Gaza rescuers say 52 killed in Israeli strikes, including 33 in a school

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A plume of smoke billows during Israeli bombardment at Al-Daraj neighbourhood in Gaza City on April 16, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP file photo)

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Updated 26 May 2025

AFP

May 26, 2025 03:54

Gaza rescuers say 52 killed in Israeli strikes, including 33 in a school

The territory’s civil defense agency said many of the casualties at the school in Gaza City were children
Germany’s chancellor voiced unusually strong criticism of Israel, saying: “I no longer understand what the Israeli army is now doing in the Gaza Strip, with what goal”

Updated 26 May 2025

AFP

May 26, 2025 03:54

GAZA CITY: Rescuers said Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip killed at least 52 people on Monday, 33 of them in a school-turned-shelter, as European allies ramped up their criticism of Israel.
While the war raged on, mediators presented a proposal for a 70-day ceasefire and hostage-release deal to Israel and Hamas, a Palestinian source said.
The territory’s civil defense agency said many of the casualties at the school in Gaza City were children, while the Israeli military said the site was housing “key terrorists.”
Israel has stepped up a renewed offensive to destroy Hamas, drawing international condemnation as aid trickles in following a blockade since early March that has sparked severe food and medical shortages.
It has also triggered international criticism, with European and Arab leaders meeting in Spain calling for an end to the “inhumane” and “senseless” war, while humanitarian groups said the trickle of aid was not nearly enough.
In Germany, Chancellor Friedrich Merz voiced unusually strong criticism of Israel, saying: “I no longer understand what the Israeli army is now doing in the Gaza Strip, with what goal.”
The impact on Gazan civilians “can no longer be justified,” he added.
Nevertheless, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Berlin would continue selling weapons to Israel.
In Gaza City, civil defense agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said that an early-morning Israeli strike on the Fahmi Al-Jarjawi school, where displaced people were sheltering, killed “at least 33, with dozens injured, mostly children.”
The Israeli military said it had “struck key terrorists who were operating within a Hamas and Islamic Jihad command and control center embedded in an area,” adding that “numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians.”
Another strike killed at least 19 people in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, Bassal said.
A Palestinian source meanwhile said that mediators proposed a 70-day ceasefire and the release of 10 Israeli hostages alongside some Palestinian prisoners.
A Hamas source said shortly after that the group had accepted the proposal for what would be the war’s third truce, saying it came from US envoy Steve Witkoff.
The Israeli military said on Monday that over “the past 48 hours, the (air force) struck over 200 targets throughout the Gaza Strip.”
It also said it had detected three projectiles launched from Gaza toward communities in Israel Monday, as the country prepared to celebrate Jerusalem Day, an annual event marking its capture of the city’s eastern sector in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
“Two projectiles fell in the Gaza Strip and one additional projectile was intercepted,” it said.
Later on Monday, it issued an evacuation order for areas of Khan Yunis, saying they had been the site of rocket launches.
The same day, as Arab and European nations gathered to seek an end to the war, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares called for an arms embargo on Israel.
He also called for humanitarian aid to enter Gaza “massively, without conditions and without limits, and not controlled by Israel,” describing the territory as humanity’s “open wound.”
Israel last week partially eased an aid blockade on Gaza that had exacerbated widespread shortages of food and medicine.
COGAT, the Israeli defense ministry body that coordinates civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, said that “107 trucks belonging to the UN and the international community carrying humanitarian aid... were transferred” into Gaza on Sunday.
But aid agencies insist that is nowhere near enough, at just a fraction of what was allowed in during a two-month ceasefire.
While Israel has restricted aid into Gaza, the war has made growing food next to impossible, with the UN saying on Monday just five percent of Gaza’s farmland was now useable.
Meanwhile, Jake Wood, the head of a US-backed group preparing to move aid into Gaza, announced his resignation, saying it was impossible to do his job in line with principles of neutrality and independence.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has vowed to distribute about 300 million meals in its first 90 days of operation, and said in a statement it would begin “direct aid delivery” on Monday.
The UN and international aid agencies have said they will not cooperate with GHF and have heavily criticized its plans.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Monday that at least 3,822 people had been killed in the territory since a ceasefire collapsed on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,977, mostly civilians.
Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 who the Israeli military says are dead.

