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Warplanes Strike Gaza Refugee Camp as Israel Rejects US Push for Pause in Fighting

Palestinians search for casualties, at the site of Israeli strikes on houses, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, at the Maghazi refugee camp, in central Gaza Strip, November 5, 2023. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
Palestinians search for casualties, at the site of Israeli strikes on houses, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, at the Maghazi refugee camp, in central Gaza Strip, November 5, 2023. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
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Warplanes Strike Gaza Refugee Camp as Israel Rejects US Push for Pause in Fighting

Palestinians search for casualties, at the site of Israeli strikes on houses, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, at the Maghazi refugee camp, in central Gaza Strip, November 5, 2023. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
Palestinians search for casualties, at the site of Israeli strikes on houses, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, at the Maghazi refugee camp, in central Gaza Strip, November 5, 2023. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

Israeli warplanes struck a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip early Sunday, killing at least 33 people and wounding dozens, health officials said. The strike came as Israel said it would press on with its offensive to crush Hamas, despite US appeals for a pause to get aid to desperate civilians.
The soaring death toll in Gaza has sparked growing international anger, with tens of thousands from Washington to Berlin taking to the streets Saturday to demand an immediate ceasefire.
Israel has rejected the idea of halting its offensive, even for brief humanitarian pauses proposed by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during his current tour of the region. Instead, it said that the besieged enclave’s Hamas rulers were “encountering the full force” of its troops.
“Anyone in Gaza City is risking their life,” Israel’s Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant said.
Large columns of smoke rose as Israel’s military said it had encircled Gaza City, the initial target of its offensive against Hamas. Gaza’s Health Ministry has said more than 9,400 Palestinians have been killed in the territory in nearly a month of war, and that number is likely to rise as the assault continues.
Early Sunday, airstrikes hit the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least 33 people and wounding 42, said Ashraf al-Qidra, the spokesman for the Health Ministry.
He said first responders, aided by residents, were still searching the rubble for dead or possible survivors.
The camp, a built-up residential area, is located in the evacuation zone where Israel’s military had urged Palestinian civilians in Gaza to seek refuge as it focuses its military offensive in the northern areas.
Despite such appeals, Israel has continued its bombardment across Gaza, saying it is targeting Hamas fighters and assets everywhere.

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Syrian Intelligence Says It Foiled ISIS Attempt to Target Damascus Shrine

A general view of the city during the year's first sunrise on New Year's Day, after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, January 1, 2025. (Reuters)
A general view of the city during the year's first sunrise on New Year's Day, after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, January 1, 2025. (Reuters)
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Syrian Intelligence Says It Foiled ISIS Attempt to Target Damascus Shrine

A general view of the city during the year's first sunrise on New Year's Day, after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, January 1, 2025. (Reuters)
A general view of the city during the year's first sunrise on New Year's Day, after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, January 1, 2025. (Reuters)

Intelligence officials in Syria's new de facto government thwarted a plan by the ISIS group to set off a bomb at a Shiite shrine in the Damascus suburb of Sayyida Zeinab, state media reported Saturday.

State news agency SANA reported, citing an unnamed official in the General Intelligence Service, that members of the ISIS cell planning the attack were arrested.  

It quoted the official as saying that the intelligence service is “putting all its capabilities to stand in the face of all attempts to target the Syrian people in all their spectrums.”

Sayyida Zeinab has been the site of past attacks on Shiite pilgrims by ISIS.

In 2023, a motorcycle planted with explosives detonated in Sayyida Zeinab, killing at least six people and wounding dozens.

The announcement that the attack had been thwarted appeared to be another attempt by the country's new leaders to reassure religious minorities, including those seen as having been supporters of the former government of Bashar al-Assad.

Assad, a member of the Alawite minority, was allied with Iran and with the Shiite Lebanese group Hezbollah as well as Iranian-backed Iraqi militias.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, the former opposition group that led the lightning offensive that toppled Assad last month and is now the de facto ruling party in the country, is a group that formerly had ties with al-Qaeda.

The group later split from al-Qaeda, and HTS leader Ahmad al-Sharaa has preached religious coexistence since assuming power in Damascus.

Also Saturday, Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati arrived in Damascus to meet with al-Sharaa.

Relations between the two countries had been strained under Assad, with Lebanon's political factions deeply divided between those supporting and opposing Assad's rule.