Stop blaming us for Hamas attack on Israel, Iran tells US

Dubai, October 30

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson on Monday said the US should refrain from blaming Tehran for the attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7 that resulted in the killing of over a thousand Israelis. “Stop it,” Nasser Kanaani said, when asked by about the statements of US officials, including President Joe Biden, accusing Iran.

Meanwhile, German-Israeli woman Shani Nicole Louk, who was taken away by Hamas from a music festival during the October 7 assault and paraded around Gaza by the Palestinian militant group, is dead, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said. “What we saw on the Gaza-Israel border goes far beyond a pogrom. We saw a slaughterhouse,” he said.

Hamas has not commented on Louk’s fate. The circumstances of her death were not immediately clear. A family source said a part of a body had been found which was matched to Louk’s DNA. Her family initially thought she was alive but injured when she was taken away from the music festival but now believe she was killed on the same day, possibly shot in the head, a German media report stated. “At least she didn’t suffer,” her mother Ricarda Louk said.

Hamas has released a video, showing three women hostages. The video shows three woman, one of whom addresses an angry message to Netanyahu, asking to be taken home in an exchange for Palestinian prisoners. Israeli PM Bejamin Netanyahu has condemned the video as “cruel psychological propaganda”.

At the same time, British PM Rishi Sunak chaired a high-level meeting at 10 Downing Street in London to assess domestic security issues amid the Israel-Gaza conflict and against the backdrop of widespread protests on the streets of the country. The meeting follows another weekend of thousands of people protesting against the conflict, resulting in many arrests and five being charged with racially aggravated crimes.— Agencies

Drone shot: Hezbollah

Lebanon’s Hezbollah said it had shot down an Israeli drone over southern Lebanon with a surface-to-air missile. The drone was hit near Khiam.

Sunak chairs meet on domestic security

• British PM Rishi Sunak chaired a high-level meeting at 10 Downing Street in London to assess domestic security issues.
• The country has been witnessing widespread protests amid the Israel-Gaza conflict. So far, 100 arrests have been made.