Syrian electors cast ballots in indirect vote for first post-Assad parliament

Updated 10 sec ago

Reuters

October 05, 2025 02:04

Syrian electors cast ballots in indirect vote for first post-Assad parliament

closing around 5:00 p.m. (1400 GMT). A committee appointed by Sharaa approved 1,570 candidates who showcased their platforms in seminars and debates this week

Updated 10 sec ago

Reuters

October 05, 2025 02:04

DAMASCUS: Members of Syria’s electoral colleges will gather on Sunday to vote for new lawmakers, a milestone in the country’s shift away from the ousted regime of Bashar Assad and a major test of inclusivity under its current Islamist-led authorities.
President Ahmed Al-Sharaa, who came to power after his rebel offensive toppled Assad in December, is trying to consolidate his hold over a nation fractured by a 14-year war and bouts of sectarian violence that fueled distrust of him among minorities.
The indirect vote will see a combined 6,000 electors cast ballots at regional electoral colleges starting around 9:00 a.m. local (0600 GMT), with polls closing around 5:00 p.m. (1400 GMT).
A committee appointed by Sharaa approved 1,570 candidates who showcased their platforms in seminars and debates this week. But public electioneering was muted, with no posters or billboards visible in major cities, Reuters reporters said.
Sunday’s vote will determine two-thirds of the 210-seat parliament, and results are expected the same night. But the legislature will not be formally established until Sharaa, a former Al Qaeda fighter, selects the remaining third.
The authorities say they resorted to this system rather than universal suffrage due to a lack of reliable population data and following the displacement of millions of Syrians by the war.
Citing security and political reasons, they postponed the vote in three provinces held by minority groups — leaving 19 seats in parliament empty.
Critics have slammed those moves, saying a partial and indirect vote is unrepresentative and too centrally managed.
Analysts say Sharaa’s selection of 70 lawmakers will ultimately determine the new body’s effectiveness and legitimacy: choosing women or minority lawmakers could add diversity, but loyalists could help him to issue laws without a legislative challenge.

Topics: Syria

Lebanon crooner turned fugitive militant surrenders himself to army: judicial source

Updated 05 October 2025

AFP

October 05, 2025 00:43

Lebanon crooner turned fugitive militant surrenders himself to army: judicial source

Fadl Shaker surrendered himself to the Lebanese army at the entrance to the Ain Al-Hilweh camp

Updated 05 October 2025

AFP

October 05, 2025 00:43

BEIRUT, Lebanon: Lebanese crooner-turned-fugitive militant Fadl Shaker surrendered himself to Lebanese authorities on Saturday after hiding in a Palestinian camp for over a decade, a Lebanese judicial official said.
Shaker, a popular singer born to a Palestinian mother and a Lebanese father, was accused of taking part in 2013 clashes in Sidon, south Lebanon, that opposed Salafist Sheikh Ahmad Al-Assir and his supporters with the Lebanese military which left 17 soldiers dead.
While Shaker was a supporter of Assir, he denied involvement in the clashes and has been hiding in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain Al-Hilweh, the biggest Palestinian camp in the country where Lebanese authorities had no jurisdiction.
Assir was sentenced to death in 2017, then to 20 years of hard labor in 2021.
In 2020, Lebanon’s military tribunal sentenced Shaker to 22 years in prison for providing financial and logistical support to the “terrorist” Assir-led group.
“Fadl Shaker surrendered himself to the Lebanese army at the entrance to the Ain Al-Hilweh camp as a prelude to concluding his legal case,” a judicial source told AFP on Saturday.
By longstanding convention, the Lebanese army stays out of the Palestinian camps and leaves Palestinian factions to handle security.
A source close to Shaker told AFP the singer was “confident in his innocence and in the independence of the judiciary.”
Shaker in July released a song while in hiding, which topped charts in the Arab world.
His video clip, filmed in Ain Al-Hilweh, reached over 113 million views on YouTube.

Topics: FADL SHAKER Lebanese army Sheikh Ahmad Al-Assir

Jordan’s green energy initiative benefits 460,000 citizens

Updated 04 October 2025

Arab News

October 04, 2025 22:28

Jordan’s green energy initiative benefits 460,000 citizens

Initiative has seen direct investment of $56m
Fund leading nation’s ‘energy transition process,’ CEO says

Updated 04 October 2025

Arab News

October 04, 2025 22:28

AMMAN: More than 460,000 people in Jordan have benefited from programs run by the country’s Energy Promotion and Consumption Efficiency Fund, according to its CEO.

Speaking on Saturday at the Jordan Economic Forum, Rasmi Hamza said the initiatives involved direct investment of about 40 million Jordanian dinar ($56.4 million) and projects worth more than JD100 million.

“The fund, established in 2014 with an initial government capital of JD25 million, has become a leader in the energy transition process in Jordan through programs targeting households and economic sectors,” he said.

Its various schemes had “directly impacted the lives of hundreds of thousands of families and reduced the energy bill in vital sectors such as industry,” the Jordan News Agency reported.

