An Israeli strike on a home sheltering displaced people in the northern Gaza Strip killed at least 19, Palestinian medical officials said Wednesday.
Kamal Adwan Hospital said it received the bodies after the overnight strike in the town of Beit Lahiya. Hospital records show that a family of eight were among those killed, including four children, their parents and two grandparents.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has waged a renewed offensive against Hamas militants in northern Gaza since early October.
Another strike in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza killed at least seven people, according to al-Awda Hospital. Records show the dead included two children, their parents and three relatives.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 people, including children and older adults. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 44,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to local health officials. They say women and children make up more than half the dead but do not distinguish between fighters and civilians in their count. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
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JERUSALEM - The United Nations is asking donors for over $4 billion to fund humanitarian operations in the Palestinian territories, most of it earmarked for war-ravaged Gaza.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs also called for the “lifting all impediments to the entry of aid” in its appeal issued Wednesday.
U.N. agencies say aid operations in Gaza are hindered by Israeli restrictions and the breakdown of law and order. Israel says it allows enough aid to enter and blames the U.N. for not distributing it within the territory.
The appeal for 2025 includes $3.6 billion for Gaza and about $450 million for Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Israel’s offensive, launched after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, has destroyed vast areas of the besieged territory and displaced around 90% of its population of 2.3 million. Many have been displaced multiple times and are now crammed into squalid tent camps with little in the way of food or other essentials. Most of the population relies on international aid.
JERUSALEM - The president of Paraguay addressed the Israeli parliament Wednesday ahead of the reopening of the country’s embassy in Jerusalem.
The decision to reopen the embassy in Jerusalem and recognize the city as the capital of Israel is a diplomatic win for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and puts Paraguay in a small group of countries that have taken the move.
Israel annexed east Jerusalem in 1967 but it wasn’t recognized by the international community, and most countries run their embassies out of Tel Aviv.
“Without Jerusalem, the land of Israel is a body without a soul,” President Santiago Peña said in a speech to the Knesset. “So I say here today that without an embassy in Jerusalem, diplomatic relations with Israel do not have a real heart.” He said he hoped the move would inspire other countries to do the same.
The embassy is set to open Thursday.
Pena’s move was welcomed by Netanyahu, Israeli President Isaac Herzog, along with other Israeli leaders.
“Tomorrow we will inaugurate together the embassy of Paraguay in our eternal capital, and that will happen not for the first time, but for the second time,” Netanyahu said.
Paraguay had an embassy in Jerusalem in 2018, under Former President Horacio Cartes. That embassy was moved back to Tel Aviv by Cartes’ successor, Mario Abdo Benitez, prompting Israel to close its embassy in Asuncion.
Israel reopened its embassy in September.
MOSCOW - Russia said Wednesday it has maintained contacts with the new authorities in Syria.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “we are monitoring most closely what is happening in Syria.”
“We, of course, maintain contacts with those who are currently controlling the situation in Syria,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters.
“This is necessary because our bases are located there, our diplomatic mission is located there and, of course, the issue related to ensuring the security of these facilities is extremely important and of primary significance.”
Peskov wouldn’t give details of those contacts, saying only that Russia has contacted “those who are controlling the situation on the ground.”
He wouldn’t give the number of Russian troops in Syria.
Asked to comment about Israel’s seizure of a buffer zone on the border with Syria, Peskov called them destabilizing.
“The strikes and actions in the Golan Heights area, in the buffer zone area, are unlikely to help stabilize the situation in an already destabilized Syria,” he said.
Russia has granted political asylum to ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad and his family after they fled rebels who seized Damascus over the weekend.
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says the recent events in Syria, including the fall of its government, were part of a joint plan by the United States and Israel.
“There should be no doubt that what has happened in Syria is the result of a joint American and Zionist plan,” Khamenei said in a speech in Tehran on Wednesday that was broadcast on state TV. “We have evidence, and this evidence leaves no room for doubt.”
The Supreme leader added: “A neighboring state of Syria has played a clear role in this matter, and it continues to do so. Everyone can see this.”
Khamenei also rejected speculation by analysts who have said that Iran will be weakened by the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government.
“Those ignorant analysts are unaware of the meaning of resistance. They think that if resistance weakens, Islamic Iran will also weaken. But I say, with the help and power of God - by the will of Almighty Allah - Iran is powerful and it will become even more powerful,” he said.
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