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Israeli Strikes Kill 15 Palestinians in Gaza School Sheltering Displaced

Palestinians react following a strike at a UN-run school sheltering displaced people, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas, in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip November 4, 2023. (Reuters)
Palestinians react following a strike at a UN-run school sheltering displaced people, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas, in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip November 4, 2023. (Reuters)
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Israeli Strikes Kill 15 Palestinians in Gaza School Sheltering Displaced

Palestinians react following a strike at a UN-run school sheltering displaced people, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas, in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip November 4, 2023. (Reuters)
Palestinians react following a strike at a UN-run school sheltering displaced people, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas, in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip November 4, 2023. (Reuters)

An Israeli airstrike on a school sheltering displaced persons in Gaza City killed at least 15 Palestinians on Saturday, hours after two strikes in the occupied West Bank killed nine militants including a local Hamas commander, Hamas said.

The Israeli military said the first of two West Bank airstrikes hit a vehicle in a town near the city of Tulkarm, targeting a militant cell it said was on its way to carry out an attack.

Reuters reported a Hamas statement saying one of those killed was a commander of its Tulkarm brigades, while its ally Islamic Jihad claimed the other four men who died in the strike as its fighters.

Hours later, a second airstrike in the area targeted another group of militants who had fired on troops, Israel's military said, during what it described as a counter-terrorism operation in Tulkarm.

Palestinian news agency WAFA said four people had died in that strike, and Hamas said all nine of those killed in the two Israeli attacks in the West Bank were fighters.

Violence in the West Bank was on the rise before the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and has risen since, with frequent Israeli raids in the territory, which is among those that the Palestinians seek for a state.

There has also been an increase in anti-Israeli street attacks by Palestinians.

 

- GAZA STRIKES

 

In the Gaza Strip, at least 10 people were killed in the Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced persons in Gaza City's Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, the Hamas run-government media office said.

The Israeli military said the school was being used as a command centre for Hamas, to hide militants and manufacture weapons. Hamas has denied Israeli accusations that it operates from civilian facilities such as schools and hospitals.

Earlier on Saturday, Israeli strikes in the enclave killed six people in a house in the southern area of Rafah and two others in Gaza City, Gaza health officials said.

The Israeli military said its forces had struck militants and destroyed Hamas infrastructure in Rafah and elsewhere in the enclave.

At least 39,550 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli military campaign in Gaza, according to Gaza health officials. The offensive was triggered by a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7.

A high-level Israeli delegation has arrived in Cairo to resume Gaza ceasefire negotiations, Egyptian airport authority sources said.

Chances of a breakthrough appear low as regional tension has soared following the assassination of Hamas' leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on Wednesday, a day after an Israeli strike in Beirut killed Fuad Shukr, a top military commander from Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

Haniyeh's death was one in a series of killings of senior Hamas figures as the Gaza war nears its 11th month.

Hamas and Iran have both accused Israel of carrying out the assassination of Haniyeh and have pledged to retaliate. Israel has neither claimed nor denied responsibility for the death.

Hezbollah, like Hamas, is backed by Iran and has also vowed revenge after the killing of Shukr.

 

 

 

 

 

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Arab World

Amnesty International Denounces Crackdown on Political Opponents in Libya

Fighters from the Libyan National Army (LNA) stand guard next to Sidra oil port in Ras Lanuf. (Reuters file)
Fighters from the Libyan National Army (LNA) stand guard next to Sidra oil port in Ras Lanuf. (Reuters file)
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Amnesty International Denounces Crackdown on Political Opponents in Libya

Fighters from the Libyan National Army (LNA) stand guard next to Sidra oil port in Ras Lanuf. (Reuters file)
Fighters from the Libyan National Army (LNA) stand guard next to Sidra oil port in Ras Lanuf. (Reuters file)

Amnesty International on Tuesday accused Libya’s eastern-based forces of enabling a crackdown on dissidents and of entrenched impunity for deaths in custody and other serious human rights abuses, according to AFP.

Since the 2011 overthrow of ruler Moammar al-Gaddafi in a NATO-backed uprising, the energy-rich North African country has been wracked by unrest.

It is split between a Tripoli-based government, headed by Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah, and a rival administration in the east backed by Khalifa Haftar, whose Libyan National Army (LNA) controls the east and much of the south.

“Since January 2024, heavily armed Internal Security Agency (ISA) agents have arrested without a warrant dozens of people, including women and men in their 70s, from their homes, streets or other public places in areas of eastern and southern Libya,” Amnesty said.

Based on interviews with former detainees, the families of detainees, as well as lawyers, human rights defenders and political activists, the rights group said the detainees were then transferred to ISA-controlled facilities, where they remained arbitrarily detained for months without being allowed to contact their families or lawyers; some were subjected to enforced disappearances for periods reaching 10 months.

It noted that none were brought before civilian judicial authorities, allowed to challenge the legality of their detention, or were formally charged with any offences.

“Two people died in custody in suspicious circumstances in April and July while in ISA-controlled detention centers in Benghazi and Ajdabiya,” Amnesty said, adding that no independent and impartial criminal investigations have been carried out into their deaths and no one has been held accountable.

“The spike in arbitrary detentions and deaths in custody in recent months highlights how the existing culture of impunity has empowered armed groups to violate detainees’ right to life without fearing any consequences,” said Bassam Al Kantar, Amnesty International’s Libya Researcher.

“These deaths in custody add to the catalogue of horrors committed by the ISA against those who dare to express views critical of the Libyan Arab Armed Forces,” he added.

Amnesty called on the GNU and LAAF, as the de facto authorities in eastern and southern Libya, to ensure the immediate release of all those arbitrarily detained solely for exercising their right to freedom of expression.

“The LAAF must also suspend from positions of power ISA commanders and members reasonably suspected of crimes under international law and serious human rights violations, pending independent and impartial criminal investigations, including into the causes and circumstances of the deaths in custody, and, where sufficient evidence exists, prosecute them in fair proceedings in front of civilian courts,” it added.