Summary of the day …
The UK’s foreign secretary, David Lammy, has described the reported deaths of six Unrwa workers in an Israeli strike on a UN-run school in Gaza as “appalling”. The senior deputy director of Unrwa affairs in Gaza, Sam Rose, has told Al Jazeera that staff at the agency are “despairing” after yesterday’s airstrike
The World Health Organization (WHO) said at least one quarter, or about 22,500, of those Palestinians injured by Israel’s bombardment in the Gaza conflict had suffered life-changing injuries, such as missing limbs that would require rehabilitation services for years to come. WHO said that on Wednesday it evacuated nearly 100 people from Gaza to the UAE for medical reasons, the largest such operation so far of the war
The IDF reports that about 15 projectiles were fired into Israeli-controlled from the direction of Lebanon. Israeli emergency services attended some fires that had broken out on open ground, caused by falling debris or projectiles
Israel’s government press office (GPO) has announced it is revoking the press cards of all Al Jazeera journalists working in Israel. Nitzan Chen, the director of the GPO, said the network constitutes “a threat to IDF soldiers”
Yossi Sarel, the head the IDF’s unit 8200, a prestigious IDF intelligence unit, has announced that he is to resign. In his statement he said on 7 October last year “I failed my mission”. In April this year the Guardian revealed that Sariel left his identity exposed online when he secretly authored a book published in 2021
The Israel Defense Forces have launched an investigation into claims in the Israeli media that the London-based Jewish Chronicle published stories based on “fabricated intelligence” relating to Hamas, amid claims that they may have been planted as part of a disinformation campaign
There are unconfirmed reports in Israeli media that in the last few days Israeli special forces carried out a raid on the ground against a weapons facility inside Syria
Turkey has opened an investigation into the death of a Turkish-American activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi shot and killed by Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank and will request international arrest warrants, Ankara said on Thursday
The Israel Defense Forces have launched an investigation into claims in the Israeli media that the London-based Jewish Chronicle published stories based on “fabricated intelligence” relating to Hamas, amid claims that they may have been planted as part of a disinformation campaign.
Among the most controversial claims published by the Jewish Chronicle, the world’s oldest Jewish newspaper, was the suggestion last week that the Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, might be preparing to flee to Iran with Israeli hostages, a suggestion that has also been made by Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Jewish Chronicle article is one of several sensational reports that have been written in recent months by a writer bylined as Elon Perry, whose résumé claims he has worked as a journalist and academic, and served as an elite undercover soldier has also been questioned.
Checks by the Guardian have found no evidence of any record of significant stories published by Perry as a reporter in English or Hebrew, except for the recent series of articles in the Jewish Chronicle now alleged to be fabrications.
Read more here: IDF investigates claim Jewish Chronicle published stories based on ‘fabricated intelligence’
Yossi Sarel, the head the IDF’s unit 8200, a prestigious IDF intelligence unit, has announced that he is to resign.
In the letter relinquishing his post, Sarel said “On 7 October at 6.29 am I failed my mission. Today, after completing the initial investigation processes, I wish to exercise my personal responsibility and pass the baton to the next shift.”
In April this year the Guardian revealed that Sariel left his identity exposed online when he secretly authored a book published in 2021, The Human Machine Team.
Israeli government to revoke credentials of all Al Jazeera journalists working in the country
Israel’s government press office (GPO) has announced it is revoking the press cards of all Al Jazeera journalists working in Israel.
Nitzan Chen, the director of the GPO, said the network constitutes “a threat to IDF soldiers”.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s government had already banned the network from operating in Israel in May of this year.
There has been some attempt to get the school term started for children in Gaza, with some makeshift classes set up for children who have been displaced from their homes by Israel’s bombardment of the territory.
The Palestinian ministry of education has said more than 650,000 students in the Gaza Strip are being deprived of their right to education, and at least 84% of schools in the territory require full reconstruction or significant rebuilding.
The senior deputy director of Unrwa affairs in Gaza, Sam Rose, has told Al Jazeera that staff at the agency are “despairing” after yesterday’s airstrike by Israel which killed six of its workers.
