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Sirens sound for first time in months as Hamas says it fired rockets

Rocket sirens have sounded across central Israel, including in Tel Aviv, for the first time in months, as Hamas claimed to have fired a barrage of rockets from Gaza.

The militants have continued to fire projectiles at communities around Gaza more than seven months into the war but have not fired longer-range rockets in months. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage from the latest barrage.

Earlier on Sunday, aid trucks entered Gaza from southern Israel through a new agreement to bypass the Rafah crossing with Egypt after Israeli forces seized the Palestinian side of it earlier this month. It was unclear if humanitarian groups would be able to access the aid because of ongoing fighting in the area.

READ MORE: Papua New Guinea death toll update from International Organisation for Migration 

Egypt refuses to reopen its side of the Rafah crossing until control of the Gaza side is handed back to Palestinians. It agreed to temporarily divert traffic through Israel's Kerem Shalom crossing, Gaza's main cargo terminal, after a call between United States President Joe Biden and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.

But that crossing has been largely inaccessible because of fighting linked to Israel's offensive in the nearby city of Rafah. Israel says it has allowed hundreds of trucks to enter, but United Nations agencies say it is usually too dangerous to retrieve the aid on the other side.

The war between Israel and Hamas, now in its eighth month, has killed nearly 36,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials. About 80 per cent of the population's 2.3 million people have fled their homes, severe hunger is widespread and United Nations officials say parts of the territory are experiencing famine.

Hamas triggered the war with its October 7 attack into Israel, in which Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and seized some 250 hostages. Hamas is still holding some 100 hostages and the remains of around 30 others after most of the rest were released during a cease-fire last year.

Hamas claimed to have captured an Israeli soldier during fighting in northern Gaza and released video late on Saturday showing a wounded man being dragged through a tunnel.

The Israeli military denied any of its soldiers had been captured, and Hamas did not provide any other evidence to substantiate its claim.

READ MORE: Man walking length of Australia for basic income rescued from cliffside 

In a separate development, the Israeli military said it had detained a suspect over a widely circulated video in which a man dressed as an Israeli soldier threatens mutiny.

In the video, the man said tens of thousands of soldiers were ready to disobey Defence Minister Yoav Gallant over his suggestion that Palestinians should govern Gaza after the war and pledged loyalty to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alone.

It was not clear if the man was on active duty, or when or where the video was made. Yair Netanyahu, the prime minister's son, had shared the video on social media, sparking criticism from political opponents.

The prime minister's office released a brief statement condemning all forms of military subordination.'

READ MORE: Light plane makes crash landing at Bankstown Airport 

Southern Gaza largely cut off from aid

Egypt's state-run Al-Qahera TV aired footage of what it said were trucks entering Gaza through Kerem Shalom.

Khaled Zayed, head of the Egyptian Red Crescent in the Sinai Peninsula, which handles the delivery of aid from the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing, told The Associated Press that 200 aid trucks and four fuel trucks are scheduled to be sent to Kerem Shalom on Sunday.

It was not immediately clear if the UN was able to retrieve the aid from the Gaza side.

Southern Gaza has been largely cut off from aid since Israel launched what it says is a limited incursion into Rafah on May 6. Since then, over 1 million Palestinians have fled the city, with most having already been displaced from other parts of the besieged territory.

Northern Gaza, which has been largely isolated by Israeli troops for months and where the UN's World Food Program says famine is already underway, is still receiving aid through two land routes that Israel opened in the face of worldwide outrage after Israeli strikes killed seven aid workers in April.

A few dozen trucks have also been entering Gaza daily through a US-built floating pier, but its capacity remains far below the 150 trucks a day that officials had hoped for. Aid groups say the territory needs a total of 600 trucks a day to meet colossal humanitarian needs.

READ MORE: Australia's medicine shortages impacting more than 400 drugs 

Netanyahu resists pressure to end war

Netanyahu has said Israel must take over Rafah in order to eliminate Hamas' last remaining battalions and achieve its goal of "total victory" over the militants, who have recently regrouped in other parts of Gaza where the military had already operated.

Netanyahu faces growing pressure from the Israeli public to make a deal with Hamas to free the remaining hostages, something Hamas has refused to do without guarantees for an end to the war and the full withdrawal of Israeli troops. Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders have ruled that out.

Scuffles broke out between Israeli police and protesters in Tel Aviv on Saturday after thousands gathered to demonstrate against the government and demand the return of the hostages. The protesters called for Netanyahu's resignation and demanded new elections.

