Israeli Strikes Kill 10 at Gaza Shelter, Israel Says Targeted Gunmen

23 April 2025, Palestinian Territories, Gaza: Palestinian children inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Gaza City. Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
23 April 2025, Palestinian Territories, Gaza: Palestinian children inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Gaza City. Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
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Israeli Strikes Kill 10 at Gaza Shelter, Israel Says Targeted Gunmen

23 April 2025, Palestinian Territories, Gaza: Palestinian children inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Gaza City. Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
23 April 2025, Palestinian Territories, Gaza: Palestinian children inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Gaza City. Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

An Israeli air strike on a school sheltering displaced families in Gaza killed 10 people on Wednesday, an attack that Israel said targeted fighters operating from within the complex.

Since a January ceasefire collapsed on March 18, Israeli attacks have killed more than 1,600 Palestinians, many of them civilians, according to the Gaza health authorities, and hundreds of thousands have been displaced as Israel seized what it calls a buffer zone of Gaza's land.

Israel has also imposed a blockade on all goods into Gaza, including fuel and electricity, since the beginning of March.

Medics said the air strike on the Yaffa School in the Tuffah area of Gaza City set fire to tents and classrooms.

The Israeli military said Hamas and allied group Islamic Jihad were operating within the school and that it took precautions to reduce harm to civilians before it struck there.

Some furniture was still in flames several hours after the strike as people sifted through blackened classrooms and the schoolyard in search of their belongings.

"We were sleeping and suddenly something exploded, we started looking and found the whole school on fire, the tents here and there were on fire, everything was on fire," said eyewitness, Um Mohammed al-Hwaiti.

"People were shouting and men were carrying people, charred (people), charred children, and were walking and saying: 'Dear God, dear God, we have no one but you.' What can we say? Dear God, only," she said.

On Wednesday, the foreign ministers of Germany, France, and Britain jointly called on Israel to adhere to international law and allow the unhindered passage of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

They also urged for the ceasefire to be restored and for remaining hostages held by Hamas to be released.

"Humanitarian aid must never be used as a political tool and Palestinian territory must not be reduced nor subjected to any demographic change," the ministers said in a statement.

Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein rejected the statement, asserting that there was no shortage of aid in Gaza, even though doctors and civilians say that medical supplies and food are running low.

INTENSIVE CARE UNIT, SOLAR POWER DAMAGED

Medics said at least 36 people had been killed in Israeli strikes across Gaza on Wednesday.

The Gaza Health Ministry said an Israeli missile hit the upper building of the Durra Children's Hospital in Gaza City, damaging the intensive care unit and destroying the solar panel system that feeds the facility with power. No one was killed.

Gaza's healthcare system is close to collapse due to Israel's blockade, which it says is aimed at pressuring the Hamas group that runs Gaza to release 59 remaining Israeli hostages captured in the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that triggered the war.

The group says it is prepared to free them only as part of a deal that ends the war, but it has rejected demands to lay down its arms.

The group on Wednesday released an edited video of hostage Omri Miran, 48, pleading for a deal to be made. Throughout the war, Hamas has released similar videos of hostages, which Israeli officials dismiss as psychological warfare.

Hamas' 2023 attack killed 1,200 people and 251 hostages were taken to Gaza. Since then, more than 51,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive in Gaza, according to health officials.



Israel Says US Gaza Executive Board Composition Against its Policy

FILE - A displacement camp sheltering Palestinians on a beach amid stormy weather is seen in Gaza City, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi, File)
FILE - A displacement camp sheltering Palestinians on a beach amid stormy weather is seen in Gaza City, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi, File)
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Israel Says US Gaza Executive Board Composition Against its Policy

FILE - A displacement camp sheltering Palestinians on a beach amid stormy weather is seen in Gaza City, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi, File)
FILE - A displacement camp sheltering Palestinians on a beach amid stormy weather is seen in Gaza City, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi, File)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Saturday that this week's Trump administration announcement on the composition of a Gaza executive board was not coordinated with Israel and ran counter to government policy.

It said Foreign Minister Gideon Saar would raise the issue with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The ⁠statement did not specify what part of the board's composition contradicted Israeli policy. An Israeli government spokesperson declined to comment.

The board, unveiled by the White House on Friday, includes Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan. Israel ⁠has repeatedly opposed any Turkish role in Gaza.

Other members of the executive board include Sigrid Kaag, the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process; an Israeli-Cypriot billionaire; and a minister from the United Arab Emirates.

Washington this week also announced the start of the second phase of President ⁠Donald Trump's plan, announced in September, to end the war in Gaza. This includes creating a transitional technocratic Palestinian administration in the enclave.

The first members of the so-called Board of Peace - to be chaired by Trump and tasked with supervising Gaza's temporary governance - were also named. Members include Rubio, billionaire developer Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.


