WASHINGTON, July 22:  The United States has urged its citizens to defer their non-essential travel to Israel and the West Bank in view of the ongoing hostilities in Gaza.
“The Department of State recommends that U citizens consider the deferral of non-essential travel to Israel and the West Bank and reaffirms the longstanding strong warning to US citizens against any travel to the Gaza Strip,” the State Department said yesterday.
Noting that the security environment remains complex in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza, the travel advisory said US citizens need to be aware of the risks of travel to these areas because of the current conflict between Hamas and Israel.
“The Department of State continues its longstanding strong warning to US citizens against travel to the Gaza Strip; US government employees are not allowed to conduct official or personal travel there,” it said.
In light of the ongoing rocket attacks, US citizen visitors to and US citizen residents of Israel and the West Bank should familiarise themselves with the location of the nearest bomb shelter or other hardened site, if available, it said.
Travellers should avoid areas of Israel in the vicinity of the Gaza Strip due to the real risks presented by small arms fire, anti-tank weapons, rockets, and mortars, as attacks from Gaza can come with little or no warning, it said. (PTI)

MEXICO CITY, July 22:  Authorities in the northern Mexico state of Sinaloa say they have found the bodies of five men in a clandestine burial site.
An official of the state prosecutor’s office who was not authorised to be quoted by name said yesterday that the bodies were found one day earlier in a wooded area near a village. The official says the bodies were all males and none have yet been identified.
Sinaloa is home to the drug cartel of the same name, which is considered Mexico’s most powerful.
Drug cartels frequently dispose of their victims in clandestine graves as do kidnap gangs. (AGENCIES)

WASHINGTON, July 22:  Hillary Clinton, the former US Secretary of State and a 2016 presidential contender, has called for tougher sanctions on Russia in view of the shooting down of a Malaysian passenger plane allegedly by Russia-backed Ukrainian separatist.
“We should work to bring our European allies together with us on tougher sanctions that would make it clear to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin that there is a price to pay for this kind of behavior,” Clinton said yesterday.
She said that the US should encourage Europeans to start immediately to make sure they are less dependent on Russian energy so they are not intimidated.
All 298 people on board Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur were killed when the Boeing 777 aircraft was apparently hit by a surface-to-air missile on Thursday and crashed into a rebel-controlled area near the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine close to the Russian border.
During an question and answer session organized by the Facebook in the Silicon Valley, she said the tragic incident deserve a full investigation.
“I would like to see more support given to the Ukrainians to guard their borders and to protect themselves,” said Clinton, who is currently visiting the Silicon Valley.
The former First Lady, however, did not respond to question about the 2016 presidential campaign. (PTI)

JERUSALEM, July 22:  Two Israeli soldiers were killed in combat in the Gaza Strip, the army said today, raising the number of troops killed in the 15-day conflict with Hamas to 27.
“Yesterday, Monday, two IDF (Israel Defence Forces) soldiers were killed during battles of Operation Protective Edge,” a statement from the army read.
The army said three other soldiers were seriously wounded over the course of the night.
In Gaza, 576 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its operation on July 8, according to data provided by the enclave’s emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra today.
Since the offensive began huge numbers of Gazans have fled their homes, with the UN saying more than 100,000 people have sought shelter in 69 schools run by its Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA).
Since the Israeli military launched Operation Protective Edge in a bid to stamp out rocket fire, Palestinian militants have fired 1,570 mortars and rockets that hit Israel, with air defences intercepting another 396, the army said.
Two Israeli civilians have been killed by rocket and mortar fire since the start of the offensive. (AGENCIES)

UNITED NATIONS, July 22:  The UN agency assisting Palestinian refugees has said that over 100,000 internally displaced people are seeking safety in its facilities amid deteriorating security conditions in the Gaza Strip as it appealed for USD 60 million for urgent humanitarian needs.
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said the number of people seeking refuge with the agency, which has opened nearly 70 shelters, has exceeded 100,000.
It issued the emergency appeal for funds to respond to the urgent humanitarian needs of the people of Gaza, including tens of thousands who have fled their homes in the wake of the Israeli military offensive that has killed more than 550 Palestinians and wounded over 3,500.
“This is a watershed moment for UNRWA, now that the number of people seeking refuge with us is more than double the figure we saw in the 2009 Gaza conflict. We are seeing a huge wave of accelerated displacement because of the Israeli ground offensive,” UNRWA spokesperson Chris Gunness said.
As the number of casualties and injured civilians rises in the Gaza Strip, aid agencies have geared up for the emergency response and mobilised relief supplies from the International Humanitarian City (IHC) in Dubai.
The supplies have been donated to UNRWA for thousands of vulnerable displaced families in Gaza.
A special airlift in support of displaced families in Gaza began on Sunday from Dubai, where a 747 cargo took off carrying 115 metric tons of aid, containing 45,000 mattresses, 10,000 blankets and 220 hygiene kits.
“We are very grateful for the immediate reaction and most generous response we received from Dubai and all the IHC members to our call for help,” UNRWA Commissioner General Pierre Krahenbuhl said.
In the coming days, more airlifts are scheduled to arrive in Amman, from where UNRWA will truck the aid into Gaza for distribution. UNRWA plans to expand the scope of the donations to include emergency food parcels as stocks of food and other essential goods dwindle.
The agency said the main priority for humanitarian agencies continues to be the provision of food, water, mattresses and hygiene items, as well as fuel for essential water, health and sewage facilities.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon has urged all parties to rally around collective international efforts to obtain an end to bloodshed in Gaza and Israel and reach a ceasefire, as he continued his visit to the region with a stop in Cairo.
“Palestinians and Israelis deserve freedom – freedom from siege, rockets, missiles, artillery and airstrikes. They deserve a future of hope, peace and justice,” Ban said.
Ban was in Egypt yesterday on the third leg of a regional tour aimed at ending the two-week long violence.
The trip, which began on Sunday, has already taken him to Qatar and Kuwait and will include stops in Jerusalem, Ramallah and Amman as part of efforts to encourage a durable ceasefire.
The World Food Programme continues to provide daily food rations, together with UNRWA, and more than 50,000 people have received emergency assistance in the last few days. (PTI)