The new network quoted Rose speaking from Khan Younis and saying:
Staff in the offices are in shock. The scale and the rapidity of the incidents are just too difficult for us to get our head around sometimes. We’re running out of options. The space in which we’re able to operate geographically, and even conceptually and existentially, is simply shrinking.
In a statement the charity Islamic Relief has said it is “appalled at Israel’s latest deadly attack on a school in central Gaza where Palestinian civilians, mainly women and children, were told to shelter.”
The statement continued:
More than 300 humanitarian workers have now been killed in Gaza over the past 11 months, as Israel’s relentless bombing has turned Gaza into the most dangerous place in the world to deliver aid. Most of the humanitarian workers killed are local Palestinians who are desperately trying to deliver vital aid while themselves being bombed, forced from their homes, and trying to feed their own children.
Israel’s military has claimed that it carried out a precise strike on a Hamas command and control centre located in the UN-run school, which has been strike by Israeli forces multiple times during the current conflict.
WHO: a quarter of Palestinians injured during Israel's bombardment of Gaza have suffered life-changing injuries
In its press conference earlier, Reuters reports that the World Health Organization said at least one quarter, or about 22,500, of those Palestinians injured by Israel’s bombardment in the Gaza conflict had suffered life-changing injuries, such as missing limbs that would require rehabilitation services for years to come.
Here is our video report after an Israeli airstrike on a central Gaza school being used as a shelter for displaced Palestinians was reported to have killed 18 people, including six members of staff from Unrwa.
The IDF reports that about 15 projectiles were fired into Israeli-controlled from the direction of Lebanon in the last hour.
It reports there were no injuries, but emergency services are working to extinguish some fires started by falling debris or projectiles. The Kann news service is carrying a video clip which it says shows fires burning in western Galilee.
אחרי המטחים לגליל המערבי: שריפה פרצה סמוך למעיליא; 8 צוותי כיבוי ומטוסים פועלים לכיבויה@rubih67 (צילום: גרציאני) pic.twitter.com/uMeBGs5DfG
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) September 12, 2024
WHO says it carried out largest medical evacuation yet from Gaza during the war, taking nearly 100 people to the UAE
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday it had evacuated nearly 100 people – including dozens of children – from Gaza to the UAE.
Saying that there were over 10,000 Gazans awaiting medical evacuation after 11 months of Israeli bombardment of the territory, WHO said the transfer of nearly 100 people was “the largest evacuation yet from Gaza since October 2023.”
Reuters reports Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the occupied Palestinian territory said “Gaza needs medical corridors. We need a better organised and sustained system.”
The evacuation of patients took place on Wednesday.
The organisation also said it was happy with progress in its emergency polio vaccination programme in the Gaza Strip, and is confident of reaching its 90% target. The first case of polio in Gaza for 25 years was recently discovered, prompting the vaccination effort.
There are unconfirmed reports in Israeli media that in the last few days Israeli special forces carried out a raid on the ground against a weapons facility inside Syria.
Channel 12 news, citing a security source, claimed it was an IDF operation against an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) facility that develops missiles and drones and which provided support to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
More details soon …
Updated
In the past hour warning sirens have sounded in a number of locations in northern Israel. Tens of thousands of people in Israel and Lebanon have been forced to evacuate their homes on either side of the UN-drawn blue line that separates Israel and Lebanon due to the repeated exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israeli forces.
Turkey will seek international arrest warrants over Israeli shooting of Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi
Turkey has opened an investigation into the death of a Turkish-American activist shot and killed by Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank and will request international arrest warrants, Ankara said on Thursday.
Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old volunteer with the anti-occupation International Solidarity Movement, died in hospital on Friday after being shot in the head during a protest in Beita, near Nablus. Witnesses said she was shot at by Israeli soldiers positioned in a nearby field.