Hamza said that since its creation the fund had focused on three main objectives: delivering direct economic and social impact, reducing the national energy bill and enhancing competitiveness.

He highlighted the launch of the country’s first large-scale solar power plant with capacity of 50 megawatts and 117MW wind projects in Tafileh, which “triggered a wave of investments in renewable energy.”

The adoption of solar water heaters had grown significantly since 2014, when only 13 percent of households had them, he said.

“With programs bankrolled by the fund, the number of beneficiary families surged to more than 70,000, in addition to 8,000 impoverished households that received free solar systems,” Hamza said, adding that the goal was to install 90,000 solar water heaters by 2030.

The fund’s programs created direct savings for citizens, with each solar heater saving families JD240-300 a year, he said.

He also highlighted the fund’s partnerships with more than 250 local associations to expand access to rural areas. These extend across multiple sectors, providing solar energy systems to 630 places of worship, 15 public benefit institutions, 20 government buildings, 33 health centers and 135 schools.

“The agricultural sector has also benefited, with energy systems installed in 240 farms, while energy conservation programs have been implemented in 201 small- and medium-sized factories and 12 hotels,” Hamza said.

Topics: Jordan Renewable Energy

‘We were treated like animals,’ deported Gaza flotilla activists say

Updated 04 October 2025

AFP

October 04, 2025 22:30

‘We were treated like animals,’ deported Gaza flotilla activists say

They put us on our knees, facing down. And if we moved, they hit us. They were laughing at us, insulting us, and hitting us

Updated 04 October 2025

AFP

October 04, 2025 22:30

ISTANBUL: International activists who arrived in Istanbul after being deported from Israel following the military’s interception of their Gaza-bound flotilla said on Saturday they had been subjected to violence and “treated like animals.”

The Global Sumud Flotilla set sail last month seeking to ferry aid to war-battered Gaza, but Israel blocked the boats, detaining more than 400 people whom it began deporting on Friday. Of that number, 137 activists from 13 countries arrived in Istanbul on Saturday, including 36 Turkish nationals.
“A huge number of military vessels intercepted us,” Paolo Romano, a regional councillor from Lombardy in Italy, said at Istanbul airport.
“Some boats were also hit by water cannon. All of the boats were taken by very heavily armed people and brought to shore,” the 29-year-old said.
“They put us on our knees, facing down. And if we moved, they hit us. They were laughing at us, insulting us, and hitting us,” he said.
“They were using both psychological and physical violence.”
Among those on board the flotilla, which counted some 45 vessels, were politicians and activists, including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg.
Romano said they tried to force them to admit they had entered Israel illegally.
“But we never entered Israel illegally. We were in international waters, and it was our right to be there.”
On landing, they were taken to a prison and held there without being allowed out, and were not given bottled water, he said.
“They were opening the door during the night and shouting at us with guns to scare us,” he said.
“We were treated like animals.”
Iylia Balqis, a 28-year-old activist from Malaysia, said Israel’s interception of the boats was “the worst experience.”
“We were handcuffed (with hands behind our backs), we couldn’t walk, some of us were made to lie face down on the ground, and then we were denied water, and some of us were denied medicine,” she said.
The activists were flown to Istanbul on a specially chartered Turkish Airlines plane.
In a post on X, the Israeli Foreign Ministry confirmed “137 more provocateurs of the Hamas-Sumud flotilla were deported today to Turkiye.”
Relatives of the Turkish activists could be seen awaiting their arrival at the VIP lounge inside Istanbul airport, waving Turkish and Palestinian flags and chanting “Israel murderer.”
The Turkish activists were to undergo medical checks on arrival and would appear in court on Sunday to give testimony, their lawyers said.
Turkiye has denounced Israel’s interception of the flotilla as “an act of terrorism,” saying on Thursday it had opened an investigation.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan praised the activists as “brave individuals who gave voice to humanity’s conscience” in a post on X and stated that Ankara would ensure all of its nationals were brought back, without providing an overall number.
Italian journalist Lorenzo D’Agostino, who was on board the flotilla to cover its mission, said they “were kidnapped in international waters when we were 88 km from Gaza.”
“It was two hellish days that we spent in prison. We are out now thanks to the pressure of the international public that supports Palestine,” he said.
“I really hope this situation ends soon because it has been barbaric the way we have been treated.”
Libyan activist Malik Qutait said he was not afraid and vowed to keep trying to reach Gaza.
“I will collect my group, arrange medicine, aid and a ship and I will try again,” he said.

