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Gaza Civil Defense Says 15 Killed in Israel Strike on Gaza School

Palestinians gather near damage, following what Palestinians say was an Israeli strike at a tent camp in Al-Mawasi area, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip July 13, 2024. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Palestinians gather near damage, following what Palestinians say was an Israeli strike at a tent camp in Al-Mawasi area, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip July 13, 2024. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
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Gaza Civil Defense Says 15 Killed in Israel Strike on Gaza School

Palestinians gather near damage, following what Palestinians say was an Israeli strike at a tent camp in Al-Mawasi area, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip July 13, 2024. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Palestinians gather near damage, following what Palestinians say was an Israeli strike at a tent camp in Al-Mawasi area, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip July 13, 2024. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

The civil defense agency in Gaza said Sunday that 15 people were killed in a strike on a school sheltering war displaced where the Israeli military said it had targeted "terrorists".

The strike on the UN-run Abu Araban site in central Gaza's Nuseirat camp was the fifth on a school-turned-shelter in eight days.

The Abu Araban school was housing "thousands of displaced people," civil defense agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP, adding that most of the dead were women and children.

Schools in Nuseirat were the target for two of the earlier school strikes as Israel keeps up its offensive against Hamas Palestinian militants who triggered the war with their October 7 attack on Israel.

The Israeli military said its air force "struck a number of terrorists who were operating in the area of UNRWA's Abu Araban school building in Nuseirat".

It said the building had "served as a hideout" and base for "attacks" on Israeli troops.

AFPTV images showed the three-storey complex standing, with clothes and bedding airing out over its railings. A wall bearing the UN logo had been blown out, and rooms inside were damaged.

On July 6, Israeli aircraft hit Al-Jawni school, also run by the United Nations relief agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), in Nuseirat. UNRWA said about 2,000 people were sheltering there at the time.

The following day, four people died in a strike on the church-run Holy Family school in Gaza City, in the territory's north, according to the Civil Defence agency.

On Monday, Israel hit another Nuseirat school, again saying it was targeting "terrorists".

The next day, a hospital source said at least 29 people died in a strike at the entrance to Al-Awda school in the Khan Yunis area, southern Gaza.

Israel says Hamas uses schools, hospitals and other public infrastructure for military purposes. Hamas denies the accusation.

France and Germany on Wednesday called for an investigation into the school strikes.

After the Al-Jawni strike, UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma told AFP that when the war began "we closed the schools and they became shelters."

UNRWA is the main relief agency in Gaza but more than half, or 190, of its facilities have been hit -- "some more than once" -- in the military response to the October 7 Hamas attacks, she said.

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Arab World

US Pulling Non-essential Staff from Embassy in Beirut amid Iran Tensions

The new US embassy in Lebanon (US embassy Beirut Twitter account)
The new US embassy in Lebanon (US embassy Beirut Twitter account)
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US Pulling Non-essential Staff from Embassy in Beirut amid Iran Tensions

The new US embassy in Lebanon (US embassy Beirut Twitter account)
The new US embassy in Lebanon (US embassy Beirut Twitter account)

The State Department is pulling out non-essential government personnel and their eligible family members from the US embassy in Beirut, a senior State Department official said on Monday, amid growing concerns about the risk of a military conflict with Iran.

"We continuously assess the security environment, and based on our latest review, we determined it prudent to reduce our footprint to essential personnel," said a senior State Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

"The Embassy remains operational with core staff in place. This is a temporary measure intended to ensure the safety of our personnel while maintaining our ability to operate and assist US citizens," the official said, AFP reported.

A source at the US embassy said 50 people had been evacuated, while an official at Beirut airport said 32 embassy staff, along with family members, had flown out of Beirut airport on Monday.

The US has built up its military presence in the Middle East, with President Donald Trump warning on Thursday that "really bad things will happen" if no deal is reached to solve a longstanding dispute over Tehran's nuclear program.

US interests were repeatedly targeted in Lebanon in the 1980s during the 1975-90 civil war, during which the US held the Iran-backed Hezbollah responsible for attacks including the 1983 suicide bombing against the US Marines headquarters in Beirut that killed 241 servicemen, and a 1983 suicide attack on the US embassy in Beirut that killed 49 embassy staff.

 

 

 

Arab World

Morocco Flood Evacuees Mark Muted Ramadan Away from Home

© Abdel Majid BZIOUAT / AFP
© Abdel Majid BZIOUAT / AFP
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Morocco Flood Evacuees Mark Muted Ramadan Away from Home

© Abdel Majid BZIOUAT / AFP
© Abdel Majid BZIOUAT / AFP

When floods forced Ahmed El Habachi out of his Moroccan village, he thought the displacement was temporary. Weeks later, he broke his Ramadan fast in a tent, wondering when he would return home.

During the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, families traditionally gather over joyous feasts to break the daytime fast.

But the floods that battered northwestern Morocco in recent weeks have left evacuees like Habachi with little to celebrate.

"We prepare Iftar with whatever we can lay our hands on," the 37-year-old told AFP, referring to the fast-breaking meal.

"After all, it's not like we're home," he said, standing outside his blue tent marked "B190" in a makeshift camp set up by authorities near the city of Kenitra.

