Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip killed a fourth militant commander on Thursday (May 11), raising the death toll from the latest burst of fighting to 25. Israel braced for more rocket fire amid reports of faltering Egyptian attempts to broker a cease-fire. It has been the worst bout of fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza in months, and among the dead were also women and children. The conflagration comes at a time of soaring tensions and spiking violence over the past year in the occupied West Bank.

Early on Thursday, the Israeli military carried out strikes against the Islamic Jihad militant group and said a senior commander in charge of the group's rocket launching force, Ali Ghali, was killed when his apartment was hit. Military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told Israeli Army Radio that two other militants were also killed in the strike, although no group immediately claimed them as members. He also said the rest of the building remained intact.

The Indian bordering state of Manipur saw widespread violence last week, following protests by indigenous communities - primarily the Kukis - against a demand seeking tribal status for the Meiteis - the majority in the state. Members of the Meitei community account for 53% of the state's population. Their inclusion in the Scheduled Tribes category will enable them to secure reservation in government jobs and in educational institutions. Communities already recognised as Scheduled tribes fear that granting tribal status to the Meitei community would not just eat into their own share of the reservation pie but will also endanger the forest lands they've lived on for centuries.

Small fractions of people from both communities live in areas dominated by the other. These were the people caught in the crossfire first when the violence began. Meiteis were targeted in Kuki-dominated areas and Kukis were targeted in places dominated by the Meiteis. Entire villages were burnt down. Houses were torched, vehicles set aflame. Some 62-70 people were killed,

Financial leaders of the Group of Seven advanced economies were discussing ways to support Ukraine and pressure Russia to end the war as they met in Japan starting Thursday. Ukraine's finance minister, Serhiy Marchenko, was participating online in the first session of the G-7 talks in Niigata, a port city on the Japan Sea coast. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the G-7 nations "will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes" to end the conflict.

The leaders will be mulling ways to prevent Russia and other countries from circumventing sanctions against Moscow for its invasion, Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki told reporters. The war and its toll on the global economy, debt crises in developing countries and a stalemate in Washington over the national debt are topping the agenda of the three days of talks by finance ministers and central bank governors of G-7 countries and others invited to attend.

The war in Ukraine helped push the global total of people left internally displaced by conflict or natural disasters to a record high of 71.1 million last year, according to a report released by the Norwegian Refugee Council's Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. By the end of 2022, 5.9 million people had been forced to move inside Ukraine because of Russia's invasion, bringing the global total of people internally displaced by conflict and violence to more than 62 million, an increase of 17% since 2021.

Syria had 6.8 million displaced by conflict after more than a decade of civil war. The number of people displaced inside their country at the end of the year because of disasters like floods and famine reached 8.7 million, up by 45% from 2021. The total of 71.1 million internally displaced worldwide was a 20% increase since 2021. Internal displacement refers to people forced to move inside their own borders.