Israeli strike kills nearly 100 in Gaza school refuge, civil defense officials say

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Updated 11 August 2024
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Israeli strike kills nearly 100 in Gaza school refuge, civil defense officials say

Israeli strike kills nearly 100 in Gaza school refuge, civil defense officials say
  • Civil defense said 11 children, six women among those killed at school shelter
  • Israel has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 92,000 others, according to the Health Ministry
  • Arab countries condemn airstrike

CAIRO: An Israeli airstrike on a Gaza City school compound housing displaced Palestinian families killed around 100 people, the Gaza Civil Emergency Service said on Saturday, while Israel said the toll was inflated and 19 militants were among the dead.
Video from the site showed body parts scattered among rubble and more bodies being carried away and covered by blankets. Empty food tins lay in a puddle of blood, and burned mattresses and a child’s doll lay in the debris.
In another video, men prayed over a dozen body bags laid on the ground of the Tabeen school complex.
The Israeli strike drew condemnation from Arab states, Turkiye, France, Britain and the European Union and an expression of deep concern from the US, which has been working with partners to prevent the 10-month-old Gaza conflict from escalating into a regional war.
“Yet again far too many civilians have been killed,” US Vice President Kamala Harris, said during a campaign stop in Phoenix when asked for her reaction to the Gaza City strike.
Reiterating US calls, Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate running for election in November, told reporters: “We need a hostage deal and a ceasefire.”
Gaza’s Civil Emergency Service, which has a credible record in stating casualty numbers, and the Hamas-run government media office said in separate statements that the complex had been attacked while its occupants were performing dawn prayers.
“So far, there are more than 93 martyrs, including 11 children and six women. There are unidentified remains,” Palestinian civil defense spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal told a televised press conference.
Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought shelter in Gaza’s schools, most of which have been closed since Israel’s war against Hamas began.
Around 350 families had been sheltering at the compound, Bassal said — some of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by Israel’s onslaught on Gaza.
The upper floor housing families and the lower floor, used as a mosque, were both hit, he said.
The Israeli military said the death toll was inflated.
“The strike was carried out using three precise munitions, which can not cause the amount of damage that is being reported,” the military said in a statement.
It added that no severe damage was caused to the compound, and provided aerial photos and videos which it said proved this.
The compound, and the mosque that was struck within it, served as an active Hamas and Islamic Jihad military facility,” Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said on X, without providing evidence.
An Israeli army official said the part of the mosque that was struck was reserved for men.
Israel says Palestinian militants embed themselves among Gaza’s civilians, operating from within schools, hospitals and designated humanitarian zones — which Hamas and its allies deny.
Hamas said the strike was a horrific crime and a serious escalation. Izzat El-Reshiq of Hamas’ political office said the dead did not include a single combatant.
A separate strike on Saturday killed three Palestinians in Al-Nuseirat in central Gaza and another killed one person in nearby Deir Al-Balah, medics said.
Later in the day an Israeli strike killed three Palestinians in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, medics said.
Separately, the Israeli military said the head of general security in Hamas’ military wing, Walid Alsousi, had been killed in southern Gaza. There was no immediate Hamas comment.

NEW ROUND OF CEASEFIRE TALKS
With regional tensions high after the July 31 assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, US President Joe Biden urged Iran not to attack Israel. Iran, which supports Hamas, has blamed Israel and vowed to “punish” it. Israel has not confirmed or denied responsibility.
When a reporter asked on Saturday for his message to Iran, Biden mouthed the word “don’t.”
The Iranian-backed Hezbollah armed group in Lebanon said it launched a drone attack against military positions in northern Israel. Israel’s military said unspecified damage was reported but no casualties and that it struck several Hezbollah military structures in southern Lebanon.
The White House said it was “deeply concerned” about the Gaza school compound strike and asked Israeli officials for further details.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on X that he was horrified by the images from the school.
A spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, urged Israel’s ally Washington to end “blind support that leads to the killing of thousands of innocent civilians, including children, women, and the elderly.”
A Hamas official told Reuters the group was studying a new ceasefire proposal for discussion but did not elaborate.
Speaking to Al-Jazeera television, Khalil Al-Hayya, the head of the Hamas team for the indirect ceasefire talks with Israel, said statements of condemnation were no longer sufficient.
“Dismiss (Israeli) ambassadors, close down embassies and sever ties with the occupation,” he said.
Egypt, the United States and Qatar have scheduled a new round of ceasefire negotiations for Thursday, as fears grow of a broader conflict involving Iran and Hezbollah.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has said he will not end the war until Hamas no longer poses a threat to Israelis, said he would send a delegation.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich pushed back against the White House’s accusation on Friday that he was “dead wrong” in asserting that the ceasefire deal on the table would be a surrender to Hamas.
In a post on X, Smotrich, one of Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners, thanked the US for its support for Israel but insisted it “will not submit to any external pressure that would harm Israel’s security.”
Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, nearly 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive in Gaza, according to the health ministry.
Gaza health officials say most of the fatalities have been civilians but Israel says at least a third are fighters. Israel says it has lost 329 soldiers in Gaza.

