Wickremesinghe, Premadasa, and Dissanayake are the main contenders for the post
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The latest Israel-Palestinian war reverberated around the world Tuesday as foreign governments tried to determine how many of their citizens were dead, missing or needing medical help or flights home.
Numerous countries also offered to mediate an end to the fighting, which already has killed at least 2,200 people, according to authorities on both sides. The death toll was expected to grow as Israel pummelled the Gaza Strip with airstrikes and sent Palestinians fleeing into UN shelters. The conflict that started on Saturday has entered Day 5 (October 11), and here's what we know:
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition has agreed to form an emergency unity government with opposition politicians following the deadliest Palestinian militant attack in Israeli history, his ruling Likud Party said on Tuesday.
The main opposition leaders, former Prime Minister Yair Lapid and former Defence Minister Benny Gantz, had agreed in principle to join a unity government following the surprise attack on Saturday by the group Hamas.
Netanyahu and Gantz met on Wednesday and were "finalising the details", Gantz's office said in a statement without elaborating.
The Hamas' armed wing, the Al Qassam Brigades, said it was still fighting inside Israel on Wednesday, as Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles assembled in large numbers just north of Gaza. and Hamas' armed wing.
Electricity in Gaza went out on Wednesday after the sole power station in the blockaded Palestinian enclave stopped working, Hamas media reported. Gaza’s only power plant ran out of fuel Wednesday afternoon, forcing it to shut down after Israel cut off supplies, the Energy Ministry said according to AP.
Israeli airstrikes smashed entire city blocks to rubble in the tiny coastal enclave and left unknown numbers of bodies beneath mounds of debris. The bombardment raged on even though militants are holding an estimated 150 people dragged from Israel into Gaza — soldiers, men, women, children and older adults.
Israeli shelling hit southern Lebanese towns on Wednesday in response to a fresh rocket attack by powerful armed group Hezbollah, as cross-border violence extended into a fourth day. Hezbollah said it had fired precision missiles at an Israeli position in response to the killing of its members in Israeli shelling earlier this week, pledging "decisive" responses to attacks on Lebanese territory, especially deadly ones.
Israel vowed to escalate its response to an attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas with a ground offensive. Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, speaking to soldiers near the Gaza fence, said: "Hamas wanted a change and it will get one. What was in Gaza will no longer be."
"We started the offensive from the air, later on we will also come from the ground. We've been controlling the area since Day 2 and we are on the offensive. It will only intensify."
Former Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal called for protests across the Arab world on Friday in support of the Palestinians, in a recorded statement seen by Reuters. "[We must] head to the squares and streets of the Arab and Islamic world on Friday, the Friday of Al Aqsa Flood," Meshaal, who is currently the leader of Hamas's diaspora office, said.
More than 1,200 Israelis have been killed in the Israel-Hamas conflict, an Israeli Defense Forces spokesperson said Wednesday, up from 1,000 previously reported. "The death toll is a staggering 1,200 dead Israelis," IDF spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said in a video message, adding that "the overwhelming majority of them" were civilians.
Biden called the Hamas attacks "an act of sheer evil" and said Washington was rushing additional military assistance to Israel, including ammunition and interceptors to replenish the Iron Dome aerial defence system. Biden also despatched his top diplomat Antony Blinken to Israel, who will deliver "a message of solidarity and support," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.
Twenty Thai nationals have been killed in the conflict between Israel and militant group Hamas, the kingdom's government said Wednesday, up from the previous toll of 18. The foreign ministry said the number of Thais held hostage had increased by three to 14, based on unofficial reports from Thai citizens in Israel.
Israeli troops have killed at least 1,000 Palestinian gunmen who infiltrated from Gaza, and have reinforced all communities in Israel as hostilities spread to other fronts, the military said on Wednesday. Chief military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari also said that among Hamas targets destroyed in a Gaza counter-offensive was an advanced system for tracking aircraft.
Australia has organised two special flights to bring back citizens from Israel, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Wednesday. The first flight will leave on Friday, the second on Sunday, and will travel from Ben Gurion airport to London, according to Albanese.
At least 30 people have been killed and hundreds wounded as Israel pounded the Gaza Strip with hundreds of air strikes overnight, a Hamas government official said Wednesday. Dozens of residential buildings, factories, mosques and shops were hit, the head of the government's media office, Salama Marouf, told AFP.
More than 260,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in the Gaza Strip, as heavy Israeli bombardments from the air, land and sea continue to hit the Palestinian enclave, the United Nations said.
"Over 263,934 people in Gaza are believed to have fled their homes," said UN humanitarian agency OCHA said in an update Tuesday, warning that "this number is expected to rise further". It said that around 3,000 people had been displaced "due to previous escalations", prior to Saturday.
Hundreds of Hamas militants attacked Israel from around 6:30 am (0330 GMT) on Saturday, the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, in an assault that came 50 years and a day after the outbreak of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.
The Islamists fired thousands of rockets from Gaza into Israel and used explosives and bulldozers to break through the security fence around the blockaded Palestinian enclave.
Using motorbikes, pickup trucks, motorised gliders and speed boats, the militants streamed into Israel, targeting cities including Ashkelon, Ofakim and Sderot. The gunmen unleashed a massacre at a music festival attended by hundreds of young Israelis and foreigners near Kibbutz Reim, close to Gaza.
Israel said Hamas took around 150 hostages. They include at least 11 Thais, two Mexicans and an unknown number of Americans and Germans.
Israel declared war on Hamas on Sunday and has since unleashed thousands of air strikes on the militia's positions inside Gaza.
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday ordered a "complete siege" of Gaza, meaning "no electricity, no food, no water, no gas", in a move decried by the United Nations as a possible violation of international law.
The military has massed tens of thousands of troops and heavy armour near Gaza, and called up 300,000 reservists for a campaign it has dubbed "Swords of Iron".
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that his country's military campaign was only the start of a sustained war, and has vowed to reduce to "rubble" Hamas's hideouts in Gaza.
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