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The death toll from Chile's wildfires reaches 131, and more than 300 people are missing
The death toll from wildfires that ravaged central Chile for several days increased to 131 on Tuesday, and more than 300 people were still missing as the blazes appeared to be burning themselves out.
The fires in Valparaiso are said to be Chile's deadliest disaster since an earthquake in 2010. Officials have suggested that some could have been intentionally set.
President Gabriel Boric during a visit to the region announced that furniture used for the 2023 Pan American Games will be donated to victims. He said the government also will forgive the water bills for 9,200 affected homes.
2 found dead in eastern Washington wildfires identified, more than 350 homes confirmed destroyed
The fires began Friday on the mountainous eastern edge of Viña del Mar, a beach resort known for a festival that attracts the best in Latin music. Two other towns, Quilpé and Villa Alemana, also were hit hard as the fires spread quickly in dry weather and strong winds.
The Viña del Mar Festival canceled its opening gala as a sign of mourning. Many participating singers including Alejandro Sanz, Pablo Alborán and Maná sent messages of solidarity and announced donations.
Chile’s Forensic Medical Service has said many bodies recovered from the fires were in bad condition and difficult to identify, but forensic workers would take samples of genetic material from people reporting missing relatives.
18 bodies found in Greece as firefighters battle wind-driven wildfires across the country
“My parents’ and my sisters’ house burned, and my neighbors — the people who knew me when I was little — died,” said Gabriel Leiva, 46, going through debris in Viña del Mar. He said his neighbors were “family that is not of blood but of the heart.”
The United Nations in a statement offered its condolences and announced assistance. Meanwhile, Boric, in a tweet, thanked U.S. President Joe Biden for “his important support" following the disaster.
At least 28 people died when shelling hit a bakery in Russian-occupied Ukraine
Moscow-installed officials say Ukrainian shelling killed at least 28 people at a bakery in the Russian-occupied city of Lysychansk.
At least one child was among the dead Saturday, local leader Leonid Pasechnik wrote in a statement on Telegram. A further 10 people were rescued from under the rubble by emergency services, he said.
Ukrainian officials in Kyiv did not comment on the incident.
Read: Ukraine says corrupt officials stole $40 million meant to buy arms for the war with Russia
Both Moscow and Kyiv have increasingly relied on longer-range attacks this winter amid largely unchanged positions on the 1,500-kilometer (930-mile) front line in the nearly 2-year-old war.
The military administration for Ukraine’s Sumy region said Sunday that Russian forces had shelled the region in 16 separate attacks the previous day, firing on the border communities of Yunakivka, Bilopillia, Krasnopillia, Velyka Pysarivka, and Esman.
Read: Russian transport plane crashes near Ukraine with 65 Ukrainian POWs on board
16 killed, 25 injured in U.S. airstrikes in W. Iraq: spokesman
The Iraqi government said Saturday that the U.S. airstrikes on the paramilitary Hashd Shaabi forces in western Iraq killed 16 people, including civilians, and injured 25 others.
Calling the airstrikes "blatant aggression," government spokesman Basim al-Awadi told the official Iraqi News Agency (INA) that "the U.S. administration violated Iraq's sovereignty when its aircraft conducted airstrikes on the positions of our security forces in the Akashat and al-Qaim areas, as well as neighboring civilian places."
Read: 150 people are killed in Gaza in 24 hours, Health Ministry says
Al-Awadi also denied reports that claimed there was coordination between the government and the U.S. administration about the airstrikes, stressing that these reports are "a false claim aimed at misleading international public opinion and evading legal responsibility for this crime," according to the INA.
He also said that the government believes that the presence of the international coalition forces on Iraqi soil has become a threat to security and stability in Iraq and a justification for involving Iraq in regional and international conflicts.
Al-Awadi warned that the recent airstrikes put security in Iraq and the region on the brink of the abyss, adding, "Iraq renews its refusal to make its lands an arena for settling scores."
Read: A person killed in attack on Catholic church in Istanbul, 2 ISIS members detained
The U.S. Central Command said in a statement on Friday that the U.S. forces conducted airstrikes on more than 85 targets in Iraq and Syria against Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and affiliated militia groups.
The U.S. airstrikes came in response to recent attacks by Iranian-backed militias that caused the first U.S. fatalities since the Israel-Hamas conflict broke out on Oct. 7, 2023.
More than 100 Rohingya flee a Malaysian detention center
More than 100 Rohingya immigrants have escaped from a detention center in Malaysia after a protest, with one confirmed killed in a road accident, officials said Friday.
