Tag Archives: Death

Tensions Rise between Palestinians and Israelis after Death of Palestinian Teen

Clashes between Israelis and Palestinians on the West Bank resulted in hundreds of injuries and the death of a Palestinian teenager on Sunday. The recent escalation in violence is a reaction to Israel’s decision of restricting Palestinians from entering Jerusalem’s Old City with the exception of residents.

The clashes intensified on Monday after Israeli forces shot and killed Huthayfa Soliman, 18. According to the Israeli military, he and others were throwing firecrackers, rocks, and firebombs at the soldiers at a checkpoint near Tulkarm, in the northern West Bank.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society told Al Jazeera that nearly 400 people have been injured in the recent clashes. The humanitarian organization reported that in two incidents, Jewish settlers have smashed ambulances and physically attacked their staff members.

The escalation in violence began Thursday when Palestinian gunmen killed a Jewish couple near a settlement in the occupied West Bank. Two days later, two ultra-Orthodox Jewish men were fatally stabbed by a Palestinian teenager in the Old City of Jerusalem. Hours later, a Palestinian man stabbed and wounded a 15-year-old Jewish boy in a Jerusalem neighborhood. Palestinians have also shut themselves inside the Al-Aqsa mosque, blocking all entrances and throwing firebombs at police.

The Guardian reported that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed a harsh offensive against “Palestinian Islamic terror” on Sunday. In a televised announcement, he said there would be a series of measures, including the “speeding up of the process for the demolition of the homes of terrorists.”

The Palestinian state news agency reported that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas appealed the United nations for an international force to be deployed in the West Bank. Abbas has increasingly asked for outside forces.

America Mourns the Deaths of 9 Victims and 7 Injured in Oregon University Shooting

Ten people are dead and seven are injured after a lone gunman opened fire at Umpqua Community College, located in Roseburg, Oregon. The death toll includes the gunman who was shot by police after exchanging gunfire with law enforcement.

Law enforcement identified the 26-year-old shooter Thursday night as Chris Harper Mercer. Police reported that the shooter had three weapons on his person during the shooting. In a news conference after the tragedy, Sheriff Hanlin would not speak the gunman’s name.

“Let me be very clear, I will not name the shooter,” he said. “I will not give him the credit he probably sought prior to this horrific and cowardly act.”

Sheriff Hanlin also asked reporters not to glorify or sensationalize him.

One of the injured students, Anastasia Boylan, told her father that the gunman had been singling out Christians. Before her spinal surgery, her dad relayed his daughter’s story to CNN. The gunman had entered her classroom, firing. After shooting the professor, the students hit the ground. She then recalled how he asked anyone who was a Christian to stand up, and then shot them. Boylan was shot in the back, but she survived by playing dead.

Investigators have reported that the gunman had a long history of resenting organized religion, specifically Christianity. His various social media accounts all had some sort of reference to hating religion.

The attack was among some of the worst mass school shootings over the last two decades including the Virginia Tech tragedy in 2007, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut in 2012, and the Columbine High School shooting in 1999 located in Colorado.

According to data from ShootingTracker.com, mass shootings have taken place hundreds of times over the last several years. The Washington Post reports that only week has passed without a mass shooting incident during President Obama’s second term. A mass shooting is defined as an incident where four or more people are shot. The one week where there was no mass shooting was in April this year. Six days have passed without an incident several times.

On Thursday night, mourners gathered at a park in Roseburg, Oregon. Candles were held up by attendees and the hymn “Amazing Grace” was played. Photos of the vigil showed heartbroken community members huddled together and sharing stories of grief. Oregon Governor Kate Brown attended the vigil and offered her condolences.

“In our sorrow, we will remember and honor those lost today,” she said. “And they will forever be in our hearts.”

All of us at the Jim Bakker Show and Morningside ask that you join us in prayer for everyone involved in this heartbreaking incident. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of the victims’ families, those who are injured and recovering, the law enforcement and medical personnel, and for the entire community of Roseburg, Oregon. May God bless each and every one of you and comfort you during this difficult time.

Shooting at Umpqua Community College, 13 Dead and over 20 Wounded

A shooter opened fire at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon Thursday morning killing 13 people and wounding more than 20.

