内容摘要：In 2015, one of the hammers used to strike the six bells came away and fell into the mechanism, jamming it and silencing the clock.

In 2015, one of the hammers used to strike the six bells came away and fell into the mechanism, jamming it and silencing the clock.

Finally, as the pressure against him mounted, the former president took the drastic step of declaring martial law.Yoon's declaration of martial law on 3 December - made in a self-proclaimed bid to eliminate "anti-state forces" and North Korea sympathisers - served as the catalyst for Lee to emerge as a leading presidential candidate.

Within hours of the declaration, Lee appealed to the public via a livestream broadcast and urged them to assemble in protest outside the National Assembly building in central Seoul.Thousands responded, clashing with police and blocking military units as opposition lawmakers rushed into the assembly building, clambering over fences and walls in a desperate attempt to block Yoon's order.Lee was among them, climbing over the fence to enter the National Assembly and helping to pass the resolution to lift martial law.

The Democratic Party later decided to impeach President Yoon - a decision that was unanimously upheld by South Korea's Constitutional Court on 4 April, 2025.It was then that Lee began the path to a full-fledged election bid, announcing his resignation as leader of the Democratic Party on 9 April ahead of his presidential run. In the Democratic Party presidential primary held on April 27, he was selected as the general candidate with overwhelming support.

The result of Yoon's abortive martial law attempt was a political maelstrom from which South Korea is still reeling: a constitutional crisis that ended the former president's career and left his PPP in tatters.

But of the small few who have managed to leverage that chaos to their advantage, none have benefitted more than Lee.Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response Hamas' cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

Another four people, two of them dead, were already being held captive in Gaza before the conflict.So far, Israel has secured the return of 197 hostages, 148 of them alive, mostly through two temporary ceasefire deals with Hamas.

At least 54,249 people have been killed in Gaza during the war, including 3,986 since Israel resumed its offensive, according to the territory's health ministry.On Thursday, at least 54 people were killed by Israeli strikes across Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency. They included 23 people who died when a home in the central Bureij area was hit, it said.