This was the second time in two years that such a breakout occurred. In 2022, 528 Rohingya refugees staged a protest and escaped from detention in northern Penang state. Six were killed while trying to cross a highway, and most of the others were rearrested.
Read: Urgent action needed to address dramatic rise in Rohingya deaths at sea: UNHCR
Immigration Department Director-General Ruslin Jusoh said in a statement that 131 detainees escaped from a center in Perak state late Thursday. He said one of the detainees was killed in a road accident. Nearly 400 personnel were deployed to hunt them down, he added, without giving details on what sparked the breakout.
District police chief Mohamad Naim Asnawi was quoted by national Bernama news agency as saying that the immigrants escaped from the men's block after a riot broke out at the center. The suspects included 115 Rohingya and 16 Myanmar nationals, all males, he said.
Malaysia, which has a dominant Muslim population, is a preferred destination for Muslim Rohingya fleeing from Buddhist-majority Myanmar or those seeking to escape misery in refugee camps in Bangladesh.
Read: Out of options, Rohingya fleeing Myanmar and Bangladesh by boat despite soaring death toll
Malaysia doesn’t grant refugee status, but it houses about 180,000 refugees and asylum seekers accredited with the United Nations refugee agency, including more than 100,000 Rohingya and other Myanmar ethnic groups. Thousands stay in the country illegally after arriving by sea.
Massive fire set off by gas explosion in Kenya's capital kills at least 3 people, injures over 270
A vehicle loaded with gas exploded and set off an inferno that burned homes and warehouses in Kenya's capital early Friday, killing at least three people and injuring more than 270, with the death toll expected to rise.
Many residents were likely inside their homes when the fire reached their houses late in the night in the Mradi area of the Nairobi neighborhood of Embakasi, government spokesman Isaac Mwaura said.
Read: Several dead as small plane crashes and burns in Florida mobile home park
The truck explosion ignited a huge fireball, and a flying gas cylinder set off a fire that burned down the Oriental Godown, a warehouse that deals with garments and textiles, Mwaura said. Several other vehicles and businesses were damaged by the inferno that started around 11:30 p.m. Thursday.
At the scene after daybreak, several houses and shops were burned out. The shell of the vehicle believed to have started the explosion was lying on its side. The roof of a four-story residential building about 200 meters (yards) from the scene of the explosion was broken by a flying gas cylinder. Electric wires lay on the ground. Nothing remained in the burned-out warehouse except the shells of several trucks.
Alfred Juma, an aspiring politician, said he heard loud noise from a gas cylinder in a warehouse next to his house. “I started waking up neighbors asking them to leave," Juma said.
He said he warned a black car not to drive through the area, but the driver insisted and his vehicle stalled because of the fumes. “He attempted to start the car three times and that’s when there was an explosion and the fire spread into the (warehouse) setting off other explosions."
He said he grabbed two children and they hid in a sewage ditch until the explosions ended. His family had not been present, but Juma lost everything he owned in the fire.
Read: 520 killed in 6-month violent attacks in Myanmar
“Police were turning away everyone and so it was difficult to access my house and I had to seek a place to sleep until this morning,” neighbor Caroline Karanja said. She said the smell and smoke were still choking, and she would have to stay away for a while because she had young children.
Police and the Kenya Red Cross reported three deaths. The toll may rise after daybreak, said Wesley Kimeto, the Embakasi police chief.
The government and Red Cross said 271 people were taken to several hospitals with injuries.
The proximity of the industrial company to residences raised questions about enforcement of city plans. Officials at the county government have been accused of taking bribes to overlook building codes and regulations.
UN experts condemn killing, silencing of journalists in Gaza
Israel’s military operation in Gaza, in the aftermath of the heinous 7 October attack by Hamas, has become the deadliest, most dangerous conflict for journalists in recent history, UN experts said on Thursday.
“We are alarmed at the extraordinarily high numbers of journalists and media workers who have been killed, attacked, injured and detained in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, particularly in Gaza, in recent months blatantly disregarding international law,” the experts said.
“We condemn all killings, threats and attacks on journalists and call on all parties to the conflict to protect them,” they said.
According to UN reports, since 7 October, over 122 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza, and many have been injured, according to a statement issued from Geneva.
In addition, three journalists in Lebanon were killed as a result of Israeli shelling near the border of Lebanon.
Four Israeli journalists were killed by Hamas in the 7 October attacks. Dozens of Palestinian journalists have been detained by Israeli forces in both Gaza and in the West Bank where harassment, intimidation and attacks on journalists have increased since the 7 October attacks.
