U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Doha on Thursday to meet with Qatari officials who have been key mediators for Hamas, as the U.S. struggles to break the logjam of cease-fire negotiations between Israel and the militant group.
Blinken is on his 11th trip to the Middle East since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
In Gaza, Palestinian officials said an Israeli strike on a school where displaced people were sheltering killed at least 17 people on Thursday, mostly women and children.
An additional 42 people were wounded in the strike in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp, according to the Awda Hospital, which received the casualties. Among the dead were seven children as young as 11 months, as well as three women. The Israeli military said it targeted Hamas militants inside the school, without providing evidence.
The Israel-Hamas war began after Hamas-led militants on Oct. 7, 2023, blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed in, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others. Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not differentiate between militants and civilians.
Israel is also fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon. Lebanon’s Health Ministry says the total toll over the past year is over 2,500 killed and 12,000 wounded. The fighting in Lebanon has driven 1.2 million people from their homes, including more than 400,000 children, according to the United Nations children’s agency.
Over the past several weeks, Israeli strikes have killed much of Hezbollah’s top leadership.
Here’s the latest:
Blinken announces further $135 million in aid to Palestinians
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has announced another $135 million in aid to the Palestinians. He said it is critical that aid enters Gaza.
Blinken spoke in Qatar on Thursday on his 11th visit to the region since the outbreak of the war in Gaza. The United States has pressed Israel to allow more aid into the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.
At least 1 killed in Israeli airstrikes in Syria
BEIRUT — At least one person was killed and others wounded in Israeli airstrikes targeting Syria’s Damascus and Homs countryside, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Syria’s state media reported.
Israeli warplanes targeted a government building near a military fuel station in the Kafr Sousa neighborhood in Damascus, killing one person and injuring three others, according to the Syrian Observatory. The strike also triggered fires in the area.
Citing a military source, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported that the Israeli strikes were launched from the direction of the Golan Heights and from the direction of northern Lebanon.
On a road in Al-Qusayr countryside, less than 10 kilometers from the Lebanese-Syrian border, an Israeli airstrike targeted a truck near a military site, killing one soldier and wounding four others, the Syrian Observatory said.
SANA reported that one soldier was killed and seven others were injured, though it did not specify which strike caused the casualties.
Israel has conducted strikes on Iranian-linked targets in Syria for years but has intensified these attacks following the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel last year.
Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister calls for immediate cease-fire
BEIRUT — Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister is calling for an immediate cease-fire, the full implementation of the U.N. resolution that ended the last Israel-Hezbollah war and the deployment of 8,000 Lebanese troops to a buffer zone along the border with Israel.
Najib Mikati spoke Thursday at a conference in Paris in support of Lebanon.
The Lebanese army has largely kept to the sidelines in the latest conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. It says Israeli forces have targeted its soldiers on eight occasions, killing and wounding several. Israel apologized for a deadly strike on Sunday.
U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war, called for Hezbollah and Israeli forces to withdraw from areas south of Lebanon’s Litani River and for the area to be controlled by the Lebanese army and U.N. peacekeepers.
Israel says the resolution was never implemented and that Hezbollah built up military infrastructure all the way to the border. Lebanon has accused Israel of ignoring other provisions, including by violating its airspace.
The Lebanese army has around 80,000 forces, with around 5,000 deployed in the south.
Representing the Lebanese Army at the Paris conference, Brig. Gen. Youssef Haddad said that Lebanon is working on recruiting 1,500 additional soldiers to help implement the U.N. resolution, the state-run National News Agency reported.
Hezbollah boasts tens of thousands of fighters. Lebanon’s military is not strong enough to impose its will on the militant group or to resist Israel’s ground invasion.
Hospital director in Gaza warns of ‘catastrophic’ shortage of medical supplies
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — The director of a hospital in the northern Gaza Strip says it is facing a “catastrophic” shortage of basic supplies and that ambulances can no longer service the facility.
Israel has been carrying out a major offensive in northern Gaza for more than two weeks. Hundreds of people have been killed and tens of thousands have fled their homes. The military says it is battling Hamas fighters who regrouped in the north, which was one of the first targets of the ground offensive at the start of the war.
Dr. Hossam Abu Safiyeh, the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, said in a video message released Thursday that some 150 wounded people are being treated there, including 14 children in intensive care or the neonatal department.
“There is a very large number of wounded people, and we lose at least one person every hour because of the lack of medical supplies and medical staff,” he said.
“Our ambulances can’t transfer wounded people,” he said. “Those who can arrive by themselves to the hospital receive care, but those who don’t just die in the streets.”
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Footage shared with The Associated Press shows medical staff tending to premature babies and several older children in hospital beds, some with severe burns. One child is seen attached to a breathing machine, with bandages on her face and flies hovering over her.
“We are providing the bare minimum to patients. Everyone is paying the price of what is happening now in northern Gaza,” Abu Safiyeh said.
Kamal Adwan is one of three hospitals in the north left largely inaccessible because of the fighting. The war has gutted the health system across Gaza, with only 16 of 39 hospitals even partially functioning, according to the World Health Organization.
French President Macron pledges 100 million euros in aid to support Lebanon
PARIS — France pledged to provide a 100-million euro ($108-million) package to support Lebanon at an international conference Thursday, as President Emmanuel Macron said “massive aid” is needed to support the country where war between Hezbollah militants and Israel has displaced a million people, killed over 2,500 and deepened an economic crisis.
“In the immediate term, massive aid is needed for the Lebanese population, both for the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the war and for the communities hosting them,” Macron said in his opening speech at the conference.
French organizers hope participants’ financial pledges of humanitarian aid will meet the $426 million the United Nations says is urgently needed.
Italy this week announced new aid of 10 million euros ($10.8 million) and Germany on Wednesday pledged an additional 60 million euros ($64.7 million) for people in Lebanon.
An Israeli strike kills 3 members of Lebanon’s military, including an officer
BEIRUT — The Lebanese military says an Israeli strike killed three of its troops, including an officer, as they were evacuating wounded people in southern Lebanon.
In a Thursday post on X, it said the strike hit the outskirts of the southern town of Yater. The army says Israeli forces have targeted it on eight occasions since all-out war broke out between Israel and Hezbollah in September.
The Israeli military said Thursday it was looking into whether “a number of soldiers of the Lebanese army were accidentally harmed” after it targeted what it says was Hezbollah infrastructure.
The military said in a statement that it does not deliberately target Lebanese troops.
It earlier apologized for a strike on Sunday that killed three Lebanese soldiers, saying it had targeted a vehicle in an area where Hezbollah had recently launched attacks without realizing it belonged to the army.
Lebanon’s armed forces have largely kept to the sidelines in the latest conflict. The army is not powerful enough to impose its will on Hezbollah or to resist Israel’s ground invasion.
This post was originally published on this site
