New Delhi: New challenges are emerging from the incidents in West Asia and it is time for the countries of the Global South to talk in one voice for greater global good, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday amid the Hamas-Israel conflict.

In his address at the second edition of the India-hosted virtual Voice of Global South Summit, Modi said New Delhi has emphasised on dialogue and diplomacy along with restraint to deal with the situation arising out of the Hamas-Israel conflict.

India condemned the barbaric October 7 terrorist attack on Israel, he said

At the same time, the prime minister said India strongly condemned the death of civilians in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

“We are seeing that new challenges are emerging from developments in West Asia,” he said.

India hosted the first edition of the ‘Voice of Global South Summit’ in January to flag concerns and challenges facing the developing countries.

“The Voice of Global South is the most unique platform reflecting the changing world of the 21st century,” Modi said.

The prime minister also called for cooperation under the framework of ‘five Cs’ — consultation, communication, cooperation, creativity, capacity building.

“I cannot forget that historic moment, when African Union was inducted into G20 as a permanent member with India’s efforts,” he said.

In a significant milestone under India’s G20 presidency, the African Union in September became the new permanent member of the grouping of the largest economies of the world in the first expansion of the influential bloc since its inception in 1999.

Listing achievements for the Global South under India’s G20 presidency, Modi said significant seriousness was shown this time on climate finance. There was consensus at G20 on providing finance and technology in easy terms to countries of the Global South for climate transition, he said.

India considers that new technology should not increase distance between Global South and North, he said.

Polling began Friday morning for assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, where 2,533 candidates, including Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and his predecessor Kamal Nath, are in the fray for 230 assembly seats in a largely straight contest between the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress.

Top leaders crisscrossed the state, addressing rallies, holding road shows, trading charges, and making a slew of promises to seek votes for their candidates.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is contesting from Budhni and state Congress president Kamal Nath from Chhindwara.

The electioneering saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP president JP Nadda, Union Minister Rajnath Singh, and Chouhan, among others, address rallies to drum up support for the saffron party nominees.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and party leaders Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra, Nath, and Digvijaya Singh, among others, addressed rallies to seek support for their party nominees.

Modi made nine visits to the state and addressed 14 public meetings after the elections were announced. The BJP is heavily banking on his charisma to retain power.

A look at the constituency:

• The single-phase voting covering all 230 assembly seats—47 of them reserved for Scheduled Tribes and 35 for Scheduled Castes—has more than 5.6 crore registered electors.
• Inputs from ground zero suggest that the Gwalior-Chambal, Vindhya, and Bundelkhand regions may ultimately hold the key to who comes to power, despite the communally sensitive Malwa-Nimar region housing a maximum of 66 seats.
• Opinion polls in the recent past have been predicting a close race between both the main players (with an edge to the Congress).
• In 2018, Congress emerged as the largest party, winning 114 seats and forming the government with the support of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP).

Kochi: The Kerala High Court has issued instructions for eateries to display the date and time of food preparation on packaging, particularly focusing on the popular dish ‘Shawarma’. The directive comes in response to a petition filed by the mother of a 16-year-old who lost her life in 2022 after consuming Shawarma.

Justice Devan Ramachandran, while addressing the plea, emphasized the need for public awareness regarding the importance of consuming such food items within a specified timeframe. The court directed the issuance of instructions to eateries to prominently exhibit the date and time of food preparation on packaging, whether served over the counter or through parcels.

The Food Safety Commissioner, Afsana Parveen, informed the court that consuming Shawarma beyond the recommended timeframe was a significant cause of accidents. She reported that ‘Shawarma Guidelines’ had been issued in September 2022, accompanied by an ‘Order of Ban’ in January 2023. Regular enforcement drives and inspections were conducted, resulting in notices and orders issued to eateries concerning parcel labeling and the mandatory mention of the specific date and time of manufacture.

Despite the ban on using raw eggs in the production and storage of mayonnaise, the court noted an incident of death due to Shawarma consumption after the ban’s issuance. The court acknowledged the Food Safety Commissioner’s efforts but emphasized the importance of making eateries and consumers aware of the potential risks.

The court decided to maintain the writ petition on file to monitor the implementation of orders, regulations, and circulars in the interest of public safety. In response to the petitioner’s allegations, the court directed the respondents to file a counter affidavit outlining their response, along with details of guidelines, orders, regulations, and actions taken against the eatery in question.

The court had initiated a suo motu case after the 16-year-old’s death and hospitalization of over 50 individuals linked to Shawarma consumption. The mother, seeking compensation of Rs. 1 Crore and strict compliance with the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, filed the present plea.

The case will be further considered on December 5.

JERUSALEM: Gaza’s Shifa Hospital has become the focus of a dayslong stalemate in Israel’s war against the Hamas militant group.

Shifa is Gaza’s largest and best-equipped hospital. Israel, without providing visual evidence, claims the facility also is used by Hamas for military purposes. It says Hamas has built a vast underground command complex center below the hospital, connected by tunnels, something Gaza health officials and Hamas deny.

Since Israel declared war against Hamas in response to a deadly cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7, its forces have moved in on Shifa. While Israel says it is willing to allow staff and patients to evacuate, Palestinians say Israeli forces have fired at evacuees and that it is too dangerous to move the most vulnerable patients. Meanwhile, doctors say the facility has run out of fuel and that patients are beginning to die.

