Australia's fabled fast-bowling quartet of Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon etched their names into the history books during the first Test against South Africa at Kingsmead. The renowned bowling unit breached a special 600-wicket milestone with their scalps in the first innings against the Proteas. The four have become the first quartet to complete 600 wickets in Test cricket while playing together. Coming into the first Test in Durban, the four bowlers had taken 599 wickets in the 37 Tests they had played together and breached the 600-wicket mark during Day 2 of the fixture at Kingsmead. The four bowlers now have more than 600 wickets in the 38 Tests they have played together. This came after they combined to take the first eight wickets to fall in South Africa's innings at the time of writing. Cummins leads the chart among the four with 160 wickets in matches played alongside Starc, Hazlewood and Lyon. Starc is second with 155 wickets i...
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday he had ordered the country's military to take control of 70 per cent of the Gaza Strip, in defiance of the terms of a fragile ceasefire that took effect in October.
"We are currently squeezing Hamas. We now control 60 per cent of the territory in the strip," he said at a conference in an occupied West Bank settlement, according to a video aired by Israel's Channel 12 network.
He said the military had controlled 50 per cent of Gaza under the terms of the ceasefire, adding: "My directive is to move to... 70 percent".
"We're squeezing them from all (sides). We'll deal with what's left afterwards."
The first phase of the truce saw the last hostages seized in Hamas's October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, which triggered the war in Gaza, released in exchange for Palestinians detained by Israel.
The transition to the second phase, which was supposed to involve Hamas's disarmament and a gradual withdrawal of the Israeli army, has been stalled for months.
Under the terms of the ceasefire, Israeli forces were to pull back behind a so-called "yellow line", a demarcation between the area under Hamas control and that held by the Israeli army.
Netanyahu announced on May 15 that the Israeli army had expanded its grip on the Gaza Strip.
"There were those who said: get out, get out. We did not get out. Today we control... how much? 60 per cent. Tomorrow we shall see," he said at the time.
Gaza remains gripped by daily violence, with both the Israeli military and Hamas accusing one another of violating the truce in effect since October 10.
Israel has killed more than 900 people since the ceasefire, according to Gaza's health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.
Israel said on Wednesday it had killed the new head of Hamas's armed wing in Gaza, Mohammed Odeh, after killing his predecessor earlier this month.
Since Hamas's October 2023 attack, Israel has systematically targeted the group's leaders, both in Gaza and across the region.
Odeh is the fourth head of the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades that Israel says it has killed since the start of the Gaza war.
On Wednesday, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz repeated Israel's goal of ending Hamas's rule over the Palestinian territory and alluded to a plan for the forced displacement of its residents.
"The plan for voluntary migration from Gaza will also be implemented -- everything will be done at the right time and in the right way," he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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