The former school is a UN facility. The United Nations is mourning deaths. In the north, dozens of rockets are fired from Lebanon at Israel – before a visit by the EU’s chief diplomat.
According to Palestinian sources, 18 people were killed in an Israeli air strike on the site of a former school in Nuseirat in the Gaza Strip. According to the UN, six of them were United Nations employees. The death toll from the Hamas Information Office could not initially be independently verified.
The Israeli military said the attack targeted a command and control post belonging to the Islamist Hamas group. A number of measures had been taken beforehand to reduce the danger to civilians, it said.
The building and its surroundings were a facility of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA). The site provided refuge for around 12,000 people, mainly women and children.
UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said in New York that UN properties should never be attacked or used by military groups. When asked whether he could rule out the possibility of Hamas representatives being there, he said he could not answer the question. Israel accuses Hamas of hiding in such facilities and among civilians.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres was once again shocked. “What is happening in Gaza is absolutely unacceptable,” he wrote about the attack on X. “These dramatic violations of international humanitarian law must stop now.”
Heavy shelling from Lebanon
Meanwhile, EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell is continuing his Middle East trip in Lebanon. In the capital Beirut, he plans to meet Prime Minister Najib Mikati, among others. In addition to the situation in Lebanon, the discussion will also likely focus on the conflict between the Shiite militia Hezbollah and Israel.
Since the beginning of the Gaza war, there have been almost daily military confrontations between the Israeli army and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Tens of thousands have fled the border region because of the fighting. Militant statements by Israeli politicians have recently fueled concerns about an escalation of the conflict. On Wednesday, according to the Israeli army, more than 100 missiles were fired from Lebanon into Israel. The military, for its part, fired at targets in southern Lebanon.
Israel wants Hezbollah to withdraw behind the Litani River, 30 kilometers from the border – as stipulated in a UN resolution. However, the Shiite militia will not stop shelling Israel until there is a ceasefire in the Gaza war between Israel and its ally Hamas.
However, the indirect negotiations on a ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages from the Islamist Hamas – in which Egypt, the USA and the Gulf state of Qatar are the main mediators – are at a standstill. On Wednesday, Hamas representatives met with representatives of Qatar and Egypt in Doha for further talks.
Comparison with Osama bin Laden
The leader of Hamas is Jihia al-Sinwar. Israel’s Defense Minister Joav Galant has now described him as the “new Osama bin Laden.” In a video released in the USA on the anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, he said: “He is the Osama bin Laden of Gaza. We will find him and bring him to justice – dead or in prison.”
Galant’s message on Platform X came a day after an interview with the financial service Bloomberg with Brigadier General Gal Hirsch, who is in charge of hostages and missing persons, in which he spoke of an offer of safe passage for al-Sinwar from the Gaza Strip. “I am prepared to provide a safe corridor for Sinwar, his family and anyone who wants to join him,” he said.
A Hamas representative told the German Press Agency that his organization had received an offer to allow Sinwar and his family to leave the country in order to reach a Gaza agreement. However, Hamas would only be prepared to respond to the offer if it were part of a comprehensive agreement.
Also on Wednesday evening, several hundred people demonstrated in Israel for a ceasefire and an agreement on the release of the remaining 101 hostages, including relatives of those who were abducted by Hamas to the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
