INTERNACIONAL
Australian rangers kill crocodile that fatally attacked 12-year-old girl swimming in creek
- A crocodile in northern Australia was shot dead by rangers after it fatally attacked a 12-year-old girl who was swimming with her family.
- The attack occurred in Mango Creek near Palumpa, an Outback Indigenous community in the Northern Territory.
- The crocodile was shot after rangers received permission from traditional landowners, who regard saltwater crocodiles as a totem.
Rangers have shot dead a 14-foot crocodile in northern Australia after it killed a 12-year-old girl while she was swimming with her family last week, police said Wednesday.
The girl’s death was the first fatal crocodile attack in the Northern Territory since 2018 when an Indigenous woman was killed while gathering mussels in a river. The attack has rekindled debate on whether more should be done to curb the crocodile population in the Northern Territory, where the protected species has increasingly encroached on human populations.
Wildlife rangers had been attempting to trap or shoot the crocodile since the girl was attacked last week in Mango Creek near Palumpa, an Outback Indigenous community in the Northern Territory.
AUSTRALIAN GIRL, 12, KILLED BY CROCODILE WHILE SWIMMING IN CREEK
They shot the animal Sunday after getting permission from the region’s traditional landowners. Saltwater crocodiles are considered a totem by many Indigenous Australians.
Rangers have shot dead a 14-foot crocodile in northern Australia after it killed a 12-year-old girl while she was swimming with her family last week, police said on Wednesday. (AP Newsroom/Getty Images)
Police said analysis had confirmed the animal was the one that killed the girl.
«The events of last week have had a huge impact on the family and local police are continuing to provide support to everyone impacted,» senior Sgt. Erica Gibson said in the police statement.
Northern Territory-based crocodile scientist Grahame Webb said a reptile the size of the one shot had to be male and at least 30 years old. They grow throughout their lives and can live up to 70 years.
The girl’s death came weeks after the Northern Territory approved a 10-year plan to contain croc numbers, lifting the rate of culling near human habitat from 300 to 1,200 a year.
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The Northern Territory government said after the latest fatality that crocs could not be allowed to outnumber humans.
The Northern Territory has a land area around the size of France and Spain combined but only 250,000 people. Croc numbers are estimated at 100,000. The crocodile population was as low as 3,000 before hunting them was outlawed by federal legislation in 1971.
Webb said the territory’s crocs had largely stabilized their own population in recent years by killing each other for food or territory. «They eat each other. The crocs have been controlling their own population. It’s not really people that have been controlling them,» Webb said.
INTERNACIONAL
Mother of Israeli hostage begs Trump, Netanyahu to bring son home before ceasefire collapses: ‘No more time’
Idit Ohel, the mother of Israeli hostage Alon Ohel, urgently pleaded for President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to secure the release of the remaining Oct. 7 captives held by Hamas amid fears the current ceasefire deal is disintegrating.
«They have no more time. And please don’t go back to war. Please. Because if that happens, if we go back to war, the hostages could die. The hostages that are alive could die,» she told Fox News Digital. «That’s what happened last time. Last time we saw that after the hostages came out and war started, so many hostages died and were murdered by Hamas. So we cannot let this happen. Please do everything in your power and do something for my son. He’s in the tunnels. He’s crying for help.»
Idit Ohel said she received confirmation that her son is still alive from released hostages Eli Sharabi and Or Levy, two of the three gaunt, frail-looking Israelis forced to speak Saturday during a Hamas hand-over ceremony in Gaza.
The mother said the released hostages, who were held with her son for part of their nearly 500 days in captivity, told her that Alon Ohel is unable to see out of an eye after being struck by shrapnel when Hamas was closing in on Oct. 7, 2023. Alon Ohel, a civilian, was attending the Nova music festival when terrorists attacked, and he took cover in a bomb shelter. Hamas pounded the shelter with grenades and gunfire, and he «was taken, wounded, with blood all over him,» Idit Ohel said.