 


UAE hits record May temperature of 51.6C

Updated 12 sec ago
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UAE hits record May temperature of 51.6C

UAE hits record May temperature of 51.6C
The highest temperature recorded over the country was 51.6C in Sweihan (Al Ain)
Scientists have shown that recurring heatwaves are a clear marker of global warming

DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates breached its May temperature record for the second day in a row, hitting 51.6 degrees Celsius on Saturday, according to the National Center of Meteorology.

“The highest temperature recorded over the country today is 51.6C in Sweihan (Al Ain) at 13:45 UAE local time (0945 GMT),” the office said in a post on X, 1.2C hotter than the temperature recorded on Friday in the Abu Dhabi area.

Both those temperatures exceeded a previous record for the month of 50.2 Celsius recorded in May 2009, according to the meteorology office.

The desert nation lies in one of the planet’s hottest regions and one which is particularly vulnerable to climate change.

Scientists have shown that recurring heatwaves are a clear marker of global warming and that these heatwaves are set to become more frequent, longer and more intense.

The number of extremely hot days has nearly doubled globally in the past three decades.

According to a 2022 Greenpeace study, the Middle East is at high risk of water and food scarcity as well as severe heat waves as a result of climate change.

The report, which focused on six countries, found the region was warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, making its food and water supplies “extremely vulnerable” to climate change.

Nine of Gazan doctor’s 10 children killed in Israeli air strike

Nine of Gazan doctor’s 10 children killed in Israeli air strike
Updated 24 May 2025
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Nine of Gazan doctor’s 10 children killed in Israeli air strike

Nine of Gazan doctor’s 10 children killed in Israeli air strike
  • Dr. Alaa Al-Najjar also saw her husband, Dr. Hamdi Al-Najjar, critically injured
  • Couple’s only surviving child, 11-year-old boy, was severely wounded

LONDON: A pediatrician working in southern Gaza has lost nine of her 10 children in an Israeli air strike that hit her family home, in what fellow medics have described as an “unimaginable” tragedy.

Dr. Alaa Al-Najjar, who was on duty at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis at the time of the strike, also saw her husband, Dr. Hamdi Al-Najjar, critically injured.

The couple’s only surviving child, an 11-year-old boy, was severely wounded and underwent emergency surgery on Friday, according to reports.

“This is the reality our medical staff in Gaza endure. Words fall short in describing the pain,” said Dr. Muneer Alboursh, director general of Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry. “In Gaza, it is not only healthcare workers who are targeted, Israel’s aggression goes further, wiping out entire families.”

Graphic footage shared by Palestinian Civil Defense, and verified by media outlets including the BBC, showed the remains of small children being pulled from the rubble of a collapsed building near a petrol station in Khan Younis.

British surgeon Dr. Graeme Groom, who is volunteering at Nasser hospital, said Dr Al-Najjar’s surviving son was his final patient of the day.

“He was very badly injured and seemed much younger as we lifted him onto the operating table,” he said in a video posted to social media.

Groom added that the child’s father, also a physician at the same hospital, had “no political and no military connections and doesn’t seem to be prominent on social media,” calling the strike “a particularly sad day.”

He continued: “It is unimaginable for that poor woman, both of them are doctors here… and yet his poor wife is the only uninjured one, who has the prospect of losing her husband.”

Relative Youssef Al-Najjar, speaking to AFP, made an emotional plea: “Enough. Have mercy on us. We plead to all countries, the international community, the people, Hamas, and all factions to have mercy on us. We are exhausted from the displacement and the hunger.”

Dr. Victoria Rose, another British doctor at the hospital, said the family had lived near a petrol station and speculated that the strike may have caused or been worsened by a large explosion. “That is life in Gaza. That is the way it goes in Gaza,” she said.

The Israel Defence Forces did not comment directly on the strike, but in a general statement said it had hit more than 100 targets across Gaza in a 24-hour period.

The Hamas-run health ministry reported at least 74 Palestinian deaths in that time frame alone.

The UN has warned that Gaza may be entering its “cruelest phase” of the war, with Secretary-General Antonio Guterres denouncing Israel’s restrictions on aid as exacerbating a humanitarian catastrophe.

Although Israel partially lifted its blockade this week, allowing limited aid to enter, the UN says the deliveries fall far short of the 500–600 trucks of supplies needed daily to meet basic needs for the territory’s 2.1 million people.

Since Israel launched its offensive after Hamas militants stormed into Israel, killing around 1,200 people and abducting 251 others, on Oct. 7, 2023, more than 53,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which includes women and children in its total but does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.


Erdogan, Syria’s Sharaa hold talks in Istanbul

Erdogan, Syria’s Sharaa hold talks in Istanbul
Updated 24 May 2025
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Erdogan, Syria’s Sharaa hold talks in Istanbul

Erdogan, Syria’s Sharaa hold talks in Istanbul
  • Video footage on Turkish television showed Erdogan shaking hands with Sharaa
  • The two countries’ foreign ministers also attended the talks

ISTANBUL: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan was holding talks with Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa in Istanbul on Saturday, news channel CNN Turk and state media said, broadcasting video of the two leaders greeting each other.