Sisi Says he Values Trump Offer to Mediate Egypt-Ethiopia Dispute on GERD

FILE PHOTO: US President Donald Trump points as he attends a meeting with oil industry executives, at the White House in Washington, D.C., US, January 9, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: US President Donald Trump points as he attends a meeting with oil industry executives, at the White House in Washington, D.C., US, January 9, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo
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Sisi Says he Values Trump Offer to Mediate Egypt-Ethiopia Dispute on GERD

FILE PHOTO: US President Donald Trump points as he attends a meeting with oil industry executives, at the White House in Washington, D.C., US, January 9, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: US President Donald Trump points as he attends a meeting with oil industry executives, at the White House in Washington, D.C., US, January 9, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said he valued an offer by US President Donald Trump to mediate ⁠a dispute over Nile River waters between Egypt and Ethiopia.

In a post on ⁠X, Sisi said on Saturday that he addressed Trump's letter by affirming Egypt's position and concerns about the country's water ⁠security in regards to Ethiopia's Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).

"I am ready to restart US mediation between Egypt and Ethiopia to responsibly resolve the question of 'The Nile Water Sharing' once and for all," Trump wrote to Sisi in the letter that was also posted on Trump’s Truth Social account.

Addis Ababa's September 9 inauguration of GERD has been a source of anger ⁠in Cairo, which is downstream on the Nile.

Ethiopia sees the $5 billion dam on a tributary of the Nile as central to its economic ambitions.

Egypt says the dam violates international treaties and could cause both droughts ⁠and flooding.

Sudan, another ​downstream country, has expressed concern about the regulation and safety of ⁠its own water supplies and dams.

Sudan's army leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan also welcomed Trump's mediation offer on Saturday.


Kurds Say Sharaa's Decree Falls Short, Syrian Government Forces Enter Deir Hafer

Syrian army convoys enter the Deir Hafer area in the eastern Aleppo countryside, Syria, after the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced the handover of the area west of the Euphrates to the Syrian government, 17 January 2026. EPA/AHMAD FALLAHA
Syrian army convoys enter the Deir Hafer area in the eastern Aleppo countryside, Syria, after the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced the handover of the area west of the Euphrates to the Syrian government, 17 January 2026. EPA/AHMAD FALLAHA
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Kurds Say Sharaa's Decree Falls Short, Syrian Government Forces Enter Deir Hafer

Syrian army convoys enter the Deir Hafer area in the eastern Aleppo countryside, Syria, after the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced the handover of the area west of the Euphrates to the Syrian government, 17 January 2026. EPA/AHMAD FALLAHA
Syrian army convoys enter the Deir Hafer area in the eastern Aleppo countryside, Syria, after the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced the handover of the area west of the Euphrates to the Syrian government, 17 January 2026. EPA/AHMAD FALLAHA

Syria's Kurds on Saturday said a presidential decree recognizing the minority's rights and making Kurdish an official language fell short of their expectations as Syrian government forces entered the outskirts of a northern town.

In a statement, the Kurdish administration in Syria's north and northeast said the decree issued by President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Friday was "a first step, however it does not satisfy the aspirations and hopes of the Syrian people".

It added that "rights are not protected by temporary decrees, but... through permanent constitutions that express the will of the people and all components" of society.

Al-Sharaa’s decree affirmed that Syrian citizens of Kurdish origin are an integral and original part of the Syrian people, and that their cultural and linguistic identity is an inseparable component of Syria’s inclusive national identity.

The decree commits the state to protecting cultural and linguistic diversity and guarantees Kurdish citizens the right to preserve their heritage, arts, and mother tongue within the framework of national sovereignty.

It recognizes Kurdish as a national language and allows it to be taught in public and private schools in areas where Kurds make up a significant proportion of the population.

It also grants Syrian nationality to all residents of Kurdish origin living on Syrian territory, including those previously unregistered, while ensuring full equality in rights and duties.

The decree further designates Nowruz, celebrated annually on March 21, as an official public holiday.

Syrian government forces entered the outskirts of the northern town of Deir Hafer Saturday morning after the command of Kurdish-led fighters said it would evacuate the area in an apparent move to avoid conflict.

This came after deadly clashes erupted earlier this month between government troops and the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest.

It ended with the evacuation of Kurdish fighters from three neighborhoods taken over by government forces.

An Associated Press reporter saw on Saturday government tanks, armored personnel carriers and other vehicles, including pickup trucks with heavy machine-guns mounted on top of them, rolling toward the town of Deir Hafer from nearby Hamima after bulldozers removed barriers. There was no SDF presence on the edge of the town.

Meanwhile, the Syrian military said Saturday morning its forces were in full control of Deir Hafer, captured the Jarrah airbase east of the town, and were working on removing all mines and explosives. It added that troops would also move toward the nearby town of Maskana.

On Friday night, after government forces started pounding SDF positions in Deir Hafer, the Kurdish-led fighters’ top commander Mazloum Abdi posted on X that his group would withdraw from contested areas in northern Syria. Abdi said SDF fighters would relocate east of the Euphrates River starting 7 a.m. (0400 gmt) Saturday.

The easing of tension came after US military officials visited Deir Hafer on Friday and held talks with SDF officials in the area.

The United States has good relations with both sides and has urged calm.