Thousands of Palestinians stream to Rafah for safety

Displaced Palestinians arrive at a makeshift tent camp in Rafah

The Israeli-Hamas war has already driven around 85 per cent of Gaza's 2.3 million people from their homes, leveling the northern part of the territory and heightening fears about a similar fate for the south as Israel's air and ground offensive widened Friday.

Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have streamed into the town of Rafah in the southernmost end of Gaza in recent days, according to the United Nations, crowding into an already overwhelmed area of the embattled territory.

The mother of eight-year-old twins Ahmed and Jihan Nasser, who were killed during Israeli bombardment, kisses their hands as she mourns. Pics/AP

More than 20,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and children, have been killed since the start of the war. Doze ns were killed Thursday during Israel's bombardment of cities, towns and refugee camps across Gaza.

A Hamas official said Thursday that a "partial or temporary cessation of aggression" wouldn't be enough to free the more than 100 hostages who Israel says remain in captivity in Gaza.

Iran executes four suspected of having links to Mossad

Iran executed on Friday four people and sentenced several others to prison for having alleged links with Israel's Mossad security service, local media reported.
Mizan, the news website affiliated with the country's judiciary, said three men and one woman were executed Friday morning. It identified the men as Vafa Hanareh, Aram Omari, Rahman Parhazo and the woman as Nasim Namazi. It didn't say how the deaths were carried out, but Iran usually applies hanging.

The four were charged with kidnapping several Iranian security forces to extract intelligence information. They were also accused of setting fire to cars and homes of some of Iran's intelligence agents. Several others working with the group were each sentenced to 10 years in jail.

10yrs
Amount of jail time awarded to other suspects

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever