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A Russian attack hit Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, killing four people and prompting power cuts in several regions, Ukrainian authorities said Saturday.Moscow has in recent months escalated attacks on energy infrastructure in Ukraine, damaging natural gas facilities which produce the main fuel for heating in the country.Experts have said Ukraine risks heating outages ahead of the winter months.“Russian strikes once again targeted people’s everyday life. They deprived communities of power, water, and heating, destroyed critical infrastructure, and damaged railway networks,” Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said.Russia launched 458 drones and 45 missiles at Ukraine overnight, said the Ukrainian air force, adding that it had downed 406 drones and nine missiles.“In Dnipro, a Russian drone struck directly at a residential building; as of now, it is known that three people have died in the city. Sadly, there is also a fatality in Kharkiv,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said.Attacks forced emergency power cuts in the capital Kyiv and in the northern city of Kharkiv, authorities and energy company DTEK said.They also interrupted water supplies in Kharkiv, where the mayor said there was a “noticeable shortage of electricity.”There was no electricity, water, and partial heating in Kremenchuk, in the eastern Poltava region, the administration said.There were also significant train delays, Restoration Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said, accusing Russia of stepping up its attacks on locomotive depots.“We are working to eliminate the consequences throughout the country. The focus is on the rapid restoration of heat, light and water,” Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said.The attack was the ninth massive attack on gas infrastructure since early October, energy company Naftogaz said.Russia has targeted Ukraine’s power and heating grid throughout its almost four-year invasion, destroying a large part of the key civilian infrastructure.As with previous waves of attacks, Russia’s defence ministry said it struck “enterprises of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex and gas and energy facilities that support their operation.”The attacks on energy infrastructure have raised concerns of heating outages in Ukraine as the war enters its fourth winter.Kyiv’s School of Economics estimated in a report that the attacks shut down half of Ukraine’s natural gas production. Ukraine’s top energy expert, Oleksandr Kharchenko, told a media briefing Wednesday that if Kyiv’s two power and heating plants went offline for more than three days when temperatures fall below minus 10 degrees Celsius, the capital would face a “technological disaster”.Ukraine has in turn stepped up strikes on Russian oil depots and refineries in recent months, seeking to cut off Moscow’s vital energy exports and trigger fuel shortages across the country.On Friday evening, drone attacks on energy infrastructure in southern Russia’s Volgograd region caused power cuts there too, governor Andrei Botcharov said on Telegram.

The Qatar Press Center (QPC) condemns the killing of 20 Palestinians, including five journalists and several ambulance and civil defence crews while evacuating the wounded, in an Israeli air strike on the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip.Quoting a medical source, WAFA reported that the journalists killed were: Mohammed Salama, a photojournalist for Al Jazeera; Hussam al-Masri, a photojournalist for Reuters; journalist Mariam Dagga, who works for several media outlets, including Independent Arabia and AP; and journalist Moaz Abu Taha for the American NBC network. Fellow journalist Ahmed Abu Aziz succumbed to his wounds following the Israeli massacre.This brings the number of journalists killed since the beginning of the aggression on Gaza to 245. The QPC affirms that the new Israeli massacre of journalists while performing their professional duties is part of a systematic policy pursued by the occupation army since the beginning of its war of extermination against the people of Gaza on October 7, 2023, targeting journalists’ locations, homes, and tents to prevent them from conveying the truth to the world and to silence their voices forever. The QPC reiterates its call on the international community, UN, human rights, and media organisations, to condemn the targeting of journalists in Gaza and to take urgent action to hold the Israeli occupation accountable before international courts for war crimes against journalists and media professionals. Impunity has encouraged the Israeli occupation forces to continue their series of assassinations, arrests, and intimidation of journalists, in full view of the world.Cameras documented the martyrdom of the journalists live on air. A circulating video shows a group of journalists and paramedics rushing to Nasser Hospital after the fourth floor was bombed, to begin rescuing the victims and wounded.However, they were surprised by a second Israeli airstrike targeting them, resulting in an increase in the number of casualties among photographers and medical personnel.The Government Media Office in the Gaza Strip condemned the recent Israeli massacre, noting that the number of journalist martyrs in the Strip had risen to 245 following the latest attack.The office called on the International Federation of Journalists to condemn the crimes against journalists and held Israel responsible for the brutal crimes committed in the Gaza Strip.

Gaza's civil defence agency said five journalists were among at least 20 people killed Monday when Israeli strikes hit a hospital in the south, with Reuters, the Associated Press and Al Jazeera mourning their slain contributors.The ongoing war in Gaza has been one of the deadliest for journalists, with around 200 media workers killed over the course of the nearly two-year Israeli assault, according to media watchdogs.Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said "the toll so far is 20 martyrs, including five journalists and one member of the civil defence", after strikes hit Khan Yunis's Nasser Hospital — a large medical complex that has been targeted several times by Israel since the start of the war.In a statement, the Israeli military said its troops Monday "carried out a strike in the area of Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis"."The Chief of the General Staff instructed to conduct an initial inquiry as soon as possible," it said, adding it "regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals and does not target journalists as such".The civil defence's Bassal said an Israeli explosive drone targeted a building at the hospital, followed by an air strike as the wounded were being evacuated.Reuters reported that video journalist Hussam al-Masri — a contractor who was working for the agency — was operating a live feed at the hospital, "which suddenly shut down at the moment of the initial strike".A Reuters spokesperson said the agency was "devastated" to learn of Masri's death "and injuries to another of our contractors, Hatem Khaled, in Israeli strikes on the Nasser hospital in Gaza today"."We are urgently seeking more information and have asked authorities in Gaza and Israel to help us get urgent medical assistance for Hatem," the statement added.A spokesperson for Qatar-based TV network Al Jazeera said that one of its photojournalists and cameramen, Mohammad Salama, was also killed in the attack."Al Jazeera Media Network condemns, in the strongest possible terms, this horrific crime committed by the Israeli occupation forces, who have directly targeted and assassinated journalists as part of a systematic campaign to silence the truth," the broadcaster said in a statement.The Associated Press said in a statement that it was "shocked and saddened" to learn of the death of Mariam Dagga, 33, a visual journalist who had freelanced for the agency since the start of the war.The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate named two other victims as Moaz Abu Taha and Ahmad Abu Aziz.Later Monday, a sixth journalist, Hassan Douhan, was killed by Israeli fire in the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Yunis, according to the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate and Nasser Hospital.Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military.AFP footage from the immediate aftermath of the attack showed smoke filling the air and debris from the blast on the floor outside the hospital.Palestinians rushed to help the victims, carrying bloodied corpses and severed body parts into the medical complex. One body could be seen dangling from the top floor of the targeted building as a man screamed below.A woman wearing medical scrubs and a white coat was among the injured, carried into the hospital on a stretcher with a heavily bandaged leg and blood all over her clothes.Nasser Hospital is one of the last remaining health facilities in the Gaza Strip that is at least partially functioning.Later in the day, a crowd carried the bodies of some of the slain journalists at a funeral in Khan Yunis, with the dead wrapped in white burial shrouds and their press flak jackets resting on top."We will not stop walking this path, and the coverage will continue, God willing," said Masri's brother Mahmoud.The strike was lambasted by a range of voices, including the UN, media outlets, rights groups and the Israel-based Foreign Press Association.Earlier this month, four Al Jazeera staff and two freelancers were killed in an Israeli air strike outside Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, prompting widespread condemnation.Anas al-Sharif — a prominent Al Jazeera correspondent killed in the strike was killed in the strike.