“We pay special tribute to the courage and resilience of journalists and media workers in Gaza who continue to put their own lives on the line every day in the course of duty, while also enduring enormous hardship and tragic loss of colleagues, friends and families in one of the bloodiest, most ruthless conflicts of our times,” the experts said.
“Rarely have journalists paid such a heavy price for just doing their job as those in Gaza now,” the experts said. They highlighted the case of Al-Jazeera journalist, Wael al-Dahdouh, who lost his wife, two children and a grandson as a result of Israeli bombing on 25 October 2023, endured a drone attack himself that killed his cameraman in late December and lost another son, also an Al-Jazeera journalist, along with another journalist, killed by Israeli drone strike targeting their car on 7 January 2024.
“We have received disturbing reports that, despite being clearly identifiable in jackets and helmets marked “press” or travelling in well-marked press vehicles, journalists have come under attack, which would seem to indicate that the killings, injury, and detention are a deliberate strategy by Israeli forces to obstruct the media and silence critical reporting,” the UN experts said.
“In times of conflict, the right to information is a ‘survival right’ on which the very lives of civilians depend, and journalists play an indispensable role as a vital source of information, and as human rights defenders and witnesses to atrocities, reporting on violations and abuses of international humanitarian law and human rights.”
“Journalists are entitled to protection as civilians under international humanitarian law. Targeted attacks and killings of journalists are war crimes,” the experts warned.
They expressed grave concern that Israel has refused to let media from outside Gaza enter and report unless they are embedded with the Israeli forces. “The attacks on media in Gaza and restrictions on other journalists from accessing Gaza, combined with severe disruptions of the Internet, are major impediments to the right of information of the people of Gaza as well as the outside world,” the experts said.
“We urge Israeli authorities to allow journalists to enter Gaza and protect the safety of all journalists in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” the experts said.
“We further urge the parties to the conflict to allow for and ensure prompt, independent and impartial investigations into every killing of journalists in accordance with international standards, in particular the United Nations Minnesota Protocol on the investigation of potentially unlawful death,” the experts added.
“In closing, we urge the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court to give particular attention to the dangerous pattern of attacks and impunity for crimes against journalists, which has intensified since October 7. Targeting and killing of journalists in the Occupied Palestinian Territory must stop,” they said.
The experts are Irene Khan, Special Rapporteur on the protection and promotion of freedom of opinion and expression; Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967; Mary Lawlor, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; Morris Tidball-Binz, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions; and Ben Saul, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism.
UN chief calls for urgent steps to de-escalate situation in Gaza, surrounding areas
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday urgently appealed for measures to reduce tensions in Gaza and its neighboring regions.
"I call for urgent steps to de-escalate the situation and spare the region from more violence before it is too late," the top UN official told the meeting of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.
"As we seek to address mounting needs in Gaza, we also remain focused on the deteriorating situation in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem," said the secretary-general. "I am extremely alarmed by the high levels of settler violence in the occupied West Bank. Palestinian attacks against Israelis also continue."
"All of this violence must stop, and the perpetrators held accountable," he said.
Read: Israel military operation destroys a Gaza cemetery. Israel says Hamas used the site to hide a tunnel
The secretary-general commended the vital role of the committee amid the protracted Question of Palestine and escalating violence, particularly highlighted by the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas in Israel and Israel's ensuing military operations in Gaza.
Describing the aftermath in Gaza as "a scar on our shared humanity and conscience," the secretary-general lamented the "death, destruction, displacement, hunger, loss, and grief" over the past 120 days.
Highlighting the relentless bombardment and conflict, he said, "The ongoing conflict and relentless bombardment by Israeli forces across Gaza have resulted in killings of civilians and destruction at a pace and scale unlike anything we have witnessed in recent years."
He expressed horror at the military strikes that "have killed and maimed civilians," emphasizing that over "26,750 Palestinians have reportedly been killed in Gaza alone - more than two-thirds women and children."
Guterres pointed out the severe impact on civilian infrastructure, with "over 70 percent... including homes, hospitals, schools, water, and sanitation facilities in Gaza - have been destroyed or severely damaged," leading to 1.7 million displacements.
Reaffirming the principles of international humanitarian law, he stressed that "no party to an armed conflict is above international law."
Read: Fighting across Gaza as UN aid agency faces more cuts
The secretary-general also addressed serious allegations against staff members of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), saying that "I was personally horrified by these accusations." He outlined steps being taken to address them, highlighting the importance of UNRWA's "vital work."
