WORLD BRIEFING: October 8, 2023
Israel battered Gaza on Sunday, a day after suffering its bloodiest attack in decades when Hamas fighters rampaged through Israeli towns, killing hundreds and abducting an unknown number of others, threatening a major new war in the Middle East - Reuters
The death toll on the Israeli side has reached 600 and more than 2,000 wounded, Haaretz reported on Sunday. In the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Health Ministry said 313 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip thus far, and 1,990 have been wounded.
The Israeli security cabinet approved on Saturday evening Prime Minister Netanyahu to take military action that could lead to war. This decision, reflecting Netanyahu's public statements, will allow him to authorize significant military operations in the Gaza Strip. The declaration will be brought to the approval of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday, and subsequently, to the parliament - Haaretz
President Biden is closely monitoring the situation in Israel and offers American support, aiming to prevent the violence from spreading further. “The United States stands with Israel. We will not ever fail to have their back,” he said.
A major earthquake in Afghanistan has killed more than 2,000 people, the Taliban says. The earthquakes hit 20 miles northwest of the city of Herat, with one of 6.3 magnitude. They were among the world's deadliest quakes in a year when tremors in Turkey and Syria killed an estimated 50,000 in February - Reuters
At least 16 civilians have been wounded in Russian attacks in the south and east of Ukraine, Ukrainian authorities said. A Russian attack on the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson on October 8 left a dozen people wounded, including a 27-year-old woman and her nine-month-old baby, the regional governor said. “The Kherson region experienced another terrible night,” governor Oleksandr Prokudin wrote on Telegram - RFE/RL
The family of legendary Congolese guitarist Lokassa ya Mbongo say they are going through "unbearable pain" and "humiliation" as they wait for government help to bury him almost seven months after his death. Lokassa's body is lying in a morgue in Democratic Republic Congo's capital Kinshasa after being flown back from the US in accordance with his wish to be buried in his home country. His son André Marie Lokassa told the BBC that the government had promised to help organise a funeral that would be "worthy" of the music star's name, but it had so far failed to do so - BBC
Despite claiming that they don’t intend to impose anything by force, the Kremlin threatens to confiscate the land of many farmers of the temporarily occupied regions of Ukraine if they do not accept Russian citizenship - Yale Observatory
One of Ukraine’s most celebrated artists - Nina Matvienko - has died at the age of 75, her daughter said. The folk singer was awarded as a ‘Hero of Ukraine’ in 2006 by then President, Victor Yuschenko