Middle East crisis: Israeli strike on school in Gaza refugee camp kills 10

An Israeli strike killed 10 Palestinians and wounded at least 20 others on Saturday at a school in Gaza City’s Shati refugee camp currently sheltering displaced families, medics said on Saturday.
The United Nations-run Abu Assi school, where rescue operations are ongoing, may still have people trapped under the rubble, health officials said. There was no immediate comment from Israeli officials.
The Israeli military reported later on Saturday that two rockets fired at Israel from the northern Gaza Strip were intercepted.
The launches show the ability of Palestinian militant groups to fire rockets into Israel despite more than 13 months of an aerial and ground offensive that turned vast land in the enclave into wasteland and displaced most of the 2.3 million population.
Palestinian health officials said at least 30 people have been killed by Israeli military strikes across the enclave on Saturday.
The Gaza health ministry said 43,799 people have been confirmed dead since October 7th, 2023. Hamas militants killed around 1,200 Israelis that day, and still hold dozens of some 250 hostages they took back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Elsewhere on Saturday, Israeli air strikes on the village of Khreibeh in the Baalbek District of eastern Lebanon killed six people, including three children, and injured 11 others, the Lebanese health ministry said.
Among the injured were five children, two of whom were in critical condition, the ministry said.
Strikes earlier in the day killed two medics in south Lebanon, including one in Borj Rahal and another in Kfartebnit, and injured four other rescue workers, with two still missing, the ministry said.
Israeli air strikes also targeted areas of the southern suburbs of Beirut controlled by the Iran-backed group Hizbullah for a fifth consecutive day, with at least 15 strikes on Saturday, according to two security sources.
The Israeli military said the attacks were directed at Hizbullah infrastructure, including a weapons storage facility and a command centre.
A soldier was killed during combat in southern Lebanon, the Israeli military said on Saturday.
There was no word yet from Lebanese authorities on casualties in the strikes on the capital’s southern suburbs.
Israel launched its ground and air offensive against Hizbullah in late September after almost a year of cross-border hostilities in parallel with the Gaza war. It says it aims to secure the return home of tens of thousands of Israelis forced to evacuate from northern Israel under Hizbullah fire.
Israel’s campaign has dealt heavy blows to Hizbullah. It has also forced more than a million Lebanese to flee their homes, creating a humanitarian crisis.
Lebanon’s health ministry says Israeli attacks have killed at least 3,452 people through Friday since October 7th, 2023, most since late September. It does not distinguish between civilian casualties and fighters.
Israel says Hizbullah attacks have killed about 100 civilians and soldiers in northern Israel, the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and southern Lebanon over the last year.
Elsewhere, a senior Iranian official said on Friday that Iran backs any decision taken by Lebanon in talks to secure a ceasefire with Israel, signalling Tehran wants to see an end to a conflict that has dealt heavy blows to its Lebanese ally Hizbullah.
Two senior Lebanese political sources told Reuters the US ambassador to Lebanon had presented a draft ceasefire proposal to Lebanon’s parliament speaker Nabih Berri on Thursday. Mr Berri is endorsed by Hizbullah to negotiate and met the senior Iranian official Ali Larijani on Friday.
Asked at a news conference whether he had come to Beirut to undermine the U.S. truce plan, Mr Larijani said: “We are not looking to sabotage anything. We are after a solution to the problems.”
“We support in all circumstances the Lebanese government. Those who are disrupting are Netanyahu and his people,” he added, referring to Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
On Thursday, Eli Cohen, Israel’s energy minister and a member of its security cabinet, told Reuters prospects for a ceasefire were the most promising since the conflict began. – Reuters