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PARIS — Jailed Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi faces a new trial over accusations she made against security forces of sexually assaulting female prisoners, her family said Saturday.  The trial, due to begin Sunday, relates to an audio message she shared from prison in April with supporters in which she decried a "full-scale war against women" in the Islamic Republic.  She is charged in this latest case with making "propaganda against the regime,"  the family said.  There has been no comment on the case by Iranian judicial authorities.  Her family quoted Mohammadi as saying that the trial should be held in public so "witnesses and survivors can testify to the sexual assaults perpetrated by the Islamic Republic regime against women."  Mohammadi, who is held in Tehran's Evin prison, urged Iranian women in her April message via her Instagram page to share their stories of arrest and sexual assault at the hands of the authorities.  She pointed to the case of journalist and student Dina Ghalibaf, who, according to rights groups, was arrested after accusing security forces on social media of handcuffing and sexually assaulting her during a previous arrest at a metro station. Ghalibaf was later released.  The authorities in Iran have in recent weeks intensified a crackdown obliging women to obey the country's Islamic dress code, notably making use of video surveillance.  Mohammadi has been incarcerated since November 2021 and has not seen her Paris-based husband and twin children for several years.  She said the trial that opens Sunday will be the fourth such case against her.  Mohammadi is already serving sentences based on several convictions issued in recent years, which her family says punish her for rights campaigning.  According to her family, her sentences now amount to 12 years and three months of imprisonment, 154 lashes, two years of exile and various social and political restrictions.  Mohammadi has long been a staunch opponent of the obligation for women in Iran to wear the headscarf and has continued her campaign even in prison, refusing to wear the hijab in front of male officials. 

London — Film director Mohammad Rasoulof made an "exhausting and extremely dangerous" walk across a mountainous borderland to avoid being jailed in Iran on national security charges, he told The Guardian newspaper.  Rasoulof said Monday he had fled Iran after a court sentenced him to eight years in jail, of which five were due to be served, over his new film "The Seed of the Sacred Fig."  The leading Iranian filmmaker, often a target of the country's authorities, told The Guardian in an interview published Friday that he had found shelter in Germany and was hopeful he could attend the film's Cannes premiere next week.  The film tells the story of a judge's struggles amid political unrest in Tehran.  Rasoulof told the U.K. newspaper that he had "no choice" but to leave, although he expects to return home "quite soon."  "My mission is to be able to convey the narratives of what is going on in Iran and the situation in which we are stuck as Iranians," said Rasoulof.  "This is something that I cannot do in prison.  "I have in mind the idea that I'll be back quite soon, but I think that's the case of all the Iranians who have left the country," he said.  Rasoulof has already served two terms in Iranian jails over previous films and had his passport withdrawn in 2017.  Having decided to leave, Rasoulof told the newspaper he cut all communications via mobile phones and computers and made his way by foot on a secret route to a border crossing.   "It was a several-hour long, exhausting and extremely dangerous walk that I had to do with a guide," he said.  After staying in a safe house, he contacted German authorities who provided him with papers that enabled him to travel to Europe. 