The visit comes the day after US President Donald Trump’s administration issued orders that it said would effectively lift sanctions on Syria. Trump had pledged to unwind the measures to help the country rebuild after its devastating civil war.

Video footage on Turkish television showed Erdogan shaking hands with Sharaa as he emerged from his car at the Dolmabahce Palace on the shores of the Bosphorus Strait in Turkiye’s largest city.

The two countries’ foreign ministers also attended the talks, as well as Turkiye’s defense minister and the head of the Turkish MIT intelligence agency, according to Turkiye’s state-owned Anadolu news agency.

The Syrian delegation also included Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra, according to Syrian state news agency SANA.

MIT chief Ibrahim Kalin and Sharaa this week held talks in Syria on the Syrian Kurdish YPG militant group laying down its weapons and integrating into Syrian security forces, a Turkish security source said previously.


US strike on Yemen kills Al-Qaeda members: Yemeni security sources

US strike on Yemen kills Al-Qaeda members: Yemeni security sources
Updated 24 May 2025
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US strike on Yemen kills Al-Qaeda members: Yemeni security sources

US strike on Yemen kills Al-Qaeda members: Yemeni security sources
  • “Five Al-Qaeda members were eliminated,” said a security source in Abyan
  • Washington once regarded the group as the militant network’s most dangerous branch

DUBAI: Five Al-Qaeda members have been killed in a strike blamed on the United States in southern Yemen, two Yemeni security sources told AFP on Saturday.

“Residents of the area informed us of the US strike... five Al-Qaeda members were eliminated,” said a security source in Abyan province, which borders the seat of Yemen’s internationally-recognized government in Aden.

“The US strike on Friday evening north of Khabar Al-Maraqsha killed five,” said a second source, referring to a mountainous area known to be used by Al-Qaeda.

The second security source added that, though the names of those killed in the strike were not known, it was believed one of Al-Qaeda’s local leaders was among the dead.

Washington once regarded the group, known as Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), as the militant network’s most dangerous branch.

Born in 2009 from the merger of Al-Qaeda’s Yemeni and Saudi factions, AQAP grew and developed in the chaos of Yemen’s war, which since 2015 has pitted the Iran-backed Houthi militants against a Saudi-led coalition backing the government.

Earlier this month, the United States agreed a ceasefire with the Houthis, who have controlled large swathes of Yemen for more than a decade, ending weeks of intense American strikes on militant-held areas of the country.

The Houthis began firing at shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in November 2023, weeks after the start of the Israel-Hamas war, prompting military strikes by the US and Britain beginning in January 2024.

The conflict in Yemen has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, although fighting decreased significantly after a UN-negotiated six-month truce in 2022.


Iraq seeks deal to swap kidnapped academic for jailed Iranian

Iraq seeks deal to swap kidnapped academic for jailed Iranian
Updated 24 May 2025
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Iraq seeks deal to swap kidnapped academic for jailed Iranian

Iraq seeks deal to swap kidnapped academic for jailed Iranian
  • Iraqi officials are working on a deal to release kidnapped Israeli academic Elizabeth Tsurkov in exchange for an Iranian jailed for murdering an American civilian
  • Tsurkov was kidnapped in March 2023 allegedly by paramilitary group Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq

BAGHDAD: Baghdad is working on a deal to free kidnapped Israeli-Russian academic Elizabeth Tsurkov in exchange for an Iranian jailed in Iraq for murdering a US civilian, security sources said Saturday.
The deal depends on US approval, the senior Iraqi security officials told AFP, asking to remain anonymous because the matter is considered sensitive.
Tsurkov, a doctoral student at Princeton University, was kidnapped in Baghdad in March 2023.
There was no claim of responsibility for her abduction, but Israel accused Iraq’s powerful Kataeb Hezbollah of holding Tsurkov.
The Iran-backed armed faction has implied it was not involved.
Iraq has been working to solve the issue which “depends on the Americans’ approval for the release of the Iranian accused of killing an American citizen,” a senior security source said.
The three Iraqi sources said that Washington has not yet agreed to this.
“The Americans have not yet agreed to one of the conditions, which is the release of the Iranian who is being held for killing an American citizen,” one official said.
Iraq is both a significant ally of Iran and a strategic partner of the United States, and has for years negotiated a delicate balancing act between the two foes.
The Iranian and another four Iraqis were sentenced to life in prison in Iraq for murdering American civilian Stephen Troell, who was shot dead in Baghdad in November 2022.
In December last year, the US Justice Department announced that a “complaint was unsealed... charging” Iranian Mohammad Reza Nouri, “an officer” in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), with allegedly orchestrating the killing.
Tsurkov, who is likely to have entered Iraq on her Russian passport, traveled to the country as part of her doctoral studies.
Security and diplomatic sources have told AFP they do not rule out the possibility that she may have been taken to Iran.
In November 2023, Iraqi channel Al Rabiaa TV aired the first hostage video of Tsurkov since her abduction.
AFP was unable to independently verify the footage or to determine whether she spoke freely in it or under coercion.