With Gaza's humanitarian system on the brink of collapse and 2.2 million people facing "inhumane conditions," the secretary-general called for "rapid, safe, unhindered, expanded and sustained humanitarian access throughout Gaza."
He emphasized the need for more crossing points to ease congestion and ensure continuous humanitarian access, alongside a plea for an "immediate humanitarian ceasefire."
Guterres concluded with a call for progress toward a two-state solution. "Only the two-state solution... can ensure the realization of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people as well as a just and lasting peace and stability in the region."
He urged the international community to remain steadfast in its commitment to advancing a meaningful peace process.
‘Sorry for everything you’ve all been through,’ Zuckerberg says to parents of child victims
Sexual predators. Addictive features. Suicide and eating disorders. Unrealistic beauty standards. Bullying. These are just some of the issues young people are dealing with on social media — and children's advocates and lawmakers say companies are not doing enough to protect them.
On Wednesday, the CEOs of Meta, TikTok, X and other social media companies went before the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify at a time when lawmakers and parents are growing increasingly concerned about the effects of social media on young people’s lives.
The hearing began with recorded testimony from kids and parents who said they or their children were exploited on social media. Throughout the hourslong event, parents who lost children to suicide silently held up pictures of their dead kids.
"They’re responsible for many of the dangers our children face online,” Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, who chairs the committee, said in opening remarks. “Their design choices, their failures to adequately invest in trust and safety, their constant pursuit of engagement and profit over basic safety have all put our kids and grandkids at risk.”
Meta's initial decisions to remove 2 videos of Israel-Hamas war is reversed by Oversight Board
In a heated question and answer session with Mark Zuckerberg, Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley asked the Meta CEO if he has personally compensated any of the victims and their families for what they have been through.
“I don't think so,” Zuckerberg replied.
“There's families of victims here,” Hawley said. “Would you like to apologize to them?”
Zuckerberg stood, turned away from his microphone and the senators, and directly addressed the parents in the gallery.
“I’m sorry for everything you have all been through. No one should go through the things that your families have suffered,” he said, adding that Meta continues to invest and work on “industrywide efforts” to protect children.
But time and time again, children’s advocates and parents have stressed that none of the companies are doing enough.
One of the parents who attended the hearing was Neveen Radwan, whose teenage daughter got sucked in to a “black hole of dangerous content” on TikTok and Instagram after she started looking at videos on healthy eating and exercise at the onset of the COVID lockdowns. She developed anorexia within a few months and nearly died, Radwan recalled.
“Nothing that was said today was different than what we expected,” Radwan said. “It was a lot of promises and a lot of, quite honestly, a lot of talk without them really saying anything. The apology that he made, while it was appreciated, it was a little bit too little, too late, of course.”
But Radwan, whose daughter is now 19 and in college, said she felt a “significant shift” in the energy as she sat through the hearing, listening to the senators grill the social media CEOs in tense exchanges.
“The energy in the room was, very, very palpable. Just by our presence there, I think it was very noticeable how our presence was affecting the senators,” she said.
Hawley continued to press Zuckerberg, asking if he'd take personal responsibility for the harms his company has caused. Zuckerberg stayed on message and repeated that Meta's job is to “build industry-leading tools” and empower parents.
“To make money,” Hawley cut in.
Israeli defense minister says war on Hamas will last months as US envoy discusses timetable
South Carolina Sen. Lindsay Graham, the top Republican on the Judiciary panel, echoed Durbin's sentiments and said he's prepared to work with Democrats to solve the issue.
“After years of working on this issue with you and others, I’ve come to conclude the following: Social media companies as they’re currently designed and operate are dangerous products," Graham said.
The executives touted existing safety tools on their platforms and the work they’ve done with nonprofits and law enforcement to protect minors.
Snapchat broke ranks ahead of the hearing and is backing a federal bill that would create a legal liability for apps and social platforms that recommend harmful content to minors. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel reiterated the company’s support on Wednesday and asked the industry to back the bill.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said the company is vigilant about enforcing its policy barring children under 13 from using the app. CEO Linda Yaccarino said X, formerly Twitter, doesn’t cater to children.
“We do not have a line of business dedicated to children,” Yaccarino said. She said the company will also support Stop CSAM Act, a federal bill that makes it easier for victims of child exploitation to sue tech companies.
Yet child health advocates say social media companies have failed repeatedly to protect minors.
