GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Thursday at least 27 people were killed in an Israeli strike near a UN school in the Jabalia refugee camp.
“The bodies of 27 martyrs were recovered and a large number of wounded,” said ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra in a toll AFP was unable to independently verify.
AFP footage showed several casualties as crowds of people rushed to help them.
“Children under 10 were simply buying from the canteen and were cut into pieces,” cried a woman in the school yard.
There was no immediate comment from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), which runs the school.
Further south in Bureij refugee camp, Gaza’s civil defense authority said at least 15 people were killed in Israeli strikes.
“The planes struck the whole neighborhood, they pulled me out from under the rubble,” said Bureij resident Hanan Abdulhadi, 50, with blood running down her face.
Carrying his wounded two-year-old son, resident Mohammed Karajeh, 27, said “the whole house fell on us” with more than 20 homes destroyed.
Gaza’s health ministry said 9,061 people have been killed in nearly four weeks of Israeli strikes and the recent ground assault.
Israeli officials said around 1,400 people were killed in Israel when Hamas militants crossed from Gaza and attacked border communities and military posts on October 7, sparking the war.
Gaza health ministry says 27 killed in Israel strike near UN school
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Gaza health ministry says 27 killed in Israel strike near UN school
- “The bodies of 27 martyrs were recovered and a large number of wounded,” said ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra
- “Children under 10 were simply buying from the canteen and were cut into pieces,” cried a woman in the school yard
Egypt’s foreign minister and UN Gaza aid chief discuss relief measures
- Abdelatty and Sigrid Kaag, UN senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, discussed ways to ease the crisis
NEW YORK CITY: Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty emphasized the importance of a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and removing all Israeli obstacles that impede aid access into the besieged Palestinian territory.
Abdelatty and Sigrid Kaag, UN senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, discussed ways to ease the crisis during a meeting in New York.
The talks took place on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meetings in New York.
Abdelatty praised the close cooperation between the UN and the Egyptian Red Crescent.
The cooperation aims to facilitate and expedite aid access into the Gaza Strip in compliance with UN Security Council Resolution 2720.
Welcoming the UN official, the minister declared Egypt’s continued provision of support to enable her to carry out the tasks of her mandate under the UN resolution.
Abdelatty emphasized the importance of all countries cooperating with the UN senior coordinator to complete the necessary procedures for the UN mechanism to operate as soon as possible.
He stressed the need to update the Security Council transparently and clearly on the developments related to setting up the mechanism and the extent of countries’ cooperation with Kaag in carrying out the mandate entrusted to her by the council.
Gaza rescuers say Israeli strike on school shelter kills 7
GAZA STRIP: Civil defense rescuers in Gaza City said an Israeli strike Sunday on a school-turned-shelter killed at least 7 people, with the Israeli military saying it had targeted Hamas militants.
The vast majority of the besieged Gaza Strip’s 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once by the war, sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, with many seeking shelter in school buildings.
Civil defense agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal reported “seven martyrs and a number of wounded, including serious cases, as a result of Israeli shelling of Kafr Qasim School” in the Al-Shati refugee camp.
He said hundreds of displaced Gazans were sheltering there.
The Israeli military said it was targeting Palestinian militants operating from the school grounds, and that its forces had taken steps “to mitigate the risk of harm to uninvolved civilians” including by using “precise munitions” and surveillance.
It said the air force had “conducted a precise strike on Hamas terrorists in the northern Gaza Strip” who were “operating from a compound” at the school complex.
The military statement did not provide information on casualties.
Sunday’s attack was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes on school buildings housing displaced people in Gaza, where fighting has raged for nearly a year.
On Saturday the civil defense agency said an Israeli strike on another school-turned-shelter, also in Gaza City, had killed 21 people. The military said it was targeting militants.
A strike on the United Nations-run Al-Jawni School in central Gaza on September 11 drew international outcry after the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said six of its staffers were among the 18 reported fatalities.
The Israeli military accuses Hamas of hiding in school buildings where thousands of Gazans have sought shelter — a charge denied by the Palestinian militant group.