PARIS — Iran hanged at least seven people Saturday, including two women, while a member of its Jewish minority is at imminent risk of execution as the Islamic Republic further intensified its use of capital punishment, a nongovernmental organization said.  Parvin Mousavi, 53, a mother of two grown children, was hanged in Urmia prison in northwestern Iran along with five men convicted in various drug-related cases, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights, or IHR, said in a statement.  In Nishapur in eastern Iran, a 27-year-old woman named Fatemeh Abdullahi was hanged on charges of murdering her husband, who was also her cousin, it said.  IHR says it has tallied at least 223 executions this year, with at least 50 so far in May. A new surge began following the end of the Persian New Year and Ramadan holidays in April, with 115 people, including six women, hanged since then, it said.  Iran carries out more recorded executions of women than any other country. Activists say many such convicts are victims of forced or abusive marriages.  Iran last year carried out more hangings than in any year since 2015, according to nongovernmental organizations, which accuse the Islamic Republic of using capital punishment to instill fear in the wake of protests that erupted in autumn 2022.  "The silence of the international community is unacceptable," IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam told AFP.  "Those executed belong to the poor and marginalized groups of Iranian society and didn't have fair trials with due process," he said.  "Killing machine" IHR said Mousavi had been in prison for four years. It cited a source as saying she had been paid the equivalent of 15 euros to carry a package that she had been told contained medicine but was in fact 5 kilograms of morphine.  "They are the low-cost victims of the Islamic Republic's killing machine, which aims at instilling fear among people to prevent new protests," said Amiry-Moghaddam.  Meanwhile, the group said a member of Iran's Jewish community, which has drastically reduced in numbers in recent years but is still the largest in the Middle East outside Israel, was at imminent risk of execution over a murder charge.  Arvin Ghahremani, 20, was convicted of murder during a street fight when he was 18 and is scheduled to be executed in the western city of Kermanshah on Monday, IHR said, adding it had received an audio message from his mother, Sonia Saadati, asking for his life to be spared.  His family is seeking to ask the family of the victim to forgo the execution in line with Iran's Islamic law of retribution, or qisas.  Also at risk of execution is Kamran Sheikheh, the last surviving member of a group of seven Iranian Kurdish men who were first arrested in December 2009 and January 2010 and later sentenced to death for "corruption on earth" over alleged membership in extremist groups, it said.  Six men convicted in the same case have been executed in the last months almost 15 years after their initial arrest. The most recent was Khosro Besharat, who was hanged in Ghezel Hesar prison outside Tehran this week.  There has been an international outcry over the death sentence handed out last month to Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi, seen by activists as retaliation for his music backing the 2022 protests. His lawyers are appealing the verdict. 

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GENEVA — A report by the U.N. human rights office criticizes the Sri Lankan government’s failure to acknowledge and hold accountable the perpetrators of tens of thousands of enforced disappearances during the country’s decadeslong civil war.  The report notes that nearly 15 years have passed since the end of the armed conflict and yet “Sri Lankan authorities are still failing to ensure accountability” for the violations that occurred then as well as during “the earliest waves of enforced disappearances.”  In a statement issued Friday to coincide with the publication of the report, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said, “Accountability must be addressed. We need to see institutional reform for reconciliation to have a chance to succeed.”  While the civil war between the Sinhalese-dominated government and the Tamil Tigers was fought between 1983 and 2009, the report notes that from the 1970s through to the end of the war in 2009, “widespread enforced disappearances were carried out primarily by Sri Lankan security forces and affiliated paramilitary groups,” which used them “as a tool to intimidate and oppress perceived opponents.”  Authors of the report also accuse the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam of “engaging in abductions,” which were described as “tantamount to enforced disappearances” by the U.N. Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances.  Human rights officials conducted dozens of individual and group interviews with victims, mainly women. They found that the forcible disappearance of a relative continues to have profound psychological effects, including feelings of shock, fear, anger, helplessness and guilt.  “Decades later, victims reported the inability to find closure. Most cling to the hope that their relative will return,” they said.  The report describes the enduring social and economic impact on the families of those forcibly disappeared, especially on women.  It observed that “as most disappeared individuals have been male, women have often become the sole income earner for a family, in a labor environment that poses many obstacles to women’s participation, including risks of sexual harassment and exploitation.”  It adds that many women who have actively sought to find out what happened to their loved ones “have themselves been subjected to violations, including harassment, intimidation, surveillance, arbitrary detention, beatings and torture at the hands of army and police.”  On the government’s response to the report, the high commissioner’s spokesperson, Ravina Shamdasani, told journalists in Geneva Friday that “generally, there appears to be a lack of political will to provide accountability to these cases.”  “There are a lot of recurring obstacles to accountability,” she said. “There is frequent unwillingness on the part of the police to receive complaints, delays in the justice system, conflicts of interest in the attorney general’s office and reparation programs have not been developed with sufficient consultation with the victims.”  The report acknowledges that in recent years, successive Sri Lankan governments have taken some positive steps to address the issue of the missing. Those include the ratification of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, the establishment of the Office on Missing Persons and the Office for Reparations and criminalizing enforced disappearances.  However, the report finds that “tangible progress on the ground towards comprehensively resolving individual cases has remained limited.”  For example, the report notes that criminal proceedings in Sri Lanka generally are “beset by prolonged delays,” but that in cases involving enforced disappearances or other serious violations involving state officials, “the delays are even more pronounced … and are a strategy to avoid accountability.”  The report cites the case of “one of the few enforced disappearance-related cases” in which an individual was convicted and “in 2020, the then Sri Lankan president pardoned that individual.”  According to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, under international law, the state has a clear obligation to resolve cases of enforced disappearances “until the fate and whereabouts of those disappeared are clarified.”  “The government owes it to all those who have been forcibly disappeared … for these crimes to be investigated fully,” said Türk. “These crimes haunt not only their loved ones, but entire communities and Sri Lankan society as a whole.  “This report is yet another reminder that all Sri Lankans who have been subjected to enforced disappearance must never be forgotten,” he said, adding that “their families and those who care about them have been waiting for so long. They are entitled to know the truth.” 

