Gaza rescuers say 7 killed in Israeli strike on school

Gaza rescuers say 7 killed in Israeli strike on school
Palestinians rest on Thursday under the rubble of a house destroyed in Israeli strikes in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. (Reuters)
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Updated 26 September 2024

Gaza rescuers say 7 killed in Israeli strike on school

Gaza rescuers say 7 killed in Israeli strike on school

GAZA STRIP: Civil defense rescuers in Gaza said an Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter killed at least seven people, with the Israeli military saying it had targeted a Hamas command center.

The vast majority of the besieged Gaza Strip’s 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once by the war, sparked by the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, with many seeking shelter in school buildings.

Civil defense agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said there were “seven martyrs, including children, and many wounded following an Israeli missile attack that targeted Al-Faluja School in Jabalia camp in north Gaza.”

The military said it carried out “precise strikes” targeting Hamas militants operating inside what it said was a command-and-control center at the Al-Faluja School.

Thursday’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.

A strike on the UN-run Al-Jawni School in central Gaza on Sept. 11 drew an international outcry.

In his address to the UN General Assembly, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on the international community to stop sending weapons to Israel to halt the bloodshed in the West Bank and Gaza, singling out the US.

Abbas said that Washington continued to provide diplomatic cover and weapons to Israel for its war in Gaza despite the mounting death toll there, now at 41,534 according to the Health Ministry in the Strip.

“Stop this crime. Stop it now. Stop killing children and women. Stop the genocide. Stop sending weapons to Israel. This madness cannot continue. The entire world is responsible for what is happening to our people in Gaza and the West Bank,” Abbas told the UN General Assembly.

“The US alone stood and said: ‘No, the fighting will continue.’ It did this by using the veto,” he said, referring to the veto repeatedly wielded to thwart censure in the UN Security Council of Israel’s campaign in Gaza.

“It furnished Israel with the deadly weapons that it used to kill thousands of innocent civilians, children, and women.

“This further encouraged Israel to continuous aggression,” he added, saying that Israel “does not deserve” to be in the UN.


UN rights office says Israeli settlement plan breaks international law

UN rights office says Israeli settlement plan breaks international law
Updated 56 min 28 sec ago

UN rights office says Israeli settlement plan breaks international law

UN rights office says Israeli settlement plan breaks international law
  • Agency says plans would put nearby Palestinians at risk of forced eviction, which it described as a war crime
  • Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has vowed to press on with a long-delayed settlement project to “bury” idea of a Palestinian state

The UN human rights office said on Friday an Israeli plan to build to build thousands of new homes between an Israeli settlement in the West Bank and near East Jerusalem was illegal under international law, and would put nearby Palestinians at risk of forced eviction, which it described as a war crime.
Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Thursday vowed to press on a long-delayed settlement project, saying the move would “bury” the idea of a Palestinian state.
The UN rights office spokesperson said the plan would break the West Bank into isolated enclaves and that it was “a war crime for an occupying power to transfer its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”
About 700,000 Israeli settlers live among 2.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Israel annexed East Jerusalem in 1980, a move not recognized by most countries, but has not formally extended sovereignty over the West Bank.
Most world powers say settlement expansion erodes the viability of a two-state solution by breaking up territory the Palestinians seek as part of a future independent state.
The two-state plan envisages a Palestinian state in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, existing side by side with Israel, which captured all three territories in the 1967 Middle East war.
Israel cites historical and biblical ties to the area and says the settlements provide strategic depth and security and that the West Bank is “disputed” not “occupied.”


Israeli far-right minister confronts prominent Palestinian inmate

Israeli far-right minister confronts prominent Palestinian inmate
Updated 15 August 2025

Israeli far-right minister confronts prominent Palestinian inmate

Israeli far-right minister confronts prominent Palestinian inmate
  • Marwan Barghouti, a leading member of the Palestinian Fatah party, has spent more than 20 years behind bars
  • Israel considers him a ‘terrorist’ and convicted him over his role in the second intifada, or uprising, from 2000-2005

JERUSALEM: Israel’s far-right national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir published a video on Friday in which he confronts the most high-profile Palestinian detainee in Israeli custody in his prison cell.