Reuters reports her body will arrive for burial in Turkey on Friday. It reports Turkey’s foreign ministry said she “was deliberately targeted and killed by Israeli soldiers during a peaceful demonstration in solidarity with Palestinians. We will make every effort to ensure that this crime does not go unpunished,” it said.
Israel has said it was highly likely its troops had fired the shot that killed her but claimed her death was unintentional. Turkey’s justice minister Yılmaz Tunç said the Ankara chief prosecutor’s office is investigating “those responsible for the martyrdom and murder of our sister”, and told reporters that Turkey had evidence regarding the killing and would make international arrest requests.
In the wake of Eygi’s death US secretary of state Antony Blinken called on Israel to “make some fundamental changes in the way that they operate in the West Bank, including changes to their rules of engagement. Now we have the second American citizen killed at the hands of Israeli security forces. It’s not acceptable.”
Eygi’s family have been critical of the way the US administration responded to her death, saying that several days after she was killed, neither the White House nor Joe Biden had called to offer condolences. A vigil in Eygi’s memory was held last night in Seattle, where she had lived.
UK foreign secretary: reports of Unrwa workers being killed by Israeli strike in Gaza are 'appalling'
The UK’s foreign secretary, David Lammy, has described the reported deaths of six Unrwa workers in an Israeli strike on a UN-run school in Gaza as “appalling”.
In a message posted on social media, the recently installed foreign secretary said:
Reports of six Unrwa staff members being killed in an Israeli strike are appalling. My thoughts are with their families and all those who continue to carry out lifesaving work. Aid workers must be able to do their jobs safely. We need a ceasefire and hostage release deal now.
Since coming to power in July, the new UK Labour government has restarted British funding for the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency, with Lammy stating in parliament in London that “Humanitarian aid is a moral necessity in the face of such a catastrophe [in Gaza]. Unrwa is absolutely central to these efforts. No other agency can get aid into Gaza at the scale needed.”
The UK and many other western nations suspended funding to Unrwa after Israel alleged that several members of its staff participated in the surprise 7 October Hamas attack inside southern Israel.
At the time UK funding was restored to Unrwa, Lammy said “I was appalled by the allegations that Unrwa staff were involved in the 7 October attacks. We are reassured that after Catherine Colonna’s independent review, Unrwa is ensuring they meet the highest standards of neutrality and strengthening its procedures, including on vetting.”
The Labour government has also imposed a limited export ban on some arms sales to Israel, a move which was described as “shameful” by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel’s military has claimed that the strike yesterday on the UN-run school, which was sheltering displaced Palestinians, was aimed at what the IDF described as “a Hamas command and control centre”. Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of using civilian buildings and infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. [See 9.34 BST]
The European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell Fontelles, is in Lebanon today. The Lebanese army have posted a picture of him meeting with army commander Gen Joseph Aoun, and said that, alongside the EU’s ambassador to Lebanon Sandra De Waele, they discussed the situation in the south of the country, where Hezbollah and Israel have been repeatedly exchanging fire for months.
استقبل قائد الجيش العماد جوزاف عون في مكتبه في اليرزة، الممثل الأعلى للاتحاد الأوروبي للشؤون الخارجية والسياسية والأمنية ونائب رئيس المفوضية الأوروبيةJosep Borrell Fontelles، بحضور سفيرة الاتحاد الأوروبي في لبنان Sandra De Waele، وجرى التداول في أوضاع لبنان والمنطقة والتطورات عند… pic.twitter.com/dkkmeJSUky
— الجيش اللبناني (@LebarmyOfficial) September 12, 2024
Israel’s culture minister Miki Zohar has said that only military power will push Hamas to come to a deal to release hostages from Gaza, but conceded that “there is no doubt that military pressure endangers the hostages.”
The Times of Israel reports that in an interview with Haredi radio station Kol BaRama, the Likud party minister said that protests against Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and calls for elections in Israel were hardening the Hamas negotiating position.
It quotes him saying:
Attempts to reach a deal did not succeed because we are facing a terrorist organisation that is not rational and only understands military power. We really want a deal and hope there will be a deal. The price Israel will need to pay is heavy.