International pressure is also growing, as the war leaves Israel increasingly isolated on the world stage.

Last week, three European countries announced they would recognize a Palestinian state, and the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court requested arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, along with three Hamas leaders.

On Friday, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to end its military offensive in Rafah. The top United Nations court also said Israel must give war crimes investigators access to Gaza.

Israel is unlikely to comply with the orders, and has sharply condemned the ICC's move toward arrest warrants for its leaders. Israel says it makes every effort to avoid harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas because the militants operate in dense, residential areas.

The Gaza Health Ministry said Sunday that the bodies of 81 people killed by Israeli strikes have been brought to local hospitals over the past 24 hours. That brings the overall Palestinian death toll from the war to at least 35,984. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and fighters in its count.

The Israeli government has said that 14,000 militants and 16,000 civilians have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, without providing evidence.

Students scared after ‘Jew die’ threat sprayed on school fence

The principal of Melbourne's biggest Jewish school says his students are terrified after a death threat was sprayed across its fence.

Jewish leaders say they're experiencing the worst antisemitism in decades and the government needs to step in.

The statement, "Jew die", was sprayed across the entrance of Mount Scopus Memorial College late on Friday night.

READ MORE: Light plane makes crash landing at Bankstown Airport 

School principal Dan Sztrajt was notified early on Saturday.

"What's happened here is a product of the massive rise in antisemitism we've seen across Australia over the last few months," he said.

Sztrajt said his students no longer felt safe and the school had to increase its security.

Jewish Community Council of Victoria president Philip Zajac condemned the graffiti.

"It's [not] acceptable to have hatred being used as a way of terrorising school children," he said.

"This school was set up 75 years ago by Holocaust survivors, and their intention was to create a school that was safe for Jewish people, and unfortunately, that's as true now as it was 75 years ago."

READ MORE: Australia's medicine shortages impacting more than 400 drugs 

A police investigation is underway.

Last year the public display of the swastika and the Nazi salute was outlawed.

But Jewish leaders want the government to do more.

"Sadly I think it continues to go on because the government are not being strong enough, are not doing anything to try and stamp it out," Zajac said

Premier Jacinta Allen also condemned the threat.

"The biggest victims of anti-Semitism are children," she said, in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

"This is unacceptable in any community, in any school – anywhere.

"Sending strength to Scopus and the whole community."

Driver’s lucky escape after horror roundabout crash in Adelaide

A man has escaped a car wreckage with minor injuries after a horror crash at a roundabout in Adelaide this morning.

Emergency services were called to Britannia Roundabout about 2am after a Toyota station wagon lost control and crashed into a pedestrian island.

The car became airborne and smashed into a large gum tree at the centre of the roundabout, causing the car to flip and roll.

READ MORE: Rescue under way after man falls 10m down Queensland mountainside

The 28-year-old male driver managed to free himself from the wreckage.

He was taken to hospital for treatment of minor injuries and will undergo mandatory testing.

The roundabout was closed for more than two hours while emergency services cleared the scene.

All roads have since reopened.

At least 27 people killed in amusement park fire in India

A major fire broke out yesterday at an amusement park in Gujarat state in western India, killing at least 27 people, including several children, police and media reports said.

The fire erupted at the park in the city of Rajkot in Gujarat state.

Police Commissioner Raju Bhargava said that the blaze was under control and a rescue operation was underway.

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Police officer Vinayak Patel said that it was difficult to identify the bodies.

Police said they have detained the owner and the manager of the amusement park for questioning as they launched an investigation in the cause.

"So far we have confirmed the death of 27 persons in the fire incident," the Press Trust of India news agency quoted Patel as saying, adding that the dead included four children under the age of 12.

The park is usually packed with families with children enjoying the school summer vacation over the weekend.

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The flames at an amusement park in India.

Footage showed firefighters clearing debris around collapsed tin roof structures that media reports said were used for bowling, go-carting, and trampoline attractions.

The amusement park was privately owned by Yuvraj Singh Solanki and Bhargava said that police would file a case of negligence against him.

"We will be registering an offense for negligence and the deaths which have occurred. Further investigation will take place once we complete the rescue operation," he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on X that he was "extremely distressed by the fire … in Rajkot. My thoughts are with all those who have lost their loved ones. Prayers for the injured".

Fires are common in India, where builders and residents often flout building laws and safety codes.

Light plane makes crash landing at Bankstown Airport

A man and a woman are lucky to be alive after the light aircraft they were travelling in was forced to make a crash landing.