BEIJING — Cases of bird flu have been confirmed among wild fowl in western China, the agriculture ministry said Saturday, as concerns grow over a U.S. outbreak infecting cattle.  Two counties in Qinghai province confirmed 275 cases of H5 influenza among dead Pallas's gull and other wild birds, China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said in a notice on its website.  The ministry received a report on the cases from the China Animal Disease Control Center, and the national Avian Influenza Reference Laboratory confirmed the finding, the notice said.  The H5N1 outbreak among dairy cattle in at least nine U.S. states since late March has raised questions over whether it could spread to humans. No such cases have been reported.  The U.S. announced on May 11 that it would spend close to $200 million to fight the outbreak.  News of the China bird flu cases came as the nation's anti-graft watchdog announced a corruption probe of the agriculture minister Saturday.  Tang Renjian, 61, is under investigation for "serious violations of discipline and law" by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and National Supervisory Commission, CCDI said on its website.  The term is CCDI's typical euphemism for corruption.  The notice gave no further details. 

TOKYO — The U.S. ambassador to Japan stressed Friday the importance of increased deterrence and his country’s commitment to its key ally as he visited two southwestern Japanese islands at the forefront of Tokyo's tension with Beijing. Rahm Emanuel visited Yonaguni, Japan’s westernmost island just east of Taiwan, a self-governed island also claimed by China. He later visited another Japanese island, Ishigaki, home to Japan Coast Guard patrol boats defending the disputed East China Sea islands and Japanese fishermen from armed Chinese coast guard ships that routinely enter Japanese waters. Japan has been making a southwest shift of its defense posture and is further accelerating its military buildup under a 2022 security strategy that focuses on counterstrike capability with long-range cruise missiles. Emanuel was the first U.S. ambassador to visit Yonaguni. Escorted by Mayor Kenichi Itokazu, he looked toward Taiwan, only 110 kilometers (68 miles) away. He met with Japanese Self Defense Force servicemembers at a local base installed in 2016 and where a missile defense system is planned. The ambassador said the main purpose of his visit was to show U.S. support for the local fishing community. He also met with a local fisherman who was among those affected by China’s increasingly assertive actions in the regional seas. China fired five missiles into Japan’s exclusive economic zone in 2022 after the visit to Taiwan of then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Emanuel said the fisherman told him he could not sell his fish for about a week after the Chinese action. “If they don’t have deterrence, that’s going to be worse,” Emanuel told The Associated Press from Ishigaki, the second island he visited Friday. “If you have a very robust deterrence, it ensures that there is peace, ensures that there is security, ensures economic prosperity. Without that, it’s more likely to be a green light to those that want to use economic coercion and confrontation as their only means of expression.” Emanuel said Yonaguni fishers still catch fish for a living, supporting the local economy and helping reinforce Japanese territorial rights. “That's what a real win looks like — economic security,” he said on social platform X. In Ishigaki, Japan's coast guard protects fishing boats in the disputed waters around the Japanese-controlled islands in the East China Sea that Tokyo calls Senkaku. Beijing also claims the islands and calls them Diaoyu, and its coast guard ships often face off with their Japanese counterparts. Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi welcomed the ambassador’s trip to the islands, saying it was “meaningful” for the ambassador to improve his understanding of Tokyo's efforts in reinforcing its security in the southwestern region, where additional military units and missile defense systems are being deployed. While local officials back the reinforcement of Japanese troops on the islands, residents staged a small protest amid concerns they may be the first to be affected in a possible U.S.-China conflict. Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki supports the Japan-U.S. security alliance but has called for a reduction in the number of American troops housed on the island. About half of the 50,000 American troops in Japan are based in Okinawa. Tamaki also criticized the use of Yonaguni’s commercial airport by a U.S. military aircraft used by the ambassador.