At least 41,391 Palestinians, a majority of them civilians, have been killed in Israel’s military campaign in Gaza since the war began, according to data provided by the health ministry. The United Nations has acknowledged these figures as reliable.
The October 7 attack that triggered it resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures, which includes hostages killed in captivity.
Out of 251 people taken hostage that day, 97 are still being held inside the Gaza Strip, including 33 who the Israeli military says are dead.
Bahrain, Kuwait in talks with Iran on restoring relations at UN assembly
- Discussions focused on regional and international developments
NEW YORK: Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, Bahrain’s minister of foreign affairs, and Abdullah Al-Yahya, Kuwait’s foreign minister, held separate meetings with Abbas Araghchi, foreign minister of Iran, on the sidelines of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly in New York.
In his meeting, Al Zayani discussed the initiation of talks aimed at restoring diplomatic relations between Bahrain and Iran, emphasizing the principles of good neighborliness and mutual cooperation for the benefit of both nations.
The meeting was attended by Shaikh Abdullah bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, Bahrain’s undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Political Affairs, and Jamal Fares Al Rowaiei, Bahrain’s permanent representative to the UN in New York.
Meanwhile, during his discussions with Araghchi, Al-Yahya explored bilateral relations between Kuwait and Iran in various sectors. They also exchanged views on regional and international developments, touching on issues of joint concern to both countries.
Pro-Iran groups in Iraq claim drone attack against Israel: statement
- Islamic Resistance in Iraq targets Israel with missiles and drones, source say
- The attack caused no injuries, according to the Israeli military
BAGHDAD: An Iraqi coalition of pro-Iran armed groups claimed on Sunday a drone attack against Israel, where the military said it had intercepted “multiple suspicious aerial targets” coming from Iraq overnight.
“The fighters of the Islamic Resistance of Iraq targeted on Sunday morning a strategic location in the occupied territories using drones,” the Iraqi coalition said in a statement on Telegram, referring to Israel, and adding it was carried out “in support of our people in Gaza.”
Israel's military said on Sunday that it intercepted a “suspicious aerial target” launched from the east, and that no damage or injuries were reported.
It came as regional tensions again soared nearly a year into the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, which has drawn in Iran-backed armed groups across the Middle East.
The Tehran-backed Hezbollah movement in Lebanon announced Sunday it had launched rockets at Israeli military industry sites “in an initial response” to attacks blamed on Israel that saw pagers and two-way radios used by the group explode across Lebanon earlier this week.
The Islamic Resistance of Iraq, a loose alliance of Iran-backed groups, has claimed several drone attacks targeting Israel in recent months, which have all been intercepted according to the Israeli military.
Last winter, the Islamic Resistance of Iraq had also claimed more than 175 rocket and drone attacks against United States troops in Iraq and Syria.
US forces carried out multiple retaliatory strikes against these militant factions in both countries.
The attacks on American troops have largely subsided in the past few months.
At least 51 dead in Iran coal mine blast
- The accident was caused by a methane gas explosion in blocks B and C of the mine
- The total number of workers in the blocks at the time of the explosion was 69
TEHRAN: A gas explosion in a coal mine in Iran’s South Khorasan Province killed at least 51 people and injured 20, Iran’s state media said on Sunday.
The accident was caused by a methane gas explosion in two blocks, B and C, of the mine run by the Madanjoo company, state media said.
“76 percent of the country’s coal is provided from this region and around 8 to 10 big companies are working in the region including Madanjoo company,” the governor of South Khorasan Province Ali Akbar Rahimi told state TV on Sunday.
The rescue operation in block B has been completed. Of the 47 workers who were in the block 30 died and 17 were injured, Rahimi said earlier.
Rescue operations in block C have started. Methane density in the block is high and the operation will take around 3-4 hours, he added.
There were 69 workers in the blocks at the time of the explosion, state TV reported.
“Seventeen injured people were transported to the hospital and 24 people are still missing,” it said earlier on Sunday citing the head of Iran’s Red Crescent.
The explosion occurred at 9 p.m. (1730 GMT) on Saturday, state media said.
President Masoud Pezeshkian expressed condolences to the victims’ families. “I spoke with ministers and we will do our best to follow up,” Pezeshkian said in televised comments.
