A school belonging to the UN Palestinian relief agency is said to have served as a base for terrorists. Israel’s army is targeting it in an air strike. Many people are said to have died. The news at a glance.
According to Palestinian sources, at least 30 people were killed in an Israeli air strike on a school run by the UN Palestinian relief agency UNRWA in the Gaza Strip. Most of the victims were women, children and young people, medical sources in the coastal region said this morning.
More than 50 other people were injured. The information could not be independently verified at first. According to the Israeli army, 20 to 30 members of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) were there during the attack. The school had been monitored in recent days and the attack was postponed twice to avoid civilian casualties, army spokesman Peter Lerner explained. The military currently has no knowledge of possible civilian casualties as a result of the attack, he continued. The military’s information could not be independently verified at first either.
Since the beginning of the war, school buildings belonging to the UN Palestinian relief agency have often served as a place of refuge for internally displaced persons – also in the hope that Israel will not deliberately attack the UN buildings. Israel, in turn, repeatedly accuses Hamas of operating from civilian facilities and thereby endangering civilians or deliberately using them as a human shield.
Hamas: No breakthrough in talks so far
According to Hamas circles, there has been no breakthrough in the mediation talks to end the Gaza war. From Hamas’ perspective, there is still disagreement, particularly over its demand for an immediate and permanent ceasefire and the complete withdrawal of the Israeli military from the Gaza Strip. Hamas is still being cautious because the draft presented to them does not meet their key demands, a person familiar with the talks told the German Press Agency. There are fears that Israel will “maneuver as usual.”
In contrast, the Egyptian state-affiliated television station Al-Kahira News reported, citing high-ranking government sources, that Hamas had sent “positive signals” to Cairo. These included interest in a ceasefire or a permanent truce. Hamas will respond to the draft in the coming days.
The plan recently presented by US President Joe Biden aims to end the war in three phases. First, it envisages a complete and unrestricted ceasefire for six weeks. This is to lead to a permanent ceasefire in a second phase. According to the draft, the conditions for this are to be negotiated during the ceasefire. However, Hamas says it will only agree to an agreement if it includes an immediate and permanent ceasefire.
Representatives from Egypt and the USA had previously travelled to Qatar for mediation talks. Egypt’s intelligence chief Abbas Kamel is said to have met there on Wednesday with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and the head of the US foreign intelligence service CIA, William Burns, as informed sources at Cairo airport reported. Kamel and Al Thani also met with Hamas leaders. The Egyptian intelligence chief is said to have returned to Cairo today.
Army: Gunmen killed in Gaza – wanted to enter Israel
The Israeli army says it has killed three armed suspects who were allegedly trying to enter Israel from the Gaza Strip. Israeli soldiers in the southeast of the Gaza Strip initially discovered suspicious movements there during the night, a military spokesman said. Ground troops were then sent near the Kerem Shalom border crossing in the south and came under fire there. They responded to the attack. Two of the suspects were killed from the air, and a third was killed a short time later by tank fire. An Israeli soldier was also killed in the battle, the military said.
According to the army spokesman, an investigation is currently underway to determine whether a fourth person could have been involved and how the group was able to get so close to the border. The suspects were caught 300 meters from the border. They were unable to cross the border fence into Israel.
Eleven injured in drone attack on town in northern Israel
A drone attack in the northern Israeli town of Hurfesh left one person seriously injured, three people with moderate injuries and seven others with minor injuries, the head of the rescue organization Magen David Adom told the television station Channel 12. Hezbollah, which is supported by Israel’s arch-enemy Iran, claimed responsibility for the attack. The Israeli armed forces then attacked the militia’s positions in southern Lebanon.
In view of the military tensions, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed the Israeli army’s readiness to fight. “Anyone who thinks they can harm us and we will react by doing nothing is making a big mistake,” said Netanyahu during a visit to the town of Kiryat Shmona, which has been particularly affected by shelling from the neighboring country, where he met soldiers and firefighters.
Pentagon: US port may be repaired by end of week
Meanwhile, the Pentagon believes that the temporary pier set up by the US military on the coast of the Gaza Strip should soon be able to resume operations. “We hope to be able to anchor the pier in Gaza again by the end of the week,” said US Department of Defense spokeswoman Sabrina Singh.
As soon as that happens, aid supplies can be brought back to the Gaza Strip “fairly immediately”. The pier anchored on the coast was badly damaged in rough seas at the end of May, just a few days after the temporary port was completed.
Israeli forces build protection unit
Meanwhile, the Israeli armed forces are setting up a new unit along the border with the Gaza Strip to protect the towns there. The force includes reservists and veterans from special forces living in the region, the military said.
The worst massacre in the history of the State of Israel took place in the border area with the Gaza Strip on October 7. At that time, fighters from Hamas and other extremist groups entered Israel from the sealed-off coastal area, killed more than 1,200 people and abducted more than 250 hostages into the Gaza Strip.