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ISLAMABAD — The Taliban government said Saturday that the death toll from an overnight gun attack on Western tourists in central Afghanistan had risen to at least six, including three Spaniards. Interior Ministry spokesperson Abdul Mateen Qani said in a video statement that the Friday evening shooting in Bamiyan city by unknown assailants left three Afghans dead. He said that four foreigners and three Afghans were among those wounded. Qani said that Taliban security forces had apprehended seven suspects in connection with the attack, reiterating his government’s resolve to bring the perpetrators to justice. Spain’s government confirmed the fatalities of its three nationals, saying another was among the injured tourists. The Spanish foreign ministry said Saturday a group of its diplomats was traveling to the Afghan capital, Kabul, to assist Spaniards affected by the attack. On Friday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez posted on X that he was “shocked by the news of the murder of Spanish tourists in Afghanistan.” Nationals from Norway, Australia and Lithuania were also among the group of foreigners that were targeted by gunmen. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the deadly shooting. A spokesperson for foreign affairs and security policy at the European Union condemned the armed attack against the tourists visiting Bamiyan. “Our thoughts are with the families and loved ones of the victims who lost their lives and those injured in the attack,” Nabila Massrali said in a statement Friday. The United States said it was “deeply saddened to hear about the shooting attack” in Bamiyan. “Our thoughts are with those who lost their loved ones. Violence is not the answer,” Thomas West, the U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan, said on X. Friday’s attack on foreign tourists was the first of its kind since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in August 2021. According to the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Bamiyan, one of the poorest regions in impoverished Afghanistan, is a popular destination for foreign tourists because it contains Buddhist monastic ensembles and sanctuaries. The scenic city was also the spot where the Taliban destroyed two large Buddha statues in March 2001 during their previous rule in Afghanistan. The group said the statues were blasphemous under Islam.

NEW DELHI — Parts of northwest India sweltered under scorching temperatures Saturday, with the capital, New Delhi, under a severe weather alert as extreme temperatures struck parts of the country. India's weather department expects heat wave conditions to persist across the north for the next few days and has put several states on high alert. On Friday, parts of New Delhi reported up to 47.1 degrees Celsius (116 Fahrenheit). The nearby states of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan also saw temperatures soar; they are likely to stay high over the next few days, said Soma Sen Roy, a scientist at the India Meteorological Department. Roy cautioned people against going outdoors under the afternoon sun. He advised drinking plenty of water and wearing loose-fitting clothes. Those who are especially vulnerable, such as the elderly, should stay indoors, he said. The extreme temperatures coincide with a six-week-long general election, with experts worried that the heat wave could increase health risks as people wait in long lines to cast their vote or candidates campaign aggressively in the outdoors. One minister fainted due to heat last month while addressing an election rally in Maharashtra state. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his main challenger, Rahul Gandhi of the opposition Congress Party, were expected to hold rallies in New Delhi later Saturday, as the city heads to the polls on May 25. Satish Kumar, a 57-year-old rickshaw driver in the capital, said his work was suffering because of the heat. “People are not coming outside, [markets] are nearly empty,” he said. Pravin Kamath, a 28-year-old who runs a cart selling cold drinks, complained that it was so hot he could hardly stand being outdoors. “But I must work. What can I do? I am poor, so I have to do it.” The main summer months — April, May and June — are always hot in most parts of India before monsoon rains bring cooler temperatures. But the heat has become more intense in the past decade and is usually accompanied by severe water shortages, with tens of millions of India's 1.4 billion people lacking running water. A study by World Weather Attribution, an academic group that examines the source of extreme heat, found that a searing heat wave in April that struck parts of Asia was made at least 45 times more likely in some parts of the continent by climate change. Climate experts say extreme heat in South Asia during the pre-monsoon season is becoming more frequent and the study found that extreme temperatures are now about 0.85 C (1.5 F) hotter in the region because of climate change. At least 28 heat-related deaths were reported in Bangladesh, as well as five in India, in April. Surges in heat deaths have also been reported in Thailand and the Philippines this year, according to the study. Extreme heat is fast becoming a public health crisis in India, with more than 150 people dying last year during heat waves. The government estimates nearly 11,000 people have died during heat waves this century, yet experts say such figures are likely a vast undercount.

