NEW DELHI (AP) — Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake was hosted Monday by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his first overseas visit since assuming office that focused on shoring up ties as concerns grew over China's influence in the region.
Modi said India and Sri Lanka will establish electricity grid connectivity and a multi-product petroleum pipeline that will further boost investment and commercial links between the nations.
The Sri Lankan leader arrived in New Delhi on Sunday on his first overseas trip since becoming president in September. He held meetings with India's External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval.
At a press briefing attended by both leaders, Dissanayake said he would not allow Sri Lanka to be used in “a manner that is detrimental to the interest of India."
“The cooperation with India will certainly flourish and I want to reassure our continued support for India,” he said.
India has been expanding its economic and defense ties with Sri Lanka amid concerns over China’s growing hold in the island nation.
Beijing was once widely seen as having an upper hand with free-flowing loans and infrastructure investments in Sri Lanka. Even though China remains Sri Lanka’s largest bilateral lender, Colombo’s economic collapse in 2022 provided an opportunity for India, as New Delhi stepped in with massive financial and material assistance including food, fuel and medicines.
The support of the two regional rivals is crucial for Sri Lanka to emerge from its worst economic crisis in decades, which led to a political upheaval and finally paved the way for Dissanayake’s party to win power.
Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Disanayaka, left, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, attend a joint press statement after their meeting in New Delhi, India, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives to receive Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Disanayaka in New Delhi, India, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, right, shakes hand with Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Disanayaka, left, after a joint press statement in New Delhi, India, Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Health officials in the Gaza Strip say the death toll from the 14-month war between Israel and Hamas militants has topped 45,000 people.
The Gaza Health Ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, but it has said that more than half of the fatalities are women and children. The Israeli military says it has killed more than 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The Health Ministry said 45,028 people have been killed and 106,962 have been wounded since the start of the war in October 2023. It has said the real toll is higher because thousands of bodies are still buried under rubble or in areas that medics cannot access. The latest war has been by far the deadliest round of fighting between Israel and Hamas, with the death toll now amounting to roughly 2% of Gaza’s entire prewar population of about 2.3 million.
Israel claims Hamas is responsible for the civilian death toll because it operates from within civilian areas in the densely populated Gaza Strip. Rights groups and Palestinians say Israel has failed to take sufficient precautions to avoid civilian deaths.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead. Most of the rest were released during a cease-fire last year.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli strike killed at least 10 people, including a family of four, in Gaza City overnight, Palestinian medics said Monday, as Israel pursues its 14-month war against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
The strike late Sunday hit a house in Gaza City’s eastern Shijaiyah neighborhood, according to the Health Ministry’s emergency service. Rescuers recovered the bodies of 10 people from under the rubble, including those of two parents and their two children, it said.
The strikes were part of Israel’s war in Gaza that erupted on Oct. 7 2023, when Hamas militants from Gaza stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1, 200 people and taking another 250 hostage. Most of the hostages were released during a temporary ceasefire last year, but about 100 remain in Gaza, of whom about a third are believed to be dead.
Israel responded by heavy bombardment and a ground incursion into the Palestinian enclave, leaving nearly 45,000 Palestinians dead, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The ministry’s tally does not distinguish between combatants and civilians, but says more than of the dead were women and children.
A separate strike on a school on Sunday in the southern city of Khan Younis killed at least 13 people, including six children and two women, according to Nasser Hospital where the bodies were taken. The hospital initially reported the strike had killed 16 people, but it later revised the death toll as the three other bodies had been from a separate strike that hit a house.
The Israeli military said it had “conducted a precise strike on Hamas terrorists who were operating inside a command and control center embedded within a compound” that had served as a school in Khan Younis. It did not provide evidence.
In central Gaza's Nuseirat urban refugee camp, mourners gathered for the funeral of a Palestinian journalist working for the Qatari-based Al Jazeera TV network who was killed Sunday in a strike on a point for Gaza's civil defense agency. They carried his body through the street from the hospital, his blue bulletproof vest resting atop.
The strike also killed three civil defense workers, including the local head of the agency, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. The civil defense is Gaza’s main rescue agency and operates under the Hamas-run government.
Al Jazeera said Ahmad Baker Al-Louh, 39, had been covering rescue operations of a family wounded in an earlier bombing when he was killed.
The Israeli military said it had targeted Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants “who were operating in a command and control center embedded in the offices of the ‘Civil Defense’ organization in Nuseirat.” It accused the journalist of having been a member of Islamic Jihad, an accusation his colleagues in Gaza denied.
Gaza's civil defense also rejected the claims that militants had been operating from the site.
“We were stunned by the Israeli occupation statement,” Mahmoud al-Lawh, the journalist’s cousin, told The Associated Press. “These claims are lies and misleading to cover up this crime.”
Magdy reported from Cairo
Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Israelis protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and call for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Dec. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)
Israelis protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and call for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Dec. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)
Israelis protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and call for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Dec. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)
A dead child is carried into the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah after an Israeli army strike in the Bureij refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, Saturday Dec. 14, 2024.(AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians carry the body of a relative killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip at a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians pray next to the bodies of their relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, at a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians mourn over the bodies of civil defense workers victims of an Israeli army strike in the Nuseirat camp, at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Sunday Dec.16, 2024. Four cicivil defence workers were killed according to Palestinian civil defense and health ministry.(AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