ISRAEL SLAMS PALESTINIAN ‘DECEPTION SCHEME’ OVER CLAIM IT HALTED TERROR REWARDS PROGRAM
A placard of Alon Ohel seen during a rally marking his 24th birthday in Tel Aviv. (Eyal Warshavsky/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Alon Ohel’s ancestors survived the Holocaust, including his great-grandfather who weighed just 30 kilos [about 66 pounds] when he was released from the Auschwitz concentration camp, Idit Ohel said. «So if he was alive today, he would probably die instantly just knowing that his great-grandson in the year of 2025 is starving,» she said. «Alon has these genes. So he’s fighting. He’s fighting for his life every day.»
Under the deal, another three hostages were due to be released by next Saturday, but Hamas said Monday that the group would not let them go, accusing Israel of violating terms of the ceasefire agreement.
Concerns that fighting will resume are rising. Trump has since said that Hamas must release all remaining 76 hostages by noon Saturday, or he would demand the ceasefire deal be canceled and «let all hell break out.» Netanyahu backed the demand.
Israeli media is reporting that Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, is being dispatched to Israel and Qatar this week to prevent the ceasefire deal from unraveling. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected in Israel on Saturday.
To Trump and Netayanhu directly, Idit Ohel said, «Do something and bring them home. Please. Please.»
Idit Ohel speaks to the crowd during a Tel Aviv rally marking the 24th Birthday of her son Alon Ohel who is held hostage by Hamas. (Eyal Warshavsky/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
«Give him a chance. It’s unbearable. Something has to change. You have to do everything in your power to bring him home to me, to his family,» she said. «There’s still hostages alive. There’s still hostages alive. Please. Please, do something.»
Idit Ohel said she learned her son is being held in tunnels without medical attention and little food and has been «tortured, chained and starved.»
«It’s not humane. There’s so much food getting into Gaza, and he’s not getting any of it,» she said.
HAMAS SAYS IT’S DELAYING NEXT HOSTAGE RELEASE, CLAIMING CEASEFIRE VIOLATIONS
«Alon, right now as we speak, is still being not fed, sleeping on the floor, being chained, constrained. So he cannot move for 494 days,» Idit Ohel said. «My son is important. My son is only an innocent civilian. He went to the Nova festival to have fun. He’s a pianist. He loves music. He did nothing wrong to nobody. We need to get him out now. He cannot continue. This is humanitarian.»
Days before Trump took office, Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire agreement. Former President Joe Biden said at the time that the first phase involved a «surge of humanitarian assistance into Gaza» – something Idit Ohel stressed her son is not getting.
She said the International Committee of the Red Cross «have never seen Alon and have never seen any of the hostages – [he] didn’t get any treatment.»
Israelis stand under placards with photos of hostages during a rally in Tel Aviv marking the 24th Birthday of Alon Ohel, who is held by Hamas in Gaza. (Eyal Warshavsky/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
«Where is he? Why is he not coming?» Idit Ohel added. «I do not understand it. I will never understand it. This is wrong. This is not moral.»
Ohel rallied thousands in Tel Aviv over the weekend on her son’s 24th birthday – the second birthday he has spent in captivity since the Oct. 7 attacks.
«I wanted to say happy birthday to my son. I couldn’t even talk [to him] and see and hear his voice,» she said. «When I heard about his condition, I fainted … I haven’t been sleeping for days … I cannot control what Hamas is doing to my son.»
«Every mother in this world. Think just for a second. If there’s one night that your son or daughter doesn’t eat, you can’t even live with yourself,» Ohel added. «My son has not been getting food for 494 days.»
The mother also delivered a message directly to her son.
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«If you’re listening to me, you know I love you and your father loves you. And we’re doing everything in our power to make sure that you’re home alive. You’re coming home. And there’s so many people all over the world and in Israel that are with you and are praying for you,» Ohel said, asking fellow musicians to play songs in her son’s honor in the coming days. «And you are not alone, Alon. You are not alone.»
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