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ISLAMABAD — Flash floods from heavy seasonal rains in western Afghanistan have killed at least 50 people and dozens remain missing, a Taliban official said Saturday, adding the death toll was based on preliminary reports and might rise. Afghanistan has been witnessing unusually heavy seasonal rains. The hard-hit province of Ghor has suffered significant financial losses, said Abdul Wahid Hamas, spokesman for the provincial governor, after thousands of homes and properties were damaged and hundreds of hectares of agricultural land destroyed following Friday’s floods, including the capital, Feroz Koh. The Taliban’s government chief spokesperson posted on social platform X, mourning “the loss of our fellow Afghans” and urged “responsible authorities ... to provide all necessary support to alleviate the suffering.” He also called on “our benevolent donors” to help and humanitarian organizations to provide aid. Last week, the U.N. food agency said the exceptionally heavy rains in Afghanistan have killed more than 300 people and destroyed thousands of houses, mostly in the northern province of Baghlan, which bore the brunt of floods on May 10. Survivors have been left with no home, no land and no source of livelihood, the World Food Organization said. Most of Baghlan is “inaccessible by trucks,” said the WFP, adding that it is resorting to every alternative it can think of to deliver food to the survivors. The latest disaster came on the heels of devastating floods that killed at least 70 people in April. The waters also destroyed about 2,000 homes, three mosques and four schools in western Farah and Herat, and southern Zabul and Kandahar provinces.

PEZINOK, Slovakia — Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico’s condition was stable but serious Saturday as the man accused of trying to assassinate him faced his first court appearance. Two hours of surgery Friday to remove dead tissue from Fico's multiple gunshot wounds “contributed to a positive prognosis,” Health Minister Zuzana Dolinkova said outside F. D. Roosevelt University Hospital in Banska Bystrica, where Fico was taken by helicopter after the shooting. Fico, 59, was attacked as he greeted supporters following a government meeting Wednesday in the former coal mining town of Handlova. The suspect was tackled to the ground and arrested. Fico's condition is still too grave to transport him to the capital, Bratislava, Defense Minister Robert Kalinak said. The update on Fico’s health was issued as the man accused of attempting to assassinate him made his first court appearance, according to Slovak state media. Prosecutors were seeking an order from Slovakia’s Specialized Criminal Court to detain the suspect. Prosecutors told police not to publicly identify the man or release other details about the case, but unconfirmed media reports said he was a 71-year-old retiree known as an amateur poet who may have once worked as a mall security guard in the country’s southwest. Government authorities gave details that matched that description. They said the suspect didn’t belong to any political groups, although the attack itself was politically motivated. The courthouse in Pezinok, a small town outside Bratislava, was guarded by officers wearing balaclavas and carrying rifles. News media were not allowed in, and reporters were kept behind a gate outside. Police on Friday had taken the suspect to his home in the town of Levice and seized a computer and some documents, Markiza, a Slovak television station, reported. Police didn’t comment. World leaders have condemned the attack and offered support for Fico and Slovakia. Fico has long been a divisive figure in Slovakia and beyond. His return to power last year on a pro-Russia, anti-American platform led to worries among fellow European Union and NATO members that he would abandon his country’s pro-Western course, particularly on Ukraine.