Just before sunset, women gathered around small stoves. They made do with no running water, and soon the smell of grilled fish wafted through the site.

The families then retreated to their tents for Iftar, with candles providing light for lack of electricity.

The heavy downpours have displaced over 180,000 people as of last week, authorities said, with at least four people killed.

- 'Two or three months' -

Most evacuees in the region have been allowed to return home, but that was not yet an option for Habachi and his children.

"Where would we sleep? There's still mud up to the knees," he said, showing cell phone videos of his home in Ouled Amer, some 35 kilometres (22 miles) away.

He said flooding from a nearby river swept away half of the walls of his house.

"We'll need two or three months to get back to normal," he added.

The camp managers serve each family water and a bag of rice per day.

Fatima Laaouj, 60, said this year's Ramadan was "nothing like what we were used to".

"We lack everything: bread, harira (traditional soup), milk... How can we buy anything when we have no money?" said Laaouj, who picks raspberries for a living.

"We don't have work anymore. The farmland is all destroyed," she added.

Not far from the camp, in the town of Mograne which was swamped by the neighboring Sebou River, villagers still waded through deep mud.

Several homes showed signs of flooding, with walls torn open and floors soaked.

Families had left their belongings stored on top of wardrobes out of fear the water could rise again.

- 'Usually, there's joy' -

After two weeks at the camp, 42-year-old Yamna Chtata returned to find her home turned into a pool of mud, with walls threatening to collapse.

Her voice choked with sobs, she said she was forced to observe Ramadan out of her own home for the first time in the two decades she has lived there.

"We are not celebrating... I have two daughters who are unwell because of the severity of the situation," she said.

Mansour Amrani, a 59-year-old factory security guard, was on his way to the local mosque to fetch drinking water.

That day, he planned to make couscous for his wife and three daughters to break the fast.

"Usually, there's joy when we make couscous," he said. "Today, it's no longer the case. We're afraid the house will collapse on our heads."

Abdelmajid Lekihel, a 49-year-old street vendor, believed it would take time for things to return to normal.

"Food products are no longer available like before," he said, adding that shortages at the local market made preparing the traditional Ramadan meals difficult.

Plus, lingering mud "prevents us from going to see a neighbour, a family member, a friend", he said.

"We're living one day at a time."

Arab World

Iraq Says Ankara Agrees to Take Back Turkish Citizens Among ISIS Detainees Transferred from Syria 

This handout picture made available by the Iraqi prime minister's office shows Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (R) receiving US Special Envoy to Iraq Tom Barrack (L) before attending the signing of agreements between Chevron Corporation and the Basra, Dhi Qar, and North Oil Companies at the government palace in Baghdad on February 23, 2026. (Iraqi Prime Minister’s Press Office / AFP)
This handout picture made available by the Iraqi prime minister's office shows Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (R) receiving US Special Envoy to Iraq Tom Barrack (L) before attending the signing of agreements between Chevron Corporation and the Basra, Dhi Qar, and North Oil Companies at the government palace in Baghdad on February 23, 2026. (Iraqi Prime Minister’s Press Office / AFP)
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Iraq Says Ankara Agrees to Take Back Turkish Citizens Among ISIS Detainees Transferred from Syria 

This handout picture made available by the Iraqi prime minister's office shows Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (R) receiving US Special Envoy to Iraq Tom Barrack (L) before attending the signing of agreements between Chevron Corporation and the Basra, Dhi Qar, and North Oil Companies at the government palace in Baghdad on February 23, 2026. (Iraqi Prime Minister’s Press Office / AFP)
This handout picture made available by the Iraqi prime minister's office shows Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani (R) receiving US Special Envoy to Iraq Tom Barrack (L) before attending the signing of agreements between Chevron Corporation and the Basra, Dhi Qar, and North Oil Companies at the government palace in Baghdad on February 23, 2026. (Iraqi Prime Minister’s Press Office / AFP)

Iraq's foreign minister said on Monday Türkiye had agreed to take back Turkish citizens from among thousands of ISIS detainees transferred to Iraq from Syria when camps and prisons there were shut in recent weeks.

Iraq took in the detainees in an operation arranged with the United States after Kurdish forces retreated and shut down camps and prisons which had housed ISIS suspects ‌for nearly a decade.

Baghdad has said ‌it ⁠will try suspects ⁠on terrorism charges in its own legal system, but it has also repeatedly called on other countries to take back their citizens from among the detainees.

Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein told US envoy Tom Barrack in a meeting that Iraq ⁠was in talks with other countries on ‌the repatriation of ‌their nationals, and had reached an agreement with Türkiye.

In ‌a separate statement to the UN Human ‌Rights Council, Hussein said: "We would call the states across the world to recover their citizens who've been involved in terrorist acts so that they be tried ‌in their countries of origin."

The fate of the suspected ISIS fighters, ⁠as well ⁠as thousands of women and children associated with the group, has become an urgent issue since the Kurdish force guarding them collapsed in the face of a Syrian government offensive.

At the height of its power from 2014-2017, ISIS held swathes of Syria and Iraq, ruling over millions of people and attracting fighters from other countries. Its rule collapsed after military campaigns by regional governments and a US-led coalition.