Topics: War on Gaza Palestine Gaza Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF)

Trump envoys head to Egypt as Hamas agrees to free Gaza hostages

Updated 04 October 2025

AFP

October 04, 2025 16:41

Trump envoys head to Egypt as Hamas agrees to free Gaza hostages

Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and envoy Steve Witkoff were expected to finalize details
Trump urged Israel to halt bombardment of Gaza, following Hamas announcement

Updated 04 October 2025

AFP

October 04, 2025 16:41

GAZA STRIP: Two envoys of US President Donald Trump headed to Egypt on Saturday to discuss the release of hostages in Gaza, after Hamas agreed to his ceasefire proposal, while Israeli forces launched deadly strikes across the territory.

Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and envoy Steve Witkoff were expected to finalize details on the release of hostages and discuss a deal pushed by Trump to end the nearly two-year war between Israel and Hamas, a White House official said.

Egyptian state-linked media reported that Israel and Hamas would also hold indirect talks in Cairo on Sunday and Monday over a detainees and hostages exchange.

The talks come after Trump urged Israel to halt its bombardment of Gaza, following Hamas’s announcement that it was ready to release all the hostages and begin negotiations on the ceasefire proposal.

“The movement announces its approval for the release of all hostages — living and remains — according to the exchange formula included in President Trump’s proposal,” Hamas said in a Friday statement.

Trump later posted on Truth Social: “Based on the Statement just issued by Hamas, I believe they are ready for a lasting PEACE. Israel must immediately stop the bombing of Gaza, so that we can get the Hostages out safely and quickly!“

On Saturday, he had a warning for Hamas, telling the group he would “not tolerate delay” on the peace deal.

Israel meanwhile conducted deadly strikes across Gaza on Saturday.

At least 39 people were killed since dawn Saturday, according to Mohammed Abu Salmiya, head of Gaza’s main Al-Shifa Hospital.

Salmiya said the dead included 34 people killed in Gaza City itself, where Israeli forces have carried out a sweeping air and ground assault in recent weeks.

“The Israeli bombardment on Gaza continues with the same intensity and pattern — air strikes, artillery shelling and quadcopter drone fire are ongoing,” said Mohammed Al-Mughayyir of Gaza’s civil defense, a rescue force operating under Hamas authority.

- Call for ‘swift negotiations’ -

A Hamas official said Egypt, a mediator in the truce talks, would host a conference for Palestinian factions to decide on Gaza’s post-war future.

Al-Qahera News, which is closely linked to Egypt’s intelligence service, reported that delegations from Israel and Hamas “have begun moving to launch talks in Cairo tomorrow and the day after, to discuss arranging the ground conditions for the exchange of all detainees and prisoners, in accordance with Trump’s proposal.”

Trump’s plan calls for a halt to hostilities, the release of hostages within 72 hours, a gradual Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and Hamas’s disarmament.

It also stipulates that Hamas and other factions “not have any role in the governance of Gaza,” with administration of the territory instead taken up by a technocratic body overseen by a post-war transitional authority headed by Trump himself.

“President Trump’s demand to stop the war immediately is essential to prevent serious and irreversible harm to the hostages,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, an Israeli group that has campaigned for the release of captives, said in a statement.

Mahmud Bassal, a spokesman for the Gaza civil defense agency, told AFP that the night was “very violent,” adding that 20 homes were destroyed overnight.

The Israeli military said it was operating in Gaza City and warned residents not to return there.

“The IDF (Israeli military) troops are still operating in Gaza City, and returning to it is extremely dangerous. For your safety, avoid returning north or approaching areas of IDF troop activity anywhere — including in the southern Gaza Strip,” the military’s Arabic-language spokesman, Col. Avichay Adraee, said on X.

Israeli media reported that the military had shifted to a defensive posture in Gaza following Trump’s call, though the military did not confirm this to AFP.

Of those killed in Gaza City, 17 died in an Israeli air strike on the home of the Abdul Aal family in the city’s Al-Tuffa neighborhood, hospitals said.

- Gazans hail Trump -

Jamila Al-Sayyid, 24, a resident of Gaza City’s Al-Zeitoun neighborhood, said “I was happy when Trump announced a ceasefire, but the warplanes did not stop.”

An AFP journalist in the coastal area of Al-Mawasi reported hearing celebratory cries of “Allahu akbar!” (God is greatest) from tents housing Palestinians as news of Hamas’s statement spread.

“The best thing is that President Trump himself announced a ceasefire, and Netanyahu will not be able to escape this time... he is the only one who can force Israel to comply and stop the war,” said Sami Adas, 50, who lives in a tent in Gaza City with his family.

The war was triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 67,074 Palestinians, according to health ministry figures in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.

Their data does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but indicates that more than half of the dead are women and children.

Topics: War on Gaza Israel Palestine Gaza Hamas US US President Donald Trump

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Gaza rescuers say 52 killed in Israeli strikes, including 33 in a school

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