(LONDON and ISTANBUL) — A predawn fire at a hotel in the Kartalkaya Ski Resort in Turkey killed at least 76, with another 51 injured, Turkey’s Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said Tuesday.
“We are in deep pain,” Yerlikaya told reporters during a press conference.
The fire ignited after 3 a.m. on Tuesday at the Grand Kartal, a hotel at the resort in Northwestern Turkey.
A city official told ABC News that after the fire broke out in the middle of the night, around 3:27 a.m. local time, most of the victims, including children, appeared to have lost life due to suffocation.
There were 238 registered guests in the 12-story hotel at the time of the fire, according to the interior minister.
The fire department had not reported a negative situation regarding the fire adequacy of the hotel until Tuesday, Yerlikaya said, adding that an investigation is ongoing.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said an administrative and criminal investigation is underway.
“All necessary steps will be taken and are being taken to shed light on all aspects of the incident and to hold those responsible accountable,” he said.
ABC News’ Somayeh Malekian contributed to this report.
(LONDON) — Former Syrian President Bashar Assad on Monday made his first official statement since being topped by a rebel offensive and fleeing the country for Russia, declaring that he left Syria after a Russian request to do so.
“My departure from Syria was neither planned nor did it occur in the final hours of the battles,” Assad said in a statement posted to the presidency’s official Telegram channel.
“As terrorist forces infiltrated Damascus, I moved to Latakia in coordination with our Russian allies to oversee combat operations,” Assad said.
“Upon arrival at the Khmeimim air base that morning, it became clear that our forces had completely withdrawn from all battle lines and that the last army positions had fallen,” the statement continued.
“As the field situation in the area continued to deteriorate, the Russian military base itself came under intensified attack by drone strikes. With no viable means of leaving the base, Moscow requested that the base’s command arrange an immediate evacuation to Russia.”
“This took place a day after the fall of Damascus, following the collapse of the final military positions and the resulting paralysis of all state institutions,” Assad said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(LONDON) — A woman has been arrested after allegedly poisoning a 1-year-old girl over two months so she could post videos of the child online in order to solicit donations from the public, police said.
The Queensland Police in Australia said that the Morningside Child Protection and Investigation Unit (CPIU) has charged a woman with torture following “extensive investigations into allegations of an infant being poisoned,” according to a statement released on Thursday.
“It will be alleged between August 6 to October 15, 2024, a 34-year-old Sunshine Coast woman administered several unauthorised prescription and pharmacy medicines to a one-year-old girl, who was known to her, without medical approval,” authorities said. “It will be further alleged the woman, disregarding medical advice, went to lengths to obtain unauthorised medicines, including old medicines for a different person available in their home.”
Further investigations into the case allegedly revealed that the woman “carefully concealed her continued efforts to administer the unauthorised medicines until the matter was detected and reported to police by medical staff from a hospital in Brisbane’s south while the child was admitted.”
When announcing the charges against the unnamed woman, police said that the child was subjected to “immense distress and pain” while the woman filmed and posted videos of the child online.
“It is alleged the content produced exploited the child and was used to entice monetary donations and online followers,” police said.
Medical staff reported harm against the child to detectives on Oct. 15, 2024, which lead to police taking immediate action to protect the child during their investigation.
Testing for unauthorized medicines given to the child returned a positive result on Jan. 7, Australian authorities said.
“Morningside CPIU detectives travelled to an Underwood address to arrest the woman and subsequently charged her with five counts of administering poison with intent to harm, three counts of preparation to commit crimes with dangerous things, and one count each of torture, making child exploitation material and fraud,” police said.
She is expected to appear before Brisbane Magistrates Court tomorrow on Friday. Detective Inspector Paul Dalton said offences of this nature are abhorrent and CPIU detectives are committed to protecting children from harm and holding offenders to account.
“Working in CPIU we are too often faced with the worst offences against children,” he said. “We will do everything in our power to remove that child from harm’s way and hold any offender to account. There is no excuse for harming a child, especially not a one-year-old infant who is reliant on others for care and survival.”
(LONDON)– Rebel forces in Syria are building a transitional government after toppling the regime of President Bashar Assad in a lightning-quick advance across the country.
Meanwhile, the ceasefire in Lebanon is holding despite ongoing Israeli airstrikes on Hezbollah targets, which Israeli officials say are responses to ceasefire violations by the Iranian-backed militant group. The Israel Defense Forces continues its intense airstrike and ground campaigns in Gaza.
Tensions remain high between Israel and Iran after tit-for-tat long-range strikes in recent months and threats of further military action from both sides. The IDF and the Yemeni Houthis also continue to exchange attacks.
Negotiation team returning after ‘significant week’: Israeli PM office
The Israeli negotiation team will return to Israel from Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday after a “significant week of conducting negotiations” regarding a ceasefire and hostage deal, the Israeli Prime Minister’s office said in a statement.
“The team returned for internal consultations in Israel regarding the continuation of negotiations for the return of our hostages,” the statement continued.
-ABC News’ Anna Burd
IDF ‘besieging’ 3 Gaza hospitals, health ministry says
The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said in a statement Tuesday that Israeli forces are “intensifying” their attacks on three hospitals in the devastated and depopulated northern portion of the strip.