There is no doubt that military pressure endangers the hostages. It’s not that we think the hostages are in a good situation. Their lives are in constant danger, especially when there is fire close to where they are, or even where they are. And this is the complexity of this war.
Syrian media is reporting that in addition to killing two people in a drone strike on a vehicle inside Syria, Israeli forces have also shelled the Syrian town of Al-Rafid in the south-east of the country, close to territory controlled by Israel.
Health ministry claims at least 34 killed and 96 injured in Gaza by Israeli attacks in last day
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has said that Israeli attacks have killed at least 34 people and injured 96 over the past 24 hours in the territory.
It puts the total death toll since 7 October 2023 at 41,118 people killed, with 95,125 injured. The figures, which have not been independently verified, do not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants, and include women and children.
The ministry reported that there are more people trapped under rubble and in areas inaccessible to emergency services.
Gaza’s civil defence service earlier said it had recovered four bodies after an Israeli airstrike in Rafah. Other fatalities have been reported this morning in Jabalia camp and the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City.
There is limited media access to Gaza, and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has recorded the deaths of at least 116 journalists and media workers during the course of the war, making it “the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ began gathering data in 1992.”
Israel claims school attack that killed Unrwa staff was aimed at Hamas command and control centre
Israel’s Arabic language military spokesperson Avichay Adraee has posted to social media a message he says is regarding “the allegations and lies” he claimed have been spread about the Israeli attack on the Jaouni school in Nuseirat.
He claimed, without providing evidence in the post, that it was “formerly used” as a school but was “a Hamas command and control complex”. He claimed that “many of the names [of victims] published on social media and news channels belong to Hamas terrorists who were involved in terrorist activities against Israeli citizens and IDF forces.”
He claimed that the IDF had repeatedly sought more information from Unrwa on the six staff killed in the attack, but said “it did not respond to these requests, which were repeatedly conveyed to it”. The claims have not been independently verified.
#عاجل وبخصوص الادعاءات والأكاذيب عما حدث في #مدرسة_الجاعوني في النصيرات نوضح:
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) September 12, 2024
🔻استهدف جيش الدفاع يوم أمس بشكل دقيق وبتوجيه استخباري من هيئة الاستخبارات والشاباك والفرقة 252 مخربين عملوا داخل مجمع قيادة وسيطرة تابع لحماس داخل ما استخدم سابقًا كمدرسة الجاعوني في النصيرات وسط… pic.twitter.com/etjPeuXC0Q
Unrwa has said that six of its staff were killed in the attack, with the agency posting to social media to say “Among those killed was the manager of the Unrwa shelter and other team members providing assistance to displaced people. Schools and other civilian infrastructure must be protected at all times, they are not a target.”
Gaza’s civil defence spokesperson Mahmud Bassal said that it was the fifth time Israel has targeted the school since 7 October. He initially put the death toll of Unrwa workers killed at two, and said 18 people had been killed in total, and more than 18 others injured, including women and children.
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of Unrwa, has said that the staff who died in Wednesday’s attack had been providing support to families who had sought refuge in the school, and that at least 220 of his agency’s staff had been killed in Gaza since the start of the war.
In a statement Lazzarini lamented the “endless and senseless killing, day after day” in Gaza, adding “Humanitarian staff, premises and operations have been blatantly and unabatedly disregarded since the beginning of the war.”
Reporting for Al Jazeera from Deir al-Balah in central Gaza where the dead were being received at a hospital for burial, Hani Mahmoud said the scenes were “heartbreaking” and “chaotic”. He reported for the network:
This is not the first time we’ve seen UN-run evacuation centres attacked. These facilities are marked, their coordinates shared with the Israeli military. They are known to have turned into shelters for displaced families. But the UN’s blue and white colours on the shelters is not protecting the people inside.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has banned Al Jazeera from operating inside Israel, and Israel’s military has not permitted foreign media to operate inside Gaza. None of the claims have been independently verified by journalists.
