Middle East crisis live: at least 20 die in strike on Gaza school; Hezbollah drone attack kills four IDF soldiers
From 38m ago 09.47 CEST An Israeli attack on a school used to shelter displaced Palestinians has killed at least 20 people in central Gaza, officials say.
Gaza?s Hamas-run Civil Defence Agency said the site in Nuseirat camp was struck by a volley of artillery on Sunday, killing entire families and wounding dozens more, the BBC reported. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it was looking into these reports. Earlier, five children were reportedly killed by a drone strike while playing on a street corner in northern Gaza. A civil defence spokesman said the attack on al-Mufti school, where hundreds of displaced people from around Gaza were sheltering, had injured at least 50 people and more than a dozen were killed. The five children in northern Gaza were reportedly killed in an Israeli air strike while playing on a street corner in al-Shati camp. Graphic images from the scene in the aftermath show the bloodied bodies of what appeared to be young teenage boys. One of them looked to be clutching several glass marbles in his hand. According to a report from the scene, told to a BBC correspondent, a drone strike hit a person walking down the street, which killed the children and injured seven other people. Later images showed the bodies of the five boys wrapped in white shrouds and laid out on the floor side-by-side. An aunt of one of the boys, named Rami, wrote a moving tribute to him on social media. She said the family had moved to al-Shati after being forced to leave their homes in Jabalia to a ?safer area? because of the war. Share Updated at 10.14 CEST
10m ago 10.16 CEST Hezbollah said it targeted an Israeli naval base near north Israel?s Haifa on Monday, a day after claiming a drone attack near the city that the Israeli military said killed four soldiers. Hezbollah fighters launched ?a rocket salvo? at the ?Stella Maris? naval base near Haifa, the Lebanese group said in a statement, adding the attack was at the ?service? of Hassan Nasrallah, the group?s longtime leader who was killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut?s southern suburbs last month. Share
17m ago 10.08 CEST Attacks by Israel on the United Nations? peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, are ?unacceptable? and contrary to UN rules, Spain?s Foreign minister Jose Manuel Albares said on Monday. He told reporters ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers held in Luxembourg: It is contrary to what we expect from any member state of the United Nations, which is ultimately an organisation that protects world peace. EU countries, led by Italy, France and Spain, have thousands of troops in the 10,000-strong peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, which has said it has repeatedly come under attack from Israeli forces in recent days.
Israel has called on the UN to move the troops out of the combat zone. Albares said only the UN can order the withdrawal of UNIFIL. Share Updated at 10.09 CEST
29m ago 09.56 CEST More now on the Hezbollah strike on an IDF training base we reported on earlier (see post 7.33BST)
The drone attack on an army base in central Israel killed four soldiers and severely wounded seven others on Sunday, the Israeli military said, in the deadliest strike by the militant group since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon nearly two weeks ago. Hezbollah called the attack near Binyamina city retaliation for Israeli strikes on Beirut on Thursday that killed 22 people. It later said it targeted Israel?s elite Golani brigade, launching dozens of missiles to occupy Israeli air defence systems during the assault by ?squadrons? of drones. Israel?s national rescue service said the attack wounded 61. With Israel?s advanced air-defence systems, it is rare for so many people to be hurt by drones or missiles. Hezbollah and Israel have traded fire almost daily in the year since the war in Gaza began, and fighting has escalated. Hezbollah drone attack kills four IDF soldiers as US prepares to send missile system to Israel Read more Share Updated at 10.09 CEST
34m ago 09.52 CEST Here are the latest images coming out of Gaza: View image in fullscreen Palestinians in Khan Yunis city are pictured trying to survive their daily lives despite the destroyed buildings and difficult conditions. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images View image in fullscreen The grandmother of Palestinian boy Yaman Al-Zaanin, who lost his life in an Israeli strike on a school-turned shelter, according to medics, reacts at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. Photograph: Ramadan Abed/Reuters Share
38m ago 09.47 CEST An Israeli attack on a school used to shelter displaced Palestinians has killed at least 20 people in central Gaza, officials say.
