TRANSCRIPT
- Premier Chris Minns says the deaths of three children in a house fire is a "horrifying crime"
- Israel has bombed a second school in two days in Gaza
- The Blues and Maroons announce their teams heading into the State of Origin decider
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns says the deaths of three young children in a house fire in Western Sydney is a "horrifying crime" that has "deeply traumatised" the state.
A 10-month-old baby girl as well as two boys, aged three and six, were the victims of what police are treating as a domestic-related multiple homicide in the suburb of Lalor Park.
Police allege the children's 28-year-old father is responsible for their deaths, having allegedly attempted to thwart emergency service efforts to rescue the children from the fire.
The man is in an induced coma in hospital in a critical condition due to fire-related injuries.
Premier Chris Minns says the deaths are devastating.
"This is a horrifying and senseless act that's quite rightly outraged the entire state. These children deserved a loving home with safety and security and instead they're gone. And I can imagine the people of New South Wales feel enormous sorrow and deep sympathy with the surviving family members this morning. This is going to leave a deep wound on the state of New South Wales and obviously on the family that's been impacted."
Four other children and their mother are being treated in hospital and are expected to survive.
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Israel has bombed a second school in two days in Gaza, killing four people including a Hamas-appointed bureaucrat.
The air strike targeted a church-run school in western Gaza City which has been sheltering hundreds of Christians and Muslims from Israel's offensive that has killed over 38,000 Palestinians so far*.
Gaza's deputy minister of labour, Ehab Al-Ghussein and three others were killed in the attack and an unknown number of others are reportedly wounded.
One eyewitness says many victims of the air strike were children.
“Inside the Holy Family Church, there’s a large number of displaced people and as you can see, the victims of the aggression are children. Dozens of children came out in pieces, cut, and ripped in pieces, women and young girls, direct targeting with F16 rockets.”
The Israeli military admitted to bombing the school, claiming it was a military hideout and it was hiding a Hamas weapons manufacturing facility.
The attack comes after Israel bombed a United Nations school yesterday, killing 16 people and wounding 75.
Israel claimed that it was targeting militants hiding within the school.
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Three missing Queensland children have been found safe and well after police issued an alert across the state.
A three-year-old girl, five-year-old boy and six-year-old boy have been found at a 7-Eleven in Mount Warren Park, 30 kilometres from where they were last seen in Paradise Point.
The biological father of the children was found by police after he is believed to have taken the children and left them in a car by themselves overnight.
Detective Acting Superintendent Mark White says the man is in custody and an investigation into potential neglect is underway.
"He's been arrested, he's currently in custody on other unrelated charges. He's scheduled to appear in court today. He's lawfully entitled to be with the children and be caring for them but you can't leave children unattended, especially children of that age, so that's going to be the core focus of our investigation moving forward."
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In rugby league...
The New South Wales team remains largely unchanged, with a back line reshuffle for Queensland heading into the decider.
For the Blues, Bradman Best will replace injured Latrell Mitchell in the centres, with edge forward Mitch Barnett named on the bench.
The Maroons have recalled Kayln Ponga, Dane Gagai and Selwyn Cobbo with injuries to the incumbent Queensland wingers forcing the changes.
Queensland will have the home ground advantage for the final State of Origin game next week with coach Billy Slater hoping the side will return to form after a dominant win from New South Wales in game two.
"This is the team that we feel is our best football team going into this game. It's a big game, one-all in the series and the decider here at home. It's pretty exciting. To be honest, the changes - personnel-wise - aren't gonna fix what happened in game two. We need to really go after our footy and make sure that we have an even share of possession, that our discipline is on point, that we're not putting more pressure on ourselves. It's a different game but we need to make sure it's different with our actions."