WAHINGTON, July 22:  Amid the escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip, the US has said that Israel must take greater steps to meet its own standards for protecting civilians from being killed in the ongoing military operation.
“The President is concerned about the violence that we’ve seen experienced by civilians on both sides of the border. There are reports of Israeli casualties and many more reports of Palestinian casualties. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those who have been killed. Our condolences are with the Palestinian people and the Israeli people for the losses that they have suffered,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters.
“What is unacceptable, though, is for Hamas to continue firing rockets aimed squarely at Israeli civilians. That is not a situation that any country could tolerate, and it is why the Israeli political leadership has the right to use their military might to defend their people,” he said.
“At the same time, the Israelis say that they uphold high standards in terms of ensuring that those operations take into account the safety and well-being of innocent civilians. What this escalation in violence makes clear is that Israel must take greater steps to meet its own standards for protecting civilians from being killed. And we’ll continue to send that message directly to the Israelis,” Earnest said.
Israel, he said, faces a significant threat from Hamas.
“That is apparent from the barrage of rocket attacks that have been fired off by Hamas. That’s apparent from the infrastructure of tunnels that Hamas has used to carry out acts of violence,” he noted.
“What’s also clear is that this Israeli offensive has made progress in dismantling this infrastructure. And again, it is within Israel’s right to take those kinds of steps. At the same time, we also want to make sure that Israel is doing everything that they can to live up to their own standards related to protecting the welfare and well-being of innocent civilian bystanders,” he added.
Earnest said Israelis have the right to defend themselves, and they have taken steps to do exactly that.
“We’ve seen their population subjected to repeated volleys of rocket fire. What distinguishes the Hamas actions from the Israeli actions is that Hamas is squarely targeting their rocket fire at innocent Israeli civilians. The Israeli military, on the other hand, does have standards for trying to protect the life of innocent civilians, even innocent Palestinian civilians,” he said.
“What we would like to see, however, is we would like Israel to take greater steps to ensure that they’re living up to those standards,” he added. (PTI)

WASHINGTON, July 22:  The United States has no agenda except for getting to the truth of shooting down of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, allegedly by the Russia-backed Ukrainian separatist, the White House has said.
“The (US) President’s priority is that this investigation should be conducted by an international set of investigators that don’t have an agenda beyond getting to the truth,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters.
His remarks came as the Obama Administration intensified its international effort for an independent and impartial investigation into the shooting down of the Malaysian plane that killed all the 298 people on board.
The Boeing 777 was on a scheduled flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down over pro-Russia rebels-held territory of the eastern Ukraine on Thursday.
It is still not clear if the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down purposely or mistakenly.
“We want to make sure that those who are conducting this investigation aren’t just neutral arbiters, but are also trained; that these are professionals who are conducting these investigations, people that have experience in dealing with these kinds of matters,” Earnest said.
“That is the focus of the President’s immediate concern right now. That is why we believe that President (Vladimir) Putin should take the steps that are necessary to use his influence to ensure that those international investigators can have access to the scene so we can get to the bottom of what exactly happened. That should be, frankly, in everybody’s interest,” he said in response to a question.
Public reports and some intelligence assessments, he noted, paint a pretty clear picture about what’s happened and who is culpable.
“It also paints a pretty clear picture of how the Russians have contributed to this tragedy. It is why we are hopeful that the pressure of the international community can be brought to bear in a way that will force Russia and President Putin to contribute to a solution to the situation in Ukraine,” he said.
“The investigation that we would like to see on the ground would only add to the body of evidence that’s already been assembled and reported about what exactly happened last Thursday morning in eastern Ukraine,” he said.
“So everybody that is interested in the truth and getting to the bottom of what actually happened will be strongly supportive of ensuring that these international, impartial, professional investigators have unfettered access to the scene so that they can determine exactly what happened and why it happened,” Earnest added. (PTI)
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policeKABUL, July 22: A Taliban suicide attacker riding a motorbike killed at least four foreigners in a compound in Kabul today, police said, in the latest blast to rock the capital during a prolonged impasse over presidential election results.
“Our initial reports show the explosion took place inside the foreigners’ compound, four foreigners were killed and six were wounded,” Kabul police chief Zahir Zahir told AFP.
“The foreigners were exercising inside at the time.” (AGENCIES)