Middle East latest: Israeli strikes in Gaza kill dozens, including kids, officials say
An Israeli airstrike flattened a multistory building in central Gaza, killing at least 25 people and wounding dozens more, according to Palestinian medical officials, after strikes Thursday across the Gaza Strip killed at least 28 others.
The latest deadly strike hit the Nuseirat refugee camp just hours after President Biden’s national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, told reporters in Jerusalem that the recent cease-fire between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon has helped clear the way for a potential deal to end the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.
Images from the Gaza blast showed a collapsed building with people walking through its mangled and charred remains, smoke rising from piles of belongings strewn over the rubble.
Officials at two Gaza hospitals, Al Awda Hospital in the north and the central Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, reported receiving a combined total of 25 bodies from the strike. Palestinian medics said more than 40 people, mostly children, were being treated at the hospitals. Al Aqsa hospital said that the Israeli attack also damaged several nearby houses in Nuseirat.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the strike. Israel is trying to eliminate Hamas militants, whom Israel says hide among Gaza’s civilian population.
Among other strikes were two that killed 15 men who were part of local committees established to secure aid convoys. The committees were set up by displaced Palestinians in coordination with the Hamas-run Interior Ministry. The Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis received the bodies and an Associated Press reporter counted them. The hospital said eight had been killed in a strike near the southern border town of Rafah and seven others in a strike 30 minutes later near Khan Yunis.
The Israel-Hamas war in Gaza began when the militant group attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 people. About 100 hostages are still in Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s offensive has killed more than 44,800 Palestinians in Gaza, at least half of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. The Israeli military says it has killed more than 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The fighting has plunged Gaza into a severe humanitarian crisis, with experts warning of famine. Israel says it allows enough aid to enter and blames U.N. agencies for not distributing it. The United Nations says Israeli restrictions, and the breakdown of law and order after Israel repeatedly targeted the Hamas-run police force, make it extremely difficult to operate in the territory.
Syria now searches for a new identity, as Damascus residents face a future without President Bashar Assad.
U.S. official says truce in Lebanon may help seal Gaza cease-fire
Sullivan, Biden’s security advisor, has dismissed speculation that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was waiting for President-elect Donald Trump to take office to finalize a cease-fire deal. He said the U.S. believes three American hostages are still alive in Gaza, but it’s hard to know for sure.
He plans to travel next to Qatar and Egypt — key mediators in the cease-fire talks — as the Biden administration makes its final push on negotiations.
He also said during a trip to Jerusalem that “the balance of power in the Middle East has changed significantly” since the Hamas attack on Israel, especially with the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad, a key ally of Hezbollah and Iran.
“We are now faced with a dramatically reshaped Middle East in which Israel is stronger, Iran is weaker, its proxies decimated, and a cease-fire that is new and will be lasting in Lebanon that ensures Israel’s security over the long term,” he said.
Blinken urges players in Syria to avoid steps that could lead to violence
U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken is urging the many players in Syria to avoid taking any steps that could lead to further violence.
Blinken spoke to reporters in Jordan on Thursday shortly after meeting King Abdullah II as he began his trip to the region to discuss Syria’s future. Blinken will next visit Turkey, a NATO ally and a main backer of Syrian rebel groups. He called this “a time of both real promise but also peril for Syria and for its neighbors.”
The secretary of State said he was focused on coordinating efforts in the region “to support the Syrian people as they transition away from Assad’s brutal dictatorship” and establish a government that isn’t dominated by one religion or ethnic group or outside power.
Blinken was asked about Israel’s incursion into a buffer zone that had been demilitarized for half a century. Netanyahu says the move is temporary and defensive but has indicated Israel will remain in the area for a long time. Blinken declined to say whether the U.S. supports the move but said the U.S. would be speaking to Israel and other partners in the region.
“I think, across the board, when it comes to any actors who have real interests in Syria, it’s also really important at this time that we all try to make sure that we’re not sparking any additional conflicts,” he said.
American who says he crossed into Syria by foot is free after detention
An American who turned up in Syria on Thursday says he was detained after crossing into the country by foot on a Christian pilgrimage seven months ago. Travis Timmerman appears to have been among thousands released from the country’s notorious prisons.
In a video that emerged online, Timmerman could be seen lying on a mattress in what appeared to be a house. A group of men in the video said he was being treated well. The Biden administration is working to bring Timmerman home, Blinken said.
In an interview with Al Arabiya TV network, Timmerman said he was treated well in detention but could hear other men being tortured.
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