Salazar had lied, the former ambassador on Wednesday reiterated his position: “It was not our plane, not our pilot, and not our operation,” he wrote on X. “La verdad es la verdad, the truth is the truth.” But the plane in which the traffickers traveled was recently put on display in the War Eagles Air Museum in Santa Teresa, New Mexico. A plaque next to the plane shared on social media notes that two FBI agents “successfully executed a highly complex, secretive and daring arrest of two of the world’s most wanted fugitives”. Godoy said Mexican officials had attempted to inspect the plane in August 2024 but were barred from doing a thorough inspection or taking photographs. The Americans, she said, had also “provided false or inaccurate identification data for that aircraft”.

Daphne Caruana Galizia screamed in panic before explosion that killed her, court hears

Moments before the explosion that killed Daphne Caruana Galizia, the journalist screamed in panic, a witness has told the trial of the man accused of ordering her murder. Caruana Galizia was killed in 2017 by a remotely detonated bomb placed under the driver’s seat of her car, after writing a series of reports on political and financial corruption in Malta. The government’s handling of the investigation led to mass protests and ultimately to the resignation of the Maltese prime minister, Joseph Muscat. Yorgen Fenech, the heir to a property and hotels fortune, is one of seven men accused by prosecutors of involvement in the killing, and the last to face trial. A jury was sworn in last week after a tortuous legal process and nearly nine years after her death. Fenech faces a life sentence if convicted. On Thursday, the court was told about the moment Caruana Galizia died, by a neighbour who witnessed it. The journalist had just left her house in the village of Bidnija and turned on to the main road. The neighbour, Francis Sant, was driving in the opposite direction and saw her coming towards him. “I realised that from the person inside it – I felt that something had happened to her. She appeared panicked.” Sant said he stopped his car, then he described what appears to have been a two-stage explosion. The first detonation left the victim conscious and in fear for her life, he said. “She wasn’t right. I thought, what’s wrong with her? A few seconds passed – things happened so fast. I saw the first spark, under her car, like a festa [celebration] firework going off. She was still conscious. I heard her scream. Her window was open, maybe in panic she tried to roll down her window and get out. “When that first spark happened. I think she either felt something, maybe the bomb device activating. She realised something was very wrong. “Then, a big explosion came out through the windscreen. “The car went out of control. The second explosion tore it apart. It flew into the field, where another fireball formed … The car was literally shredded.” Sant said he got out of his car but did not immediately call emergency services. “I knew there was no hope. I didn’t even think of my phone.” The court also heard from several police officers, who were among the first on the scene. Sgt Susanne Mifsud, who arrived 20 minutes after the explosion, described what she saw when she reached the field where Caruna Galizia’s car had ended up. “When I arrived on scene, I could see the victim’s car in the field on the left-hand side. It was a total loss. It had a roof that was blown up. This wasn’t a simple fire. It was a bomb. I started taking details. I noticed a number plate ... Further up, there were a large amount of the victim’s body parts.” The court fell quiet as jurors were shown photographs of the scene by Insp Kevin Manicolo. There were images of the victim’s burned body, showing how it was removed from the vehicle and placed on a white sheet. Aerial photos showed a crater in the road, marking the location of the explosion. Fenech, who is on trial for complicity in the voluntary homicide of Caruana Galizia, denies the charges. The trial continues. Transcription and translation by Amphora Media

IDF accused of ‘field execution’ of Palestinian driver bringing aid into Gaza

A Palestinian driver bringing food aid from the World Central Kitchen (WCK) into Gaza has been killed by an Israeli soldier “in a field execution”, according to witnesses and the local truckers’ association, which said it may suspend operations in protest. Ahmad Esleem was shot in the head on Wednesday when an aid convoy stopped because of a breakdown to one truck soon after entering Gaza, according to three accounts. Israeli soldiers ordered the drivers to dismount and one of them shot Esleem in the head when his hands were raised. Another driver in the four-truck convoy, Diaa Mansour, said the shooting happened on the Philadelphi corridor, a military road on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip. “After the truck broke down, we waited for authorisation to get out and inspect it, because every movement we make has to be coordinated in advance,” he said. “While we were waiting, an Israeli military vehicle arrived. The soldiers ordered Ahmad and me to get out of our trucks, and then they ordered another driver, Alaa Shaat, to get out as well. The driver at the front of the convoy, Fares Muheisen, remained inside his truck and didn’t get out. “They made us stand by the side of the road. They ordered me to take off my clothes and forced me to sit under the sun. Then they brought Ahmad out of his truck. One of the soldiers began talking to Ahmad while he stood with his hands raised. Ahmad did not speak Hebrew, and it seemed the soldiers did not understand his Arabic. Suddenly, they shot him. He was hit in the head and died at the scene. It appeared they were trying to find out why we had stopped, but they did not understand the situation and opened fire immediately, without any discussion or attempt to communicate.” Jihad Esleem, the deputy head of the Association of Transport Companies in Gaza and a distant relative of the victim, said that Wednesday’s convoy had been “100%” coordinated through the UN World Food Programme and the WCK food charity, and had just entered Gaza through the only crossing point still functioning for aid shipments. “An Israeli officer and several soldiers approached the drivers, asked why they were there, then ordered all of them out of their trucks. They assaulted the drivers, beat them, and forced them to strip,” Esleem said. “The moment Ahmad raised his hands in surrender, one of the soldiers drew his M16 rifle and shot him directly in the head. It was a field execution and a deliberate killing of a civilian driver who had complied with all instructions. He was wearing his orange safety vest and carried all the required permits, security clearances, and coordination that had been approved by the IDF [Israel Defense Forces].” Ahmad Esleem’s employers, Iyad Qamri Trading and Public Transport Company, also said that he had been killed at close range by a soldier after the convoy he was in had come to a halt, and two drivers were ordered to dismount by an army patrol. A photograph of Ahmad Esleem’s body on arrival in hospital showed his head heavily bandaged around what appeared to be a serious wound. The 30-year-old from Deir al-Balah was married, with two children under the age of two. Eyad Esleem, the owner of Iyad Qamri, and Jihad’s brother, said: “Drivers leave their homes at 3am, leaving behind their wives and children, and one of them may return to his family as a lifeless body. Ahmed left behind a one-month-old baby and a young daughter. Since the incident happened, five drivers from my company have told me that they will not return to work at the crossing under any circumstances. They have resigned. Those who remain are not continuing because they want to, but because they are forced to provide for their families.” The IDF confirmed the shooting incident but gave a different version of the sequence of events. “On Wednesday, IDF troops identified three aid truck drivers who had stopped along the Philadelphi corridor and exited their trucks contrary to established procedures,” a military spokesperson said. IDF troops operating in the area detained the drivers for questioning. Simultaneously, the driver of another truck that had stopped at a nearby roadblock ran toward the troops, they said. The troops initiated the suspect apprehension protocol and, after perceiving an immediate threat, opened fire toward the driver. “As a result of the fire, the driver was injured. The troops provided him with initial medical treatment at the scene. He was later transferred, in coordination with the Red Cross, for further medical treatment,” the military spokesperson said, adding that the incident was under review. Truckers from private companies are routinely hired by the UN and other humanitarian agencies to transport food and other essential goods into Gaza and around the strip. The flow of aid into the territory has increased markedly since a partly observed ceasefire in October, but with the Israeli army still occupying more than 60% of the territory and continuing to carry out strikes aimed at targets deemed to be linked to Hamas, working as a lorry driver is an extremely dangerous job. On 21 May, two Palestinian drivers were alleged to have been shot in similar circumstances to Ahmad Esleem. According to local accounts, Muhammad al-Heela and Mahmoud Awad were detained by Israeli soldiers for some days and then released near a roundabout in Rafah, and were then shot by their captors after they had walked a few metres away. The IDF told the truckers’ association that the drivers’ route had not been coordinated with the military, but Jihad Esleem denied the claim, insisting it had been registered and approved. The previous month, Israeli soldiers shot dead two drivers working for the UN child protection agency Unicef as they were filling their water trucks at an established distribution point at Mansoura in northern Gaza. Questioned on the incident, the IDF said its soldiers had “perceived a threat”, without providing further details. In April 2024, seven WCK employees were killed by an Israeli airstrike on a convoy in southern Gaza. The victims were from the UK, Australia, Poland and Palestine, and one was a US-Canada dual citizen. “Drivers are subjected to daily violations, including beatings, abuse, humiliation, and being forced to stand for long hours under the sun,” Esleem said. “Even more disturbing, the soldier who shot Ahmad talked to the three surviving drivers afterward and threatened them, saying they would meet the same fate as Ahmad. This clearly indicates that the attack was deliberate.” The Transport Companies’ Association is due to hold an emergency board meeting on Friday to discuss the suspension of operations at the Kerem Shalom crossing. “It is important that everyone understand that the Palestinian truck driver is the vital link and the first point of contact between the Israeli side and Gaza. They should not be prevented from carrying out this role,” Esleem said. On top of the risks from armed forces, he said the association’s drivers were being put further at risk by being asked to smuggle contraband, mostly cigarettes, by soldiers and traders. “I hold the IDF responsible for the continuation of these dangerous acts, because truck drivers have no role in smuggling,” Esleem said. He added that there had been an incident on Wednesday of traders attempting to smuggle cigarettes hidden inside hollowed-out pineapples.

Tehran launches more strikes as Israel warns it is ready to strike Iran again ‘with even greater force’ – as it happened

Iran accused the US of launching a strike near its only civilian nuclear plant as renewed hostilities continued between the warring parties for a second day. Iranian media reported several explosions in the Bushehr province in southern Iran, including near the nuclear power plant located in the provincial capital of the same name. Local officials said there were no reports of casualties. Iranian authorities also said that US overnight strikes hit three railways bridges, including one on a line that connects the capital Tehran to the north-eastern city of Mashhad. Thousands of people have gathered there where the assassinated former supreme leader Ali Khamenei will be buried at the Shrine of Imam Reza. It follows a week of mass funeral processions around Iran and Iraq that has coincided with the fresh bout of fighting with the US. In the enormous crowds, a massive banner reading “We Will Kill Trump” was pulled along by mourners, and there have been many chants of “Trump, we will kill you” and “death to America”. See here and here for more. The recent wave of US strikes in Iran killed 14 people and injured 78 others, the Iranian health ministry said. “Of the injured, 47 remain hospitalised,” said the head of public relations for Iran’s ministry of health. Tehran responded with retaliatory strikes against what it described as US bases across the Gulf, including in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Jordan. A US official told AFP on Thursday that the dozens of missiles and drones fired by Iran caused no significant damage or injuries to US personnel. Meanwhile, Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz said his country was prepared to resume its military campaign against Iran if needed, vowing to do so “with even greater force”. Benjamin Netanyahu also said Iran had been weakened by the two previous military campaigns Israel launched against it, but he also said “the campaign is not over”. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) navy said that US ⁠attacks ⁠on Iran and intervention in redirecting shipping through ⁠the strait of Hormuz were disrupting the ⁠strategic waterway’s gradual reopening ‌and jeopardising the ‌interests of countries benefiting ‌from it.