ISRAEL – An Israeli strike killed at least 11 Palestinians overnight, including the director general of Gaza police and a deputy, in Al-Mawasi, southern Gaza, local officials said Thursday. Gaza’s interior ministry accused Israel of killing Maj. Gen. Mahmoud Salah, aged 50 and a father-of-four, and Maj. Gen. Hussam Shahwan, a member of the Police Command Council, to undermine law and order in the Palestinian territory. “By committing the crime of assassinating the Director General of Police in the Gaza Strip, the occupation is insisting on spreading chaos in the Strip and deepening the human suffering of citizens,” the ministry said in a Thursday statement. The Israeli military said it killed Shahwan, the deputy, on Thursday. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that Shahwan was a “terrorist” who was “responsible for developing intelligence assessments in coordination with elements of Hamas’ military wing” in Gaza. The IDF did not acknowledge Salah’s killing in its statement.

The Israeli offensive since the Hamas-led October 7 attacks in 2023 has eroded law infrastructure in Gaza. The presence of heavily armed groups has also stifled relief efforts in a territory besieged by Israel’s sustained aid restrictions and severe hunger, disease and mass displacement. Palestinian police have played a key role in ensuring the safe delivery of humanitarian aid. But human rights agencies have repeatedly warned that Israel’s sustained aid restrictions have strangled relief operations in the enclave, citing lengthy truck inspections, damaged roads, strikes on aid convoys and impeded access to the north.

In November, the United Nations warned of a “collapse of law and order” leading to dozens of trucks being looted at gunpoint. A few days later, the chief of the UN’s agency for Palestine refugees stressed that Israel, as the occupying power, must ensure that aid flows safely into Gaza. Israel’s war in Gaza has erased entire families, decimated the health care system and reduced entire neighborhoods to debris. At least 45,581 Palestinians have been killed and more than 108,400 people injured, the Ministry of Health there reported on Thursday. (CNN)

Photo: Palestinians survey the aftermath of an Israeli strike in Al-Mawasi, southern Gaza. (Reuters)

USA – Chinese car maker BYD saw its sales jump at the end of last year, as it competes with Tesla to be the world’s best-selling electric vehicle (EV) maker of 2024. The company says it sold 207,734 EVs in December, taking its annual total to 1.76 million, as subsidies and discounts helped attract customers.

It comes as Tesla is due to announce its own quarterly sales figures later on Thursday. The US electric car maker maintained a slim lead in EV sales over BYD in the previous quarter but the S henzhen-based firm has been narrowing the gap. BYD’s total vehicle sales jumped more than 41% in 2024, year-on-year. The surge was powered mainly by sales of its hybrid cars.

The company has benefited from a rise in car sales in its home market, as intense competition drove down prices and government subsidies encouraged consumers to replace their old cars with EVs or other more fuel efficient options. BYD sells 90% of its cars in China, where its been extending its lead over foreign brands like Volkswagen and Toyota. The rise of BYD and other Chinese EV makers contrasts with the challenges faced by some legacy car makers, which have been struggling in major Western markets. Last month, Honda and Nissan confirmed that they were holding merger talks, as the two Japanese firms seek to fight back against competition from the Chinese car industry. (BBC)

Photo: The Chinese EV maker saw record sales in December. (Getty Images)

HELSINKI – Agnes Keleti, the world’s oldest living Olympic gold medallist and a Holocaust survivor, has died at the age of 103. Five-time Olympic champion Hungarian gymnast Keleti won her first gold aged 31 at the 1952 Games in Helsinki, before winning four more in Melbourne in 1956 to become the oldest female gymnast to win gold. Her 10 Olympic medals, including five golds, make Keleti the second most successful Hungarian athlete of all time.

Keleti was born in Budapest in 1921 and won her first Hungarian championship in 1940, but later that year she was banned from all sports activities because of her Jewish origin. According to the Hungarian Olympic Committee (HOC), Keleti escaped deportation to Nazi death camps by hiding in a village south of Budapest with false papers. Her father and several relatives died in the Auschwitz death camp.

A year after the Melbourne Games, Keleti settled in Israel, where she married and had two children while coaching gymnastics. Keleti died on Thursday at Budapest Military Hospital, where she was being treated for heart failure and breathing difficulties, says the HOC. She would have turned 104 on 9 January. (BBC)

RIYADH  –  Syria’s top diplomat says he hopes to open a “new, bright page” with Saudi Arabia upon arriving in the kingdom, the first foreign visit for Syria’s new rulers. The visit, which began late last Wednesday, came less than a month after former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was ousted by rebel forces on December 8. “I have just arrived in the sisterly Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, accompanied by the Minister of Defense Murhaf Abu Qasra and the Head of the General Intelligence Service Anas Khattab,” Asaad al-Shaibani posted on X.

“Through this first visit in the history of Free Syria, we aspire to open a new, bright page in Syrian-Saudi relations that befits the long shared history between the two countries,” he added. Al-Shaibani was appointed foreign minister on December 21 by Syria’s interim government, becoming the country’s first top diplomat since al-Assad’s overthrow. Earlier last Wednesday, Syrian state media said the delegation was visiting the kingdom “at the invitation of the Saudi foreign minister”. A statement shared by Syria’s Foreign Ministry said Saudi Arabia’s Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Waleed bin Abdulkarim El Khereiji received the delegation at the international airport in Riyadh.

The Syrian delegation includes Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra and General Intelligence Chief Anas Khattab, underscoring the visit’s diplomatic and strategic significance. In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera aired on Tuesday, al-Shaibani called for the lifting of all Western sanctions on Syria as he detailed the new administration’s plans for the country’s future. Adam Clements, a former US diplomat and Pentagon official, said Saudi Arabia is working to establish strong ties with Syria as Iran loses its influence over the country. “I think this is very significant,” he told Al Jazeera on Thursday. He said that from a “diplomatic standpoint”, Riyadh wants to forge stronger ties with the new Syrian administration.

“Saudi Arabia would have a big role as well … at the outset of construction and reconstruction. Syria is very dependent on Iran for oil and fuel, and so I think Gulf States could also support that as well,” he said. In an interview with Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television, Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, also referred to as Abu Mohammed al-Julani said Riyadh “will certainly have a large role in Syria’s future”, pointing to “a big investment opportunity for all neighbouring countries”. Al-Sharaa heads the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group that led the rebel offensive that ousted al-Assad.

Syria’s economy and infrastructure have been devastated by more than 13 years of civil war that began with a crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 2011. Saudi Arabia severed ties with al-Assad’s government in 2012 and backed Syrian rebels seeking to overthrow him early in the country’s civil war. In 2023, the Arab League readmitted Syria after more than a decade of suspension. (Al Jazeera)

Photo: Syria’s newly appointed Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani and Saudi Deputy Foreign Minister Waleed El Khereiji shake hands in Riyadh. (Reuters)