Profits should not be the primary concern when companies are faced with safety and privacy decisions, said Zamaan Qureshi, co-chair of Design It For Us, a youth-led coalition advocating for safer social media. “These companies have had opportunities to do this before they failed to do that. So independent regulation needs to step in.”
Republican and Democratic senators came together in a rare show of agreement throughout the hearing, though it’s not yet clear if this will be enough to pass legislation such as the Kids Online Safety Act, proposed in 2022 by Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee.
“There is pretty clearly a bipartisan consensus that the status quo isn’t working," said New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, a Democrat. “When it comes to how these companies have failed to prioritize the safety of children, there’s clearly a sense of frustration on both sides of the aisle.”
Meta is being sued by dozens of states that say it deliberately designs features on Instagram and Facebook that addict children to its platforms. New Mexico filed a separate lawsuit saying the company has failed to protect them from online predators.
New internal emails between Meta executives released by Blumenthal’s office show Nick Clegg, the company's president of global affairs, and others asking Zuckerberg to hire more people to strengthen "wellbeing across the company” as concerns grew about effects on youth mental health.
“From a policy perspective, this work has become increasingly urgent over recent months. Politicians in the U.S., U.K., E.U. and Australia are publicly and privately expressing concerns about the impact of our products on young people’s mental health,” Clegg wrote in an August 2021 email.
The emails released by Blumenthal’s office don’t appear to include a response, if there was any, from Zuckerberg. In September 2021, The Wall Street Journal released the Facebook Files, its report based on internal documents from whistleblower Frances Haugen, who later testified before the Senate. Clegg followed up on the August email in November with a scaled-down proposal but it does not appear that anything was approved.
“I’ve spoken to many of the parents at the hearing. The harm their children experienced, all that loss of innocent life, is eminently preventable. When Mark says ‘Our job is building the best tools we can,’ that is just not true,” said Arturo Béjar, a former engineering director at the social media giant known for his expertise in curbing online harassment who recently testified before Congress about child safety on Meta’s platforms. “They know how much harm teens are experiencing, yet they won’t commit to reducing it, and most importantly to be transparent about it. They have the infrastructure to do it, the research, the people, it is a matter of prioritization.”
Béjar said the emails and Zuckerberg's testimony show that Meta and its CEO “do not care about the harm teens experience” on their platforms.
“Nick Clegg writes about profound gaps with addiction, self-harm, bullying and harassment to Mark. Mark did not respond, and those gaps are unaddressed today. Clegg asked for 84 engineers of 30,000,” Béjar said. “Children are not his priority.”
Read more: Facebook parent Meta hit with record fine for transferring European user data to US
150 people are killed in Gaza in 24 hours, Health Ministry says
Gaza’s Health Ministry says 150 people have been killed in the territory in the last 24 hours and an additional 313 were wounded as Israeli forces continue to battle militants, even in the northern part of the territory.
The north, where entire neighborhoods have been flattened, was the initial target of Israel's ground offensive in late October.
Israel's military said Wednesday that its forces killed more than 15 Hamas militants in northern Gaza over the past day and targeted militant infrastructure in a school.
Israel military operation destroys a Gaza cemetery. Israel says Hamas used the site to hide a tunnel
The latest deaths bring the Palestinian death toll from Israel’s offensive to 26,900, according to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry. It does not distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths but says most of those killed were women and children.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres reiterated his call for a cease-fire in Gaza.
Fighting across Gaza as UN aid agency faces more cuts
Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel that sparked the war killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and about 250 people were taken hostage, according to Israeli authorities.
Israeli forces dressed as civilian women and medics kill 3 suspected militants in West Bank hospital
Israeli forces disguised as civilian women and medics stormed a hospital Tuesday in the occupied West Bank, killing three Palestinian “militants” in a dramatic raid.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meanwhile ruled out a military withdrawal from Gaza or the release of thousands of jailed militants — Hamas' main two demands for any cease-fire — casting doubt on the latest efforts to end a war that has destabilized the broader Middle East.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said Israeli forces opened fire inside the Ibn Sina Hospital in the West Bank town of Jenin. A hospital spokesperson said there was no exchange of fire, indicating it was a targeted killing.
Israel's military said the militants were using the hospital as a hideout, without providing evidence. It alleged that one of those targeted had transferred weapons and ammunition to others for a planned attack, purportedly inspired by Hamas' Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Israel military operation destroys a Gaza cemetery. Israel says Hamas used the site to hide a tunnel
Security camera footage from the hospital shows about a dozen undercover forces, most of them armed, wearing Muslim headscarves, hospital scrubs or white doctor’s coats. One carried a rifle in one arm and a folded wheelchair in the other.
