Top of The World: At least 24 Palestinians, including nine children, were killed overnight and 122 others were wounded in Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip in a new round of escalating tensions. And, the COVID-19 variant first identified in India has been designated a global concern by the World Health Organization. Also, the FDA has expanded the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 jab to children as young as 12.