Israel 18 dead in attack on UN facility in Gaza Strip
According to Palestinian reports, 18 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the grounds of a former school in Nuseirat in the Gaza Strip. According to the UN, this included six United Nations employees. The death toll from the Hamas information office could not initially be independently verified.
The Israeli military announced that the attack was aimed at a command and control post of the Islamist Hamas. A series of measures had previously been taken to reduce the danger to civilians, it said.
The building and its surroundings were a facility of the UN 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 present 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 once again expressed his shock. "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 to Lebanon. Among other things, he wants to meet Prime Minister Nadschib Mikati in the capital Beirut. In addition to the situation in Lebanon, he is also likely to discuss the conflict between the Shia militia Hezbollah and Israel.
Since the beginning of the Gaza war, there have been military confrontations between the Israeli army and Hezbollah in Lebanon on an almost daily basis. Tens of thousands have fled the border area because of the fighting. Militant statements by Israeli politicians had recently fueled fears of an escalation of the conflict. According to the Israeli army, more than 100 shells were fired at Israel from Lebanon on Wednesday. For its part, the military fired at targets in southern Lebanon.
Israel wants Hezbollah to withdraw behind the Litani River, 30 kilometers from the border - as stipulated by a UN resolution. However, the Shiite militia does not want to stop firing on 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 held captive by the Islamist Hamas - in which Egypt, the USA and the Gulf state of Qatar are the most important mediators - are at a standstill. On Wednesday, Hamas representatives met with Qatari and Egyptian representatives 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 on the anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in the USA, 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 one day after an interview by the Bloomberg financial service with Brigadier General Gal Hirsch, who is responsible for the hostages and missing persons, in which he spoke of an offer of safe passage for al-Sinwar out of the Gaza Strip. "I am ready 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 in order to reach a Gaza agreement. However, Hamas would only be prepared to respond to the offer if it was part of a comprehensive agreement.
On Wednesday evening, several hundred people again demonstrated in Israel for a ceasefire and an agreement on the release of the remaining 101 hostages, including relatives of those abducted by Hamas in the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023.