Marwan Barghouti, a leading member of the Palestinian Fatah party, has spent more than 20 years behind bars after being sentenced for his role in anti-Israeli attacks in the early 2000s.

In the clip published by Ben Gvir on X, the minister and two other individuals, including a prison guard, surround Barghouti in a corner of his cell.

“You will not defeat us. Whoever harms the people of Israel, whoever kills children, whoever kills women... we will erase them,” Ben Gvir says in Hebrew.

Barghouti tries to respond but is interrupted by Ben Gvir, who says: “No, you know this. And it’s been the case throughout history.”

The video does not specify where Barghouti is currently being held.

Contacted by AFP, sources close to Ben Gvir said the meeting took place “by chance” in Ganot prison in southern Israel during an inspection visit by the minister, but they would not say when the footage was filmed.

“This morning I read that various ‘senior officials’ in the Palestinian Authority didn’t quite like what I said to arch-terrorist Marwan Barghouti – may his name be erased,” Ben Gvir said in the post accompanying the video on Friday morning.

“So I will repeat it again and again, without apology: whoever messes with the people of Israel, whoever murders our children, whoever murders our women – we will wipe them out. With God’s help.”

Barghouti, who is now in his sixties, was arrested in 2002 by Israel and sentenced to life in 2004 on murder charges.

Israel considers him a “terrorist” and convicted him over his role in the second intifada, or uprising, from 2000-2005.

He often tops opinion polls of popular Palestinian leaders and is sometimes described by his supporters as the “Palestinian Mandela.”

In a statement released by the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, the Palestinian Authority’s foreign ministry denounced “an unprecedented provocation” and described the confrontation as “organized state terrorism.”


Hezbollah chief warns Lebanon government it will not surrender its weapons

Hezbollah chief warns Lebanon government it will not surrender its weapons
Updated 15 August 2025

Hezbollah chief warns Lebanon government it will not surrender its weapons

Hezbollah chief warns Lebanon government it will not surrender its weapons
  • Naim Qassem accuses government of ‘handing’ the country to Israel by pushing for the group’s disarmament
  • ‘The resistance will not surrender its weapons while aggression continues, occupation persists, and we will fight it’

BEIRUT: Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem on Friday accused Lebanon’s government of “handing” the country to Israel by pushing for the group’s disarmament, warning it would fight to keep its weapons.

Qassem spoke in a televised address after meeting Iran’s top security chief Ali Larijani, whose country has long backed the Lebanese militant group.

Hezbollah emerged badly weakened from last year’s war with Israel, and under US pressure the Lebanese government has ordered the army to devise a plan to disarm the group by the end of the year.

Iran, whose so-called “axis of resistance” includes Hezbollah, has also suffered a series of setbacks, most recently in the war with Israel that saw the United States strike its nuclear sites.

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He also warned the Lebanese government against confronting the militant group, saying there would be “no life” in Lebanon in that event.

Qassem said Hezbollah and the Amal movement, its Shiite Muslim ally, had decided to delay any street protests against a US-backed disarmament plan as they still see room for dialogue with the Lebanese government. But he said any future protests could reach the US Embassy in Lebanon.

“The government is implementing an American-Israeli order to end the resistance, even if it leads to civil war and internal strife,” Qassem said.

“The resistance will not surrender its weapons while aggression continues, occupation persists, and we will fight it... if necessary to confront this American-Israeli project no matter the cost,” he said.

Qassem urged the government “not to hand over the country to an insatiable Israeli aggressor or an American tyrant with limitless greed.”


Libya to hold rare local vote in test for divided nation

Libya to hold rare local vote in test for divided nation
Updated 15 August 2025

Libya to hold rare local vote in test for divided nation

Libya to hold rare local vote in test for divided nation
  • Rare municipal elections are seen as a test of democracy in a nation still plagued by division and instability
  • Key eastern cities — including Benghazi, Sirte and Tobruk — have rejected the vote, highlighting the deep rifts between rival administrations

