Steady rain fell and winds began to gust in the Tampa Bay area Wednesday morning as a mighty Hurricane Milton churned toward a potentially catastrophic collision with the west coast of Florida, where some residents insisted they would stay even after millions were ordered to evacuate.
Rocket sirens sounded constantly across northern Israel on Wednesday, with at least two attacks confirmed. Iran-backed militants Hezbollah confirmed firing rockets into Israel.
At least 45 people were killed in Israeli military strikes on Gaza in the past 24 hours, Palestinian medics said on Wednesday, as Israeli forces pressed on with a raid on the Jabalia refugee camp in the enclave's north.
Draft Israeli legislation that would stop the UN Palestinian refugee agency working in the Gaza Strip and West Bank would be a "catastrophe" if enacted, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday. He said he raised his concerns with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Hurricane Milton was expected to enlarge even as its intensity ebbed on Tuesday as the now-Category 4 storm grinded past Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula en route to Florida's Gulf Coast, where more than one million people were ordered to evacuate before the monster storm arrived.