The unidentified suspect was killed in a gunfight with Douglas County Sheriff’s deputies.

At about 10:38 AM, the 911 center received a report of a shooting at Umpqua Community College. Police immediately responded.

Governor Kate Brown said the shooter was “a 20-year-old male.” She expressed her “profound dismay and unimaginable heartbreak. Our top priority now is the medical treatment of the victims and the security of the campus.”

Umpqua is a two-year school with about 3,300 full-time students and 16,000 part-time students. It started offering classes in 1961.
In audio of the emergency call, a dispatcher is heard saying that at the college’s Snyder Hall: “Somebody is outside one of the doors shooting through the door. A female is inside the computer lab. We do have one female that has been shot at this time.”

Our prayers are with the families of the victims in this horrible tragedy.

131 Yemeni Civilians Killed in Saudi-led Airstrike

Medical officers reported 131 civilians were killed in a Saudi-led airstrike that hit a wedding party, in what is reported to be the single deadliest incident since the start of Yemen’s civil war.

Yemeni medical officials stated at least 80 women were killed in the attack. The Saudi-led and U.S.-backed coalition supposedly struck the wedding party by accident. The attack struck a village near the town of Mokha. The region is largely populated by livestock traders and fishermen. It is reported that there is no heavy military presence in the area.

“They struck a wedding, there were only civilians there and most of them died because the Mokha hospital is closed because of supply — no drugs, no fuel, no electricity, no nothing, so the staff left,” said Hassan Boucenine, of the Geneva-based Doctors without Borders. The provincial capital of Taiz could not be used due to ongoing fighting.

Officials of the Saudi-led coalition could not be reached immediately for a comment.

The U.N. reports at least 2,355 civilians have been killed since the violence started in March. The main fight is between forces loyal to President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi and those allied to Zaidi Shia rebels known as Houthis, who forced Hadi out of the capital of Sanaa in February.

Over 700 People Killed in Stampede in Hajj Pilgrimage Near Mecca

According to Saudi Arabia officials, more than 700 people have been killed and more than 800 have been injured in a stampede as millions of Muslims made their pilgrimage, or hajj, to Mecca.

The stampede took place about two miles from Mecca in a tent city called Mina during the ritual known as “stoning the devil.” Pilgrims sleep in 160,000 tents in Mina during the hajj because it is located in a valley where the symbolic stone throwing ritual is held. During the “stoning of the devil,” pebbles are thrown at three stone pillars that represent the devil.

Saudi Arabia’s civil defense directorate reported that the stampede occurred when a large number of pilgrims surged at an intersection of two streets. Saudi Arabia’s health minister released a statement baling the tragedy on the pilgrims who didn’t follow directions, according to CNN.

Hours after the stampede, pilgrims continued their journey. One pilgrim, Ethar El-Katatney, was near the site of the stampede five hours after it happened. She watched as medical personnel and police officers pulled bodies out of the edges of the crowd.

“I saw the ambulances, I saw bodies. … At least 20, 30 ambulances passed me by,” she told CNN by phone as she tried to reach the pillars herself.

NBC reports that more than 220 rescue vehicles and 4,000 first responders were at the site.

Thursday’s stampede is the deadliest pilgrimage incident since 1990, when 1,426 people were killed in an overcrowded tunnel leading to Mecca’s holy site. Since then, crushes and stampedes leading to many deaths have taken place in 1994, 1998, 2001, 2004, and 2006.

Violence in Nepal Following Constitutional Announcement

On Monday at least three protesters were shot and injured, a day after the Himalayan nation adopted its first democratic constitution, the violence diminished hopes that the historic event would put a stop to weeks of clashes.

The demonstrators are in critical condition after police opened fire at an anti-constitution protest in the city of Biratnagar, said Pramod Kharel, a deputy police superintendent in the Morang district of southern Nepal.

The three biggest forces in parliament — the Nepali Congress, UML and Maoist parties — finally reached agreement in June, spurred by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake two months earlier that killed nearly 8,900 people and destroyed around half a million homes. The new constitution is the final stage in a peace process that began when Maoist fighters laid down their arms in 2006 after a decade-long insurgency aimed at abolishing an autocratic monarchy and creating a more equal society.