TRIPOLI: Libya is set to hold rare municipal elections on Saturday, in a ballot seen as a test of democracy in a nation still plagued by division and instability.
Key eastern cities — including Benghazi, Sirte and Tobruk — have rejected the vote, highlighting the deep rifts between rival administrations.
The UN mission in Libya, UNSMIL, called the elections “essential to uphold democratic governance” while warning that recent attacks on electoral offices and ongoing insecurity could undermine the process.
“Libyans need to vote and to have the freedom to choose without fear and without being pressured by anyone,” said Esraa Abdelmonem, a 36-year-old mother of three.
“These elections would allow people to have their say in their day-to-day affairs,” she said, adding that it was “interesting to see” how the areas affected by the clashes in May would vote.
Since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that toppled longtime leader Muammar Qaddafi, Libya has remained split between Tripoli’s UN-recognized government, led by Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah and its eastern rival administration backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar.
Khaled Al-Montasser, a Tripoli-based international relations professor, called the vote “decisive,” framing it as a test for whether Libya’s factions are ready to accept representatives chosen at the ballot box.
“The elections make it possible to judge whether the eastern and western authorities are truly ready to accept the idea that local representatives are appointed by the vote rather than imposed by intimidation or arms,” he said.
Nearly 380,000 Libyans, mostly from western municipalities, are expected to vote.
Elections had originally been planned in 63 municipalities nationwide — 41 in the west, 13 in the east, and nine in the south — but the High National Elections Commission (HNEC) suspended 11 constituencies in the east and south due to irregularities, administrative issues and pressure from local authorities.
In some areas near Tripoli, voting was also postponed due to problems distributing voter cards.
And on Tuesday, the electoral body said a group of armed men attacked its headquarters in Zliten, some 160 kilometers east of Tripoli.
No casualty figures were given, although UNSMIL said there were some injuries.
UNSMIL said the attack sought to “intimidate voters, candidates and electoral staff, and to prevent them from exercising their political rights to participate in the elections and the democratic process.”
National elections scheduled for December 2021 were postponed indefinitely due to disputes between the two rival powers.
Following Qaddafi’s death and 42 years of autocratic rule, Libya held its first free vote in 2012 to elect 200 parliament members at the General National Congress.
That was followed by the first municipal elections in 2013, and legislative elections in 2014 that saw a low turnout amid renewed violence.
In August that year, a coalition of militias seized Tripoli and installed a government with the backing of Misrata — then a politically influential city some 200 kilometers east of Tripoli — forcing the newly elected GNC parliament to relocate to the east.
The UN then brokered an agreement in December 2015 that saw the creation of the Government of National Accord, in Tripoli, with Fayez Al-Sarraj as its first premier, but divisions in the country have persisted still.
Other municipal elections did take place between 2019 and 2021, but only in a handful of cities.


Germany tells Israeli government to stop West Bank settlement construction

Germany tells Israeli government to stop West Bank settlement construction
Updated 15 August 2025

Germany tells Israeli government to stop West Bank settlement construction

Germany tells Israeli government to stop West Bank settlement construction
  • Germany ‘firmly rejects the Israeli government’s announcements regarding the approval of thousands of new housing units in Israeli settlements in the West Bank’
  • Germany has repeatedly warned the Israeli government to stop settlement construction in the West Bank

BERLIN: Germany on Friday called on the Israeli government to stop settlement construction in the West Bank after Israel’s far-right finance minister said work would start on a plan for thousands of homes that would divide the Palestinian territory.

Germany “firmly rejects the Israeli government’s announcements regarding the approval of thousands of new housing units in Israeli settlements in the West Bank,” said a foreign ministry spokesperson in a statement.

Plans for the “E1” settlement and the expansion of Maale Adumim would further restrict the mobility of the Palestinian population in the West Bank by splitting it in half and cutting the area off from East Jerusalem, said the spokesperson.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced on Thursday that work would start on the long-delayed settlement, a move that his office said would “bury” the idea of a Palestinian state.

In a statement, Smotrich’s spokesperson said the minister had approved the plan to build 3,401 houses for Israeli settlers between an existing settlement in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

Germany has repeatedly warned the Israeli government to stop settlement construction in the West Bank, which violates international law and UN Security Council resolutions.

Such moves complicate steps toward a negotiated two-state solution and end to Israeli occupation of the West Bank, said the spokesperson.