Shifa is the leading hospital in a health care system that has largely collapsed after years of conflict, chronic underfunding and an Israeli-Egyptian blockade aimed at weakening Hamas.

Shifa has over 500 beds and services like MRI scans, dialysis and an intensive care unit. It conducts roughly half of all the medical operations that take place in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

After the war erupted, tens of thousands crammed into the hospital grounds to seek shelter. As the war has moved closer to the hospital, most of those huddling there have fled south — joining some two-thirds of the territory’s 2.3 million residents who have left their homes.

But hundreds of people, including medical workers, premature babies and other vulnerable patients, remain, staffers say.

On Saturday, the hospital announced that its last generator had run out of fuel. Health officials say at least 32 patients, including three babies, have died. They say 36 other babies are at risk of dying because life-saving equipment can’t function.

The Health Ministry released a photo Monday showing about a dozen premature babies wrapped in blankets on a bed to keep them warm. “I hope that they will remain alive despite the disaster in which this hospital is passing through,” said ministry spokesman Medhat Abbas.

International law gives hospitals special protections during war. Hospitals can lose those protections if combatants use them to hide fighters or store weapons, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Still, there must be plenty of warning to allow evacuation of staff and patients. If harm to civilians from an attack is disproportionate to the military objective, it is illegal under international law.

Israel has long accused Hamas of using civilians as human shields. The group often fires rockets toward Israel from crowded residential areas, and its fighters have battled Israeli troops inside densely populated neighborhoods.

Throughout the war, Israel has released photos and video footage showing what it says are weapons and other military installations inside or next to mosques, schools and hospitals.

Late Monday, Israel’s chief military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, showed footage of what he said was a Hamas weapons cache found in the basement of Gaza’s Rantisi Hospital for Children.

Hagari said he entered the hospital with Israeli troops on Monday, a day after the facility’s last patients were evacuated. The hospital ran out of fuel last week, and Israel had ordered people to leave as it conducts its ground offensive.

Hagari entered a room decorated with a colorful children’s drawing of a tree, with weapons lying across the floor. He said they included explosive vests, automatic rifles, bombs and rocket-propelled grenades.

“Hamas uses hospitals as an instrument of war,” he said.

He showed another area that he said appears to have been used to hold hostages.

It included what appeared to be a hastily installed toilet and air vent, a baby bottle and a motorcycle — scarred by a bullet hole and apparently used to carry hostages. One windowless room had curtains on the wall that he said could be used as a backdrop in a video. Hagari said forensic experts were examining the scenes.

“This is not the last hospital like this in Gaza, and the world should know that,” Hagari said.

The army has claimed that Hamas is operating inside Shifa and underneath it in bunkers, some of which it says are accessible from the hospital itself. It also claims hundreds of Hamas fighters sought shelter at Shifa after the Oct. 7 massacre, in which at least 1,200 people in Israel were killed.

Israel says these claims are based on intelligence. However, it has released no visual evidence to support the claims. Hagari last month unveiled maps showing where Israel believes Hamas’ underground command centers are located, including one next to hospital’s reception area and another next to the dialysis department.

He also showed off simulated illustrations of what these centers allegedly look like, but acknowledged: “This is only an illustration.”

Israel also released a video of what it said was a captured militant answering questions during an interrogation. The militant, speaking quietly but clearly under duress, says that most tunnels are “hidden in hospitals.”

“At Shifa, for example, there are underground levels,” the militant says. “Shifa is not small. It’s a big place that can hide things.”

The army also released a voice recording of what it says are two anonymous Palestinians in Gaza discussing the presence of a tunnel under Shifa. The recording could not be verified.

Ghazi Hamad, a senior Hamas official, rejected the Israeli claims about Shifa as “false and misleading propaganda.”

“The occupying forces have no evidence to prove it,” Hamad said. “We have never used civilians as human shields because it goes against our religion, morality and principles.”

Israel on Sunday said it had tried to deliver some 300 liters (about 80 gallons) of fuel to the hospital in plastic containers several hundred meters (yards) from the facility. But as of Monday, the fuel had apparently not been taken.

Israel accused Hamas of preventing medical workers from retrieving the containers. Hospital officials said the fuel should be delivered by the Palestinian Red Crescent and that the quantity of fuel was insufficient in any case.

Israel offered safe passage for people to leave. But those who tried to go described a terrifying experience.

Goudhat Samy al-Madhoun, a health care worker, said some 50 people left the facility on Monday, including a woman who had been receiving kidney dialysis. He said Israeli forces fired on the group several times, wounding one man who had to be left behind.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday said the hospital “must be protected” and called for “less intrusive action” by Israeli forces.

“It is my hope and expectation that there will be less intrusive action,” Biden said in the Oval Office.

The Israeli army has said it is aware of the complexities, but says Hamas should not expect immunity.

“We’re not looking to take control of hospitals. We’re looking to dismantle their infrastructure,” said Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, another Israeli army spokesman.

“We’ll go in, we’ll do what we have to do and leave,” he said. “What it’s going to look like, it’s hard to say.”