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Beijing — A Chinese official responsible for agricultural affairs is under investigation for corruption, state media reported Saturday, as President Xi Jinping's extensive anti-graft campaign continues to bring down high-level figures. Tang Renjian, the head of China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, is "suspected of serious violations of discipline and law," state broadcaster CCTV said. The report did not include details on the specific violations Tang is suspected of committing. Xi has overseen a sweeping drive to abolish deep-rooted official corruption since coming to power a decade ago. Supporters say the campaign promotes clean governance, but critics say it also provides Xi with the power to purge political rivals. Tang previously served as governor of the northwestern province of Gansu, as well as the vice chairman of southern autonomous region Guangxi. In 2022, then-Minister of Industry and Information Technology Xiao Yaqing was placed under investigation for corruption. Recent months have seen a slew of crackdowns — particularly in the country's financial and banking sectors. Last month, Liu Liange, chairman of the Bank of China from 2019 to 2023, admitted to "accepting bribes and illegally providing loans." Earlier in April, former head of Chinese state-owned banking giant Everbright Group Li Xiaopeng came under investigation for "severe violations" of the law.

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Rafah, Gaza Strip — Heavy clashes and bombardment Saturday rocked Gaza's southern city of Rafah, witnesses said, as the Israeli military announced the first 310 pallets of humanitarian aid had entered the besieged territory via a U.S.-built pier. More than 10 days into what the Israeli military called a "limited" operation in Rafah, fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants has also flared again in Gaza's north. The Kuwaiti hospital said an overnight Israeli strike killed two people in a displacement camp in Rafah, with witnesses reporting heavy gunfire and shelling in the city's southeast and jets bombarding its eastern areas. AFP correspondents, witnesses and medics said there were intense battles overnight in the northern Jabalia refugee camp, after the Israeli army reported on Friday "perhaps the fiercest" violence in the town in more than seven months of war. Israel in early January said it had dismantled Hamas' command structure in northern Gaza, but the army said the Palestinian group -- whose October 7 attack sparked the ongoing war -- "was in complete control here in Jabalia until we arrived a few days ago." The Israeli incursion into Rafah, launched despite overwhelming international opposition and as mediators were hoping for a breakthrough in stalled truce talks, has worsened an already dire humanitarian crisis, aid groups say. With key land crossings closed or operating at limited capacity due to the fighting, some relief supplies began flowing into war-ravaged Gaza via a temporary, floating pier constructed by the United States. The 310 pallets began moving ashore in "the first entry of humanitarian aid through the floating pier," the Israeli army said in a statement. In the coming days, around 500 tons of aid are expected to be delivered to Gaza through the pier, according to U.S. Central Command. But U.N. agencies and humanitarian aid groups have warned that the so-called maritime corridor, and ongoing airdrops from planes, cannot replace far more efficient truck convoys into Gaza, where the United Nations has repeatedly warned of looming famine. Rafah operation hampers aid The European Union welcomed the first shipment from Cyprus to the Gaza pier but called on Israel to "expand deliveries by land and to immediately open additional crossings." Hamas, which rules Gaza, stressed that the floating pier "is not an alternative to opening all land crossings." The war erupted after Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures. Israel's retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed at least 35,303 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to data provided by the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. Out of 252 people taken hostage from Israel during the October 7 attack, 125 remain held in Gaza, including 37 the army says are dead. The army said troops in Gaza had recovered late Thursday the bodies of three hostages who had been "murdered" on October 7. Amid the aid shortages, the Israeli army said "dozens of Israeli civilians" set fire to a Gaza-bound aid truck in the occupied West Bank on Thursday night, in the second such attack in a week. It came after right-wing activists ransacked at least seven aid trucks from Jordan near the Tarqumya crossing with the West Bank on Monday. Aid groups have said the Rafah incursion has further hampered aid deliveries, with the southern city's crossing on the Egypt border -- a vital conduit for humanitarian assistance -- now shut. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has put the onus on Egypt to reopen the crossing. Egypt has accused Israel in turn of denying responsibility for a humanitarian crisis in Gaza and says that truck drivers and aid workers do not feel safe crossing through an Israeli checkpoint into Gaza. West Bank commander killed On Friday, 13 Western governments, including many traditionally supportive of Israel, appealed to it not to launch a large-scale Rafah offensive, warning it would have "catastrophic consequences" for civilians. The looming Israeli assault has prompted nearly 640,000 of the 1.4 million people who had been sheltering in Rafah to flee to other areas, the UN humanitarian office said. Israel has vowed to defeat remaining Hamas forces in Rafah, which it says is the last bastion of the Iran-backed group. In northern Gaza's Beit Lahia, witnesses reported air strikes near Kamal Adwan hospital on Saturday. The hospital's director, Hussam Abu Safiya, told AFP on Friday that the facility, which has received "large numbers of injured and killed" from fighting in nearby Jabalia, was running low on medical supplies and fuel to power generators. The fuel aid that had reached the hospital was "barely enough for a few days," Abu Safiya said. The World Health Organization has received no medical supplies in Gaza since the Rafah operation began on May 6, spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said Friday, adding that the closure of the crossing caused "a difficult situation." On the diplomatic front, U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan was headed to the region for weekend talks. Sullivan will meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Saturday and Israel's Netanyahu on Sunday, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said. Meanwhile Israeli forces killed a senior Palestinian militant in the occupied West Bank, where violence has flared during the war in Gaza. Al-Quds Brigade, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad militant group, said local commander Islam Khamayseh was killed in an Israeli air strike late Friday on Jenin refugee camp. The Israeli military said he was responsible for a series of attacks.

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Yemen's Houthi rebels on Friday claimed to have shot down an American drone, hours after footage circulated online of what appeared to be the wreckage of an MQ-9 Reaper drone. Early Saturday, a vessel also came under attack in the Red Sea. The two incidents likely represent just the latest attacks by the Houthis as they press their campaign over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. Houthi military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree claimed that rebels shot down the Reaper on Thursday with a surface-to-air missile. He described the drone as "carrying out hostile actions" in Yemen's Marib province, which remains held by allies of Yemen's exiled, internationally recognized government. The Houthis later released footage they claimed showed the surface-to-air-missile being launched at night, along with night-vision footage of the missile hitting the drone. A man, whose voice had been digitally altered to apparently prevent identification, chanted the Houthi slogan: "God is the greatest; death to America; death to Israel; curse the Jews; victory to Islam." Online video showed wreckage resembling the pieces of the Reaper on the ground, as well as footage of that wreckage on fire. The U.S. military did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press over the Houthi claim. While the rebels have made claims about attacks that turned out later not to be true, they have a history of shooting down U.S. drones and have been armed by their main benefactor, Iran, with weapons capable of high-altitude attack. Since the Houthis seized the country's north and its capital, Sanaa, in 2014, the U.S. military has previously lost at least five drones to the rebels. Reapers, which cost around $30 million apiece, can fly at altitudes up to 50,000 feet and have an endurance of up to 24 hours before needing to land. The drone shootdown comes as the Houthis launch attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, demanding Israel ends the war in Gaza, which Gaza officials say has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians there. The war began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking some 250 others hostage. The Houthis have launched more than 50 attacks on shipping, seized one vessel and sunk another since November, according to the U.S. Maritime Administration. Early Saturday, the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said a ship came under attack off the coast of Yemen's port city of Hodeida. The captain "has confirmed sustaining slight damage after being struck by an unknown object on his port quarter," the UKMTO said. "The vessel and crew are safe and continuing to its next port of call." The private security firm Ambrey said it believed the vessel struck was a Panama-flagged crude oil tanker. Radio traffic suggested the ship was "hit by a missile and that there was a fire in the steering gear flat," Ambrey said. The Houthis did not immediately acknowledge the attack, though it typically takes them hours to issue a claim. Houthi attacks have dropped in recent weeks as the rebels have been targeted by a U.S.-led airstrike campaign in Yemen. Shipping through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden still remains low because of the threat, however.