NETANYAHU REJECTS HAMAS' KEY DEMANDSNetanyahu, speaking at an event elsewhere in the West Bank, denied reports of a possible cease-fire deal to end the war in Gaza and repeated his vow to keep fighting until “absolute victory” over Hamas.
“We will not end this war without achieving all of our goals,” said Netanyahu, who is under mounting pressure from families of the hostages and the wider public to reach a deal. “We will not withdraw the Israeli military from the Gaza Strip and we will not release thousands of terrorists,” he said.
On Tuesday, Hamas’ top political leader Ismail Haniyeh said the group was studying the latest terms for a deal, but that the priority was the “full withdrawal” of Israeli forces from Gaza and that any agreement should lead to a long-term cease-fire.
He said Hamas’ leadership had been invited to Cairo to continue talks. The militant group, which has reached lopsided exchange deals with Israel in the past, is expected to demand the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners — including high-profile militants — in exchange for the remaining hostages.
Israel notes 'significant gaps' after cease-fire talks with US, Qatar, Egypt but says constructive
Qatar and Egypt, which mediate with Hamas, have held talks with Israel and the United States in recent days. U.S. officials said negotiators had made progress toward a deal, including the phased release of the remaining hostages over a two-month period and the entry of more humanitarian aid into Gaza.
The war in Gaza began when hundreds of Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting about 250 others. Over 100 were released during a weeklong cease-fire in November in exchange for 240 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
Israel's offensive has killed more than 26,700 people in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory. The ministry count does not distinguish between fighters and civilians, but it says about two-thirds of the dead are women and minors.
A strike on a residential building in the central town of Deir al-Balah on Tuesday killed 11 people, including four children, according to Associated Press reporters who saw the bodies at a hospital.
The war has leveled vast swaths of the tiny coastal enclave, displaced 85% of its population, and pushed a quarter of residents to starvation.
HOSPITALS HAVE BECOME BATTLEGROUNDS
Israel has come under heavy criticism for its raids on hospitals in Gaza, which have treated tens of thousands of Palestinians wounded in the war and provided critical shelter for displaced people.
Gaza’s health care system, which was already feeble before the war, is on the verge of collapse, buckling under the scores of patients as well as a lack of fuel and medical necessities because of Israeli restrictions and fighting in and near the facilities.
Israel says militants use hospitals as cover. The military says it has found underground tunnels in the vicinity of hospitals and located weapons and vehicles used in the Oct. 7 attack on hospital grounds.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said Israeli forces raided the Al-Amal Hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis on Tuesday, where about 7,000 displaced people were sheltering.
The rescue service said Israeli tanks lined up outside the hospital were firing live ammunition and smoke grenades at the people inside. Raed al-Nims, a spokesperson for the aid group, said everyone was ordered to evacuate.
The Israeli military said without elaborating that its forces were operating in the area of the hospital but not inside it.
WEST BANK CRACKDOWNViolence in the West Bank has also surged since Oct. 7, as Israel has cracked down on suspected militants, killing more than 380 Palestinians, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Most were killed in confrontations with Israeli forces during arrest raids or violent protests.
The military said that in Tuesday's hospital raid, forces killed Mohammed Jalamneh, 27, who it said was planning an imminent attack. The two other men killed, brothers Basel and Mohammed Ghazawi, were hiding inside the hospital and were involved in attacks, the military said.
The army statement said Jalamneh was armed with a pistol but made no mention of an exchange of fire.
Hamas claimed the three men as members, calling the operation “a cowardly assassination.”
Hospital spokesperson Tawfiq al-Shobaki said there was no exchange of fire, and that Basel Ghazawi had been a patient since October, with partial paralysis.
“What happened is a precedent,” he said. “There was never an assassination inside a hospital. There were arrests and assaults, but not an assassination.”
Tuesday's raid took place in the West Bank town of Jenin, long a bastion of armed struggle against Israel and the frequent target of Israeli raids, even before the war began.
Israel captured the West Bank, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war.
Israel withdrew troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005, but imposed a stifling blockade on the territory, along with Egypt, when Hamas came to power in a violent takeover in 2007. It maintains an open-ended occupation of the West Bank, where more than half a million Israelis now live in settlements.
The Palestinians claim these territories as part of their future independent state, hopes for which have increasingly dimmed since the war began.