Emergency services rushed to Bankstown Airport in Sydney's south-west about 2pm today after reports of a crash.

Both the male pilot and female passenger managed to exit the aircraft uninjured.

READ MORE: Rescue under way after man falls 10m down Queensland mountainside

The female passenger told 9News the pair didn't think they were going to clear the airport's hangar.

"It was scary… nerve wracking," she said.

"Thinking about all these homes, you could you know… if you don't make the runway.

"We didn't think we were going to make this landing strip here."

Police said an investigation was underway into the circumstances surrounding the crash.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has been notified and are conducting inquiries.

More than 670 believed dead as PNG landslide death toll soars

The International Organisation for Migration has increased its estimate of the death toll from a massive landslide in Papua New Guinea to more than 670.

Serhan Aktoprak, the chief of the United Nations migration agency's mission in the South Pacific island nation, said the revised death toll was based on calculations by Yambali village and Enga provincial officials that more than 150 homes had been buried by Friday's landslide. The previous estimate had been 60 homes.

"They are estimating that more than 670 people (are) under the soil at the moment," Aktoprak told The Associated Press on Sunday afternoon.

READ MORE: Light plane makes crash landing at Bankstown Airport 

PNG

Local officials had initially put the death toll on Friday at 100 or more. Only five bodies and a leg of a sixth victim had been recovered by Sunday.

Emergency responders in Papua New Guinea were moving survivors to safer ground on Sunday as tons of unstable earth and tribal warfare, which is rife in the country's Highlands, threatened the rescue effort.

The South Pacific island's government meanwhile is considering whether it needs to officially request more international support.

Crews have given up hope of finding survivors under earth and rubble six to eight metres deep, Aktoprak said.

"People are coming to terms with this so there is a serious level of grieving and mourning," he said.

Government authorities were establishing evacuation centres on safer ground on either side of the massive swathe of debris that covers an area the size of three to four football fields and has cut the main highway through the province.

READ MORE: Australia's medicine shortages impacting more than 400 drugs 

PNG

"Working across the debris is very dangerous and the land is still sliding," Aktoprak said.

Beside the blocked highway, convoys that have transported food, water and other essential supplies since Saturday to the devastated village 60 kilometres from the provincial capital, Wabag, have faced risks related to tribal fighting in Tambitanis village, about halfway along the route. Papua New Guinea soldiers were providing security for the convoys.

Eight locals were killed in a clash between two rival clans on Saturday in a longstanding dispute unrelated to the landslide. Around 30 homes and five retail businesses were burned down in the fighting, local officials said.

Aktoprak said he did not expect tribal combatants would target the convoys but noted that opportunistic criminals might take advantage of the mayhem to do so.

"This could basically end up in carjacking or robbery," Aktoprak said.

"There is not only concern for the safety and security of the personnel, but also the goods because they may use this chaos as a means to steal."

Longtime tribal warfare has cast doubt on the official estimate that almost 4000 people were living in the village when a side of Mount Mungalo fell away.

Justine McMahon, country director of the humanitarian agency CARE International, said moving survivors to "more stable ground" was an immediate priority along with providing them with food, water and shelter. The military was leading those efforts.

The numbers of injured and missing were still being assessed on Sunday. Seven people including a child had received medical treatment by Saturday, but officials had no details on their conditions.

Medical facilities were buried along with houses, several small businesses, a guest house, school and gas station, officials said.

McMahon said there were other health facilities in the region, the provincial government was sending health workers and the World Health Organisation was mobilising staff.

"There will be some support, but it's such a spread-out area that I think it will be quite a challenging situation," McMahon said.

"The scale of this disaster is quite immense."

While Papua New Guinea is in the tropics, the village is 2000 metres above sea level where temperatures are substantially cooler.

Papua New Guinea Defence Minister Billy Joseph and the government's National Disaster Centre director Laso Mana were flying from Port Moresby by helicopter to Wabag on Sunday to gain a firsthand perspective of what is needed.

Aktoprak expected the government would decide by Tuesday whether it would officially request more international help.

The United States and Australia, Papua New Guinea's most generous provider of foreign aid, are among governments that have publicly stated their readiness to do more to help responders.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said Australia stands ready to assist.

"All Australians grieve for our brothers and sisters in Papua New Guinea after the terrible landslide," he wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, today.

"We send our deepest condolences to those affected."

Papua New Guinea is a diverse, developing nation with 800 languages and 10 million people who are mostly subsistence farmers.