Israeli troops, the ministry in the Hamas-run territory said, are “besieging and directly targeting the Indonesian Hospital, Kamal Adwan Hospital and Al-Awda Hospital during the past hours and insisting on putting them out of service.”
The ministry said Israeli troops were “forcing the wounded and patients to evacuate the Indonesian Hospital,” while bombing “all departments of Kamal Adwan Hospital and its surroundings around the clock without stopping.”
“Shrapnel is scattered inside the hospital yards, causing terrifying sounds and serious damage,” the ministry said.
“We appeal to all international and UN institutions and concerned parties to urgently intervene to protect the health system in the Gaza Strip,” the ministry wrote.
On Monday, Palestinian officials said 20 people were injured when Israeli forces detonated a “robot bomb” in the vicinity of Kamal Adwan Hospital.
The IDF has not commented on the latest developments around Kamal Adwan or the other north Gaza hospitals.
-ABC News’ Nasser Atta
3 Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza
The Israel Defense Forces said Monday that three soldiers were killed in combat in northern Gaza.
Cpt. Ilay Gavriel Atedgi, 22, Staff Sgt. Netanel Pessach, 21, and Sgt. First Class (res.) Hillel Diener, 21, were all killed by an explosion during an operation in the Beit Hanoun area, which has been a focus of Israel’s intense recent offensive in the northern part of the strip.
Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and the border zone is now 391.
Health officials in the Hamas-run territory say more than 45,300 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023.
-ABC News’ Dana Savir and Ellie Kaufman
20 injured after bomb detonates near Gaza hospital
Twenty people were injured among the medical staff at Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza Monday evening after a “robot bomb” was detonated in the hospital’s vicinity, according to medical sources.
ABC News has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for a comment.
-ABC News’ Samy Zyara
Israeli forces kill Hamas operative in Gaza City, IDF says
Israeli forces killed the head of the national security directorate of Hamas’ security mechanism during an attack on Sunday in Gaza City, the Israel Defense Forces said.
The Hamas operative, Tharwat Muhammad Ahmed Albec, was “operating in a command and control center” that was embedded in a “compound that previously served as the ‘Musa bin Nusayr’ school” in a neighborhood in Gaza City, the IDF said in a statement on Monday.
Hamas has yet to comment on the IDF’s statement.
-ABC News’ Dana Savir
‘Certain progress’ made in hostage negotiations: Netanyahu
“Certain progress” has been made in ongoing hostage and ceasefire negotiations, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a speech at the Israeli parliament on Monday.
“I can carefully say there has been a certain progress” made in the ongoing negotiations, Netanyahu said, adding that he “doesn’t know how long it’s going to take.”
“We will continue to operate in any way and without a pause until we bring them all back home from the enemy’s land,” he said.
-ABC News’ Dana Savir
Hamas reports Israeli attack on Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp
Hamas on Monday said the Israel Defense Forces killed or wounded at least 50 people in an air and ground assault on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
An IDF airstrike was followed by an incursion into the camp supported by 17 heavy vehicles, among them tanks and bulldozers, Hamas said.
Israeli forces also attacked Nuseirat camp two weeks ago, killing at least 33 people according to the Gaza Government Media Office.
The IDF is yet to comment on Monday’s operation.
-ABC News’ Diaa Ostaz and Tomek Rolski
Netanyahu says Israel will act against Houthis after missile strike
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that his nation would “act forcefully” against the Houthis in Yemen after a weekend missile attack on Tel Aviv injured 16 people, according to Israeli emergency authorities.
“Just as we acted forcefully against the terrorist arms of Iran’s evil axis, so we will act against the Houthis — the result will be the same,” Netanyahu said in a statement posted to X.
Since October 2023, the Houthis have been launching attacks on commercial and military vessels in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea, as well as long-range drone and missile attacks towards Israel.
On Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces said it intercepted a Houthi missile but that debris destroyed a school building in Tel Aviv.
The Houthis — which have close ties with Iran and are part of the Tehran-led “Axis of Resistance” — are demanding an end to Israel’s war in Gaza, launched in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, infiltration attack into southern Israel.
The U.S. and U.K. — supported by other allies — have launched a series of strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen since January. Israel has also launched significant strikes in Yemen in recent months, most recently on Thursday.
At least 7 dead after IDF strikes humanitarian area in Gaza
At least seven people were killed after an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis, which is located in the southern Gaza Strip.
The strike hit a collection of tents within what had been designated a humanitarian area, where displaced people were sheltering.
The Israel Defense Forces acknowledged the strike on Sunday, saying in a statement it was “an intelligence-based strike on a Hamas terrorist.”
“Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence,” the IDF said.
– ABC News’ William Gretsky
21 killed in Gaza, IDF northern offensive continues
The Gaza Ministry of Health said Saturday that 21 people were killed and 61 injured in three separate Israeli attacks over the last 24 hours in the Hamas-run territory.
A total of 45,227 people have been killed since the start of the war, health officials said.
Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces continued intense operations in northern Gaza, particularly around the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia.
The director of the hospital said there is shooting “around the clock” nearby, adding that on Friday the third floor and the hospital entrance were shelled.
The director said the IDF is blocking the entry of all requested medical supplies. Nine people need urgent evacuation for surgery in Gaza City and the hospital is currently treating over 70 people, he said.
