Israel must protect innocent Gaza residents by distinguishing between Hamas militants and civilians, the White House warned Sunday as President Joe Biden promised a significant increase in aid to the Palestinian territory.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been urged to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza. Health officials in that Hamas-run territory say more than 8,000 people — half of them children — have already died in three weeks of air strikes conducted in retaliation for the deadly Hamas attacks into Israel on October 7.

Biden discussed the protection of civilian lives in a phone call Sunday with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, in which the two leaders “committed to the significant acceleration and increase of assistance flowing into Gaza beginning today and then continuously,” according to a readout from the White House.

The call came as the Biden administration emphasized the need to protect civilian lives amid the ongoing conflict.

“The IDF, the Israeli government, should be taking every possible means available to them to distinguish between Hamas — terrorists, who are legitimate military targets — and civilians, who are not,” US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on CNN talk show “State of the Union.”

Biden delivered a message to Netanyahu himself Sunday when the two spoke on a call to discuss developments in Gaza.

During the conversation, Biden “underscored the need to immediately and significantly increase the flow of humanitarian assistance to meet the needs of civilians in Gaza,” according to a readout of the conversation from the White House.

“The president reiterated that Israel has every right and responsibility to defend its citizens from terrorism and underscored the need to do so in a manner consistent with international humanitarian law that prioritizes the protection of civilians,” the readout said.

But Sullivan emphasized on CNN that “we do believe that thousands of Palestinian civilians have been killed in this bombardment, and every single one of those deaths is a tragedy.”

Speaking on ABC’s “This Week” as he made a round of Sunday talk shows, Sullivan added that Hamas, a “brutal terrorist organization,” is “hiding behind the civilian population.”

Hamas has been using civilians as “human shields” and putting rockets and other “terrorist infrastructure” in civilian areas, he said.

“But it doesn’t lessen their (Israel’s) responsibility under international humanitarian law and the laws of war to do all in their power to protect the civilian population.”

The national security advisor also said that US officials are working to help secure the release of more than 220 hostages being held in Gaza by Hamas, as well as to help the hundreds of Palestinian Americans stuck in Gaza.

“Many of them are still there, still waiting to get out, and we are working actively to try to make that happen,” Sullivan told CBS show “Face the Nation.”

But he said that while neighbouring Egypt and Israel are prepared to let Americans and other foreign nationals leave Gaza, “Hamas is preventing their departure.”

The latest violence began on October 7 when Hamas militants stormed across the Gaza border in the deadliest attack in Israel’s history, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli officials.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan, gunning for a third term, has a request for Bollywood: he wants them to redo the superhit ‘Amar Akbar Anthony’.

Mr Khan, born in London in 1970 to parents who had arrived from Pakistan, explains why he believes that this is the right moment for such a request from a city like London which isn’t unfamiliar to Bollywood.

“I have a Proposal to Bollywood. Please redo Amar Akbar Anthony in the UK because we have a Christian king (Ling Charles III), a Muslim mayor (he himself) and a Hindu Prime Minister (Rishi Sunak),” said Mr Khan, who grew up in public housing with his six brothers and sister in Tooting, an ethnically diverse residential area in the south of the city.

“I’d get to play Amitabh Bachchan’s part,” the Mayor said with a chuckle.

The movie featured Vinod Khanna (a Hindu police officer), Rishi Kapoor (a Muslim qawwali singer) and Amitabh Bachchan (Christian liquor seller). 

“London is the number one place for Bollywood films to be filmed and for people to come and invest in. I’m looking forward to Indians coming here as students, as tourists, as investors, and for locations for Bollywood movies,” said Mr Khan, who joined the Labour Party aged 15.

Mr Khan regularly recalls how his father drove London’s famous red buses, his mother was a seamstress and one of his brothers is a motor mechanic.

“One of the reasons why London is the greatest city in the world is because Indians have chosen to make it their home. These are Londoners who have gone on to become doctors, business people, politicians, chemists, pharmacists, scientists, journalists and so forth. Our diversity is a strength. London is a place where you can fulfil your potential. I call it the London Promise,” said Mr Khan, who made a name for himself as a vocal critic of Brexit. 

In 2005 he gave up his legal career on becoming the member of parliament for Tooting, where he still lives with his lawyer wife Saadiya and their two daughters.

Union Minister G Kishan Reddy on Sunday said that the BJP has decided that reservations of 4 per cent based on religion will be removed and asserted that reservations based on SC, ST, and OBC will be increased in Telangana.

“The party has decided that reservations of 4 per cent based on religion will be removed and reservations based on SC, ST, and OBC will increase… Under the EBC reservation, minorities such as Muslims, Christians and other social groups will also be included after the BJP comes into power,” he added.

Union Minister further asserted that with the blessings of the Telangana people, we will make Chief Minister from the backward caste in the state if the BJP is voted to power.

“The BJP has decided that after coming into power in Telangana with the blessings of the people, we will make Chief Minister from the backward class,” Kishan Reddy said.

Earlier on Friday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced that the next Chief Minister of the BJP  in the state will be from a backward caste if the party is voted to power.

“Today I want to tell the people of Telangana, give your blessings to BJP and form the BJP government. BJP will give Telangana a Chief Minister from the backward class,” Amit Shah said addressing Jana Garjana Sabha in Suryapet.

With Assembly elections in Telangana on sight, the BJP seems to be working strategically to unseat the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi led by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao in the state.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on October 9 announced that the Telangana Assembly polls are scheduled to be held on November 30. The counting of votes will be done on December 3.

Telangana is set to witness a triangular contest between the BJP, the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi, and the Congress in the upcoming assembly election.

In the previous Assembly election held in 2018, BRS managed to win 88 seats out of 119 and had a dominant vote share of 47.4 per cent. Congress came in a distant second with 19 seats. Its vote share was 28.7 per cent.