President Ram Baran Yadav on Sunday promulgated Nepal’s new constitution, despite fierce opposition by minority groups in the southern plains whose homeland will be split up under the charter. It creates seven states in a secular, federal system, but is opposed by some groups who wanted to re-establish Nepal as a Hindu nation and others who feel it is unfavourable to people in the plains, near India.

More than 40 people, mostly protesters, have been killed in recent weeks in clashes over the plan.

Taliban Attack Kills 29 at Pakistan Airbase

Islamic terrorists attacked the mosque at a Pakistani Air Base near Peshawar, leaving at least 29 people dead.

Pakistani Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Asim Bajwa told reporters that at least 13 of the terrorists were killed in the assault.  One of those killed by the terrorists was an Army captain.

“We were offering prayers when we first heard the gunshots and then, within no time, they entered the mosque where they began indiscriminately firing,” Mohammad Ikram of the Pakistani Air Force told Reuters by telephone from a hospital bed where he was being treated for gunshot wounds.

“They killed and injured most of the worshippers. I fell on the ground. Then the gunmen went to other places in the base. After a long time, we were shifted to the hospital.”

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack by releasing a statement and video showing Omar Mansoor, the terrorist commander who planned the massacre at a Peshawar school in December, waving goodbye to the terrorists who carried out the attack.

The base was established in the 1950s by the United States as an outpost to monitor communications by the Soviet Union.

Massive Quake Shakes Chile’s Capital

At least 8 people are dead and a million people have been displaced because of a massive magnitude 8.3 earthquake in Chile.

Violent aftershocks continue to shake the ground around Santiago and surrounding towns.  Residents were preparing for the possibility of a second strong quake although the tsunami warnings have ended for the region.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) says the quake struck around 6:45 p.m., 29 miles west of the capital in a small city of Illapel.  The USGS reported the quake was the strongest to hit the region in 100 years.

Aftershocks of 6.3 and 6.4 have been recorded by the USGS.  A tsunami watch was issued for both California and Hawaii because of the quakes, although they were later retracted.  Residents are still being warned to watch for high waves and significant rip tides.

Chile is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the world because of two major plates connecting just off the coastline.  The strongest recorded quake in world history took place in the nation in 1960, magnitude 9.5.

Utah Flooding Death Toll Rises

The death toll in Utah’s flash flooding has reached 17.

Officials say that 12 of the dead were from two families that had packed into vehicles and drove to watch the water.  A wall of water apparently smashed into them and threw them into the rushing flow.

Officials admitted that two of the victims from the cars were found all the way into Arizona.

Three people were rescued and according to the Associated Press they were all children.

Hildale, Utah mayor Phillip Barlow called the event a “100 year flood” and that it was a “wake-up call” for the town.

Resident of Hildale told reporters that what happened with the vehicles full of families is not uncommon for the area.  They said that downpours were something of a community event and people would come out to watch.

Officials also said the search for missing people continues and have urged people not to come to the area.

“This is going to be a heartbreaking night,” the Utah Division of Emergency Management said in a statement Monday night. “Our prayers are with the search and rescue teams and those families who are aching for their loved ones.”

California Hit With Earthquake As Battles With Wildfires Continues

As if firefighters weren’t already having enough trouble trying to stop a deadly wildfire that has roared through parts of Lake, Napa and Sonoma counties in California, now they have to deal with earthquakes.

A magnitude 3.2 quake struck in Lake County early Tuesday morning.  The quake caused no significant damage to buildings in the region already threatened by the massive fire.

Officials said that the fires have claimed the life of one woman and has left four firefighters hospitalized.  Over 11,000 firefighters are now on the scene of a dozen wildfires in the state.

Cal Fire said the Valley fire that killed a woman had destroyed 585 homes and hundreds of other buildings.  The fire that began Saturday also caused a number of propane tanks to explode in the town of Middletown.

“This was a very destructive fire,” Cal Fire public information officer Daniel Berlant said Tuesday.

That fire burned 67,200 acres near Sacramento.  Another fire in the same area burned 71,780 acres and was only 40 percent contained.

Light rain has been helping fight some of the flames.  However, the rain has also caused problems with flooding in other areas.

Los Angeles received over an inch and a half of rain in a downpour which caused the Los Angeles River to flood. Several people had to be rescued from the rushing water.