Gaza?s Hamas-run Civil Defence Agency said the site in Nuseirat camp was struck by a volley of artillery on Sunday, killing entire families and wounding dozens more, the BBC reported. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it was looking into these reports. Earlier, five children were reportedly killed by a drone strike while playing on a street corner in northern Gaza. A civil defence spokesman said the attack on al-Mufti school, where hundreds of displaced people from around Gaza were sheltering, had injured at least 50 people and more than a dozen were killed. The five children in northern Gaza were reportedly killed in an Israeli air strike while playing on a street corner in al-Shati camp. Graphic images from the scene in the aftermath show the bloodied bodies of what appeared to be young teenage boys. One of them looked to be clutching several glass marbles in his hand. According to a report from the scene, told to a BBC correspondent, a drone strike hit a person walking down the street, which killed the children and injured seven other people. Later images showed the bodies of the five boys wrapped in white shrouds and laid out on the floor side-by-side. An aunt of one of the boys, named Rami, wrote a moving tribute to him on social media. She said the family had moved to al-Shati after being forced to leave their homes in Jabalia to a ?safer area? because of the war. Share Updated at 10.14 CEST
44m ago 09.42 CEST Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has met with Mohammed Abdelsalam, a senior official from Yemen?s Iran-backed Huthi movement, in Muscat, according to his office. The foreign ministry released pictures of the pair holding talks during Araghchi?s visit to the Omani capital, the latest in a series of diplomatic trips in the region following Israel?s vow to retaliate against an Iranian missile attack. Share
49m ago 09.36 CEST At least 10 killed in Jabalia refugee camp, say Palestinian medics Palestinian medics have said that at least 10 people were killed and at least 30 injured in Israeli airstrikes on a food distribution center in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, with casualties including women and children. Share
1h ago 09.25 CEST The European Union?s member states have taken too long to condemn Israel?s attacks on UNIFIL soldiers in Lebanon, the European Union?s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Monday, describing the attacks as ?completely unacceptable?.
Speaking at an EU ministerial meeting in Luxembourg, he said: We should be against Israeli attacks against UNIFIL. Our soldiers are there, many soldiers are there.
EU countries, led by Italy, France and Spain, have thousands of troops in the 10,000-strong peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, which has said it has repeatedly come under attack from Israeli forces in recent days. Israel has called on the United Nations to move the troops out of the combat zone. Share
1h ago 09.16 CEST The European Union has condemned all attacks against United Nations missions, the union?s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a response to targeting of the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, by the Israel Defence Forces.
Borrell said in a statement on behalf of the EU published on Sunday night: Such attacks against UN peacekeepers constitute a grave violation of international law and are totally unacceptable. The EU condemns all attacks against UN missions.
It expresses particularly grave concern regarding the attacks by the Israeli Defence Forces against UNIFIL, which left several peacekeepers wounded. We urgently await explanations and a thorough investigation from the Israeli authorities about the attacks against UNIFIL, which plays a fundamental role in the stability of South Lebanon. Share Updated at 09.17 CEST
1h ago 09.09 CEST Israel?s army chief has described a Hezbollah drone strike on a military training base that killed at least four soldiers at the weekend as ?difficult and painful?. Lieutenant Geneal Herzi Halevi told soldiers during a visit to the Golani Brigade training base that was hit Sunday night in the area of Binyamina, south of the city of Haifa: We are at war, and an attack on a training base on the home front is difficult and the results are painful. Share
2h ago 08.41 CEST Airstrike on Gaza hospital kills at least four An Israeli airstrike on a hospital courtyard in the Gaza Strip early Monday killed at least four people and sent flames sweeping through a packed tent camp for people displaced by the war, leaving more than two dozen with severe burns, according to Palestinian medics. Associated Press reports:
The Israeli military said it targeted militants hiding out among civilians, without providing evidence. In recent months it has repeatedly struck crowded shelters and tent camps, alleging that Hamas fighters were using them as staging grounds for attacks.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah was already struggling to treat a large number of wounded people from an earlier strike on a school-turned-shelter nearby that killed at least 20 people when the early morning airstrike hit and fire engulfed many of the tents.
Associated Press footage showed children among the wounded. A man sobbed as he carried a toddler with a bandaged head in his arms. Another small child with a bandaged leg was given a blood transfusion on the floor of the packed hospital.
Hospital records showed that four people were killed and 40 wounded. Twenty-five people were transferred to the Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza after suffering severe burns, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. Share