Updated
Reporting from Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, Hani Mahmoud of Al Jazeera has said that the scene at the hospital there where people are sayign farewell to loved ones killed in an Israeli strike yesterday on the UN-operated al-Jaouni school is “chaotic”.
He writes:
People are bidding farewell to their relatives pronounced dead at the hospital. One person who is in critical condition was pulled from the hospital just to say goodbye to family members killed in the attack. It was a heartbreaking scene.
Updated
There are unconfirmed reports that Israel has killed two people in a drone strike inside Syria on the road from Quneitra in the Golan region to Damascus.
Israeli media is reporting that overnight Israel’s security forces raided a hospital in Halhul, near Hebron, and arrested a suspect in an car bombing.
Reports say that members of Israeli security forces were in civilian clothing when they entered the hospital to detain the main. Haaretz reports he has been taken by the Shin Bet for questioning. The suspect had been injured in a car bomb explosion on 13 August.
Local media sources put the death toll from this morning’s Israeli attacks on Gaza at five. Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that three citizens were killed and others were injured after a family house was bombed in Jabalia camp. Two people were killed and others injured in the bombing of a street in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City.
Wafa also reports that Israeli forces “blew up residential buildings in the northern areas of al-Bureij camp” and alos carried out an airstrike on a house in al-Nuseirat camp.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Al Jazeera reports that in the last couple of hours two people have been killed in an Israeli attack on the Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City in the north of Gaza. Additionally, there has been a reported airstrike on the Jabalia camp in the north of the Gaza Strip.
Overnight the IDF twice reported warning sirens sounding in Israel, once in northern Israel and once near the Gaza Strip. Both instances turned out to be false alarms.
UN chief condemns ‘violations’ of humanitarian law after six Unrwa staff killed in Israeli airstrike
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Israel-Gaza war.
UN chief António Guterres has condemned an Israeli airstrike on a central Gaza school being used as a shelter for displaced Palestinians that killed 18 people, according to the Hamas-run territory’s civil defence agency.
“What’s happening in Gaza is totally unacceptable,” he wrote on social media, adding that six Unrwa workers were among the dead. “These dramatic violations of international humanitarian law need to stop now.”
Israel’s military claimed its air force had “conducted a precise strike on terrorists who were operating inside a Hamas command-and-control centre” on the school grounds.
An IDF spokesperson claimed that prior to the attack “a series of measures were taken to reduce the likelihood of civilian casualties, including the use of precision weapons, the use of aerial imagery, and additional intelligence.”
Here is a summary of the day’s other main news.
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of Unrwa, has said that the staff who died in Wednesday’s attack had been providing support to families who had sought refuge in the school, and that at least 220 of his agency’s staff had been killed in Gaza since the start of the war.
Elsewhere on Wednesday, a strike hit a home near the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, killing 11 people, including six brothers and sisters ranging from 21 months to 21 years old, according to the European hospital, which received the casualties.
Hamas said on Wednesday that its negotiators had reiterated their readiness to implement an “immediate” ceasefire with Israel in Gaza based on a previous US proposal without new conditions from any party. The group said in a statement that their negotiation team, led by senior official Khalil al-Hayya, had met mediators in Doha to discuss the latest developments in Gaza.
CIA director William Burns, who is also the chief US negotiator on Gaza, said on Saturday that a more detailed ceasefire proposal would be made in the next several days. The previous proposal put forward by president Joe Biden in June laid out a three-phase ceasefire in return for the release of Israeli hostages. However lingering issues, including control of the Philadelphi corridor, a narrow stretch of land on Gaza’s border with Egypt, remain.
Joe Biden has described the Israel Defense Force’s fatal shooting of the Turkish American protester Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi as “totally unacceptable” in his first extensive comments on her death. In a statement on Wednesday, Biden said that Israel had “acknowledged responsibility” for Eygi’s death, but he stopped short of backing the demands put out by Eygi’s family and other human rights advocates for an independent inquiry into the fatal shooting of the American activist at a protest in the West Bank town of Beita last week.
Updated
