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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

UN Says Can Only Deliver as Much Aid to Gaza as Conditions Allow

Palestinians walk among the rubble of houses destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, amid ceasefire negotiations with Israel, in Gaza City, January 15, 2025. (Reuters)
Palestinians walk among the rubble of houses destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, amid ceasefire negotiations with Israel, in Gaza City, January 15, 2025. (Reuters)
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UN Says Can Only Deliver as Much Aid to Gaza as Conditions Allow

Palestinians walk among the rubble of houses destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, amid ceasefire negotiations with Israel, in Gaza City, January 15, 2025. (Reuters)
Palestinians walk among the rubble of houses destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, amid ceasefire negotiations with Israel, in Gaza City, January 15, 2025. (Reuters)

A short-term surge of aid deliveries into Gaza after a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group will be difficult if the deal does not cover security arrangements in the enclave, a senior UN official said on Wednesday.

Negotiators reached a deal on Wednesday for a ceasefire, an official briefed on the negotiations told Reuters, after 15 months of conflict. It would include a significant increase of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, but it was unclear if any agreement would cover security arrangements.

"Security is not (the responsibility of) the humanitarians. And it's a very chaotic environment. The risk is that with a vacuum it gets even more chaotic," a senior UN official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters. "Short of any arrangement, it will be very difficult to surge deliveries in the short term."

The United Nations has long described its humanitarian operation as opportunistic - facing problems with Israel's military operation, access restrictions by Israel into and throughout Gaza and more recently looting by armed gangs.

"The UN is committed to delivering humanitarian assistance during the ceasefire, just as we were during the period of active hostilities," said Eri Kaneko, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

"The removal of the various impediments the UN has been facing during the last year – which include restrictions on the entry of goods; the lack of safety and security; the breakdown of law and order; and the lack of fuel – is a must," she said.

The UN has been working with partners to develop a coordinated plan to scale up operations, Kaneko said.

600 TRUCKS A DAY

The ceasefire deal - according to the official briefed on talks - requires 600 truckloads of aid to be allowed into Gaza every day of the initial six-week ceasefire, including 50 carrying fuel. Half of the 600 aid trucks would be delivered to Gaza's north, where experts have warned famine is imminent.

"We are well-prepared, and you can count on us to continue to be ambitious and creative," said the UN official, speaking shortly before the deal was agreed. "But the issue is and will be the operating environment inside Gaza."

For more than a year, the UN has warned that famine looms over Gaza. Israel says there is no aid shortage - citing more than a million tons of deliveries. It accuses Hamas of stealing aid, which Hamas denies, instead blaming Israel for shortages.

"If the deal doesn't provide any agreement on security arrangements, it will be very difficult to surge assistance," said the official, adding that there would also be a risk that law and order would further deteriorate in the short term.

The United Nations said in June that it was Israel's responsibility - as the occupying power in the Gaza Strip - to restore public order and safety in the Palestinian territory so aid can be delivered.

Hamas came to power in Gaza in 2006 after Israeli soldiers and settlers withdrew in 2005, but the enclave is still deemed as Israeli-occupied territory by the United Nations. Israel controls access to Gaza.

The current war was triggered on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas killed 1,200 people in southern Israel, and took some 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, more than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed, Israel has laid much of Gaza to waste and the enclave's prewar population of 2.3 million people has been displaced multiple times, aid agencies say.