Israeli strike on UNRWA-run school kills 30

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EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell condemned the "bloodbath" Saturday in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights after a rocket hit a football pitch and killed at least a dozen youngsters, calling for an independent probe.

"Shocking images from the soccer field in the Druze town of Majdal Shams. I strongly condemn this bloodbath. We need an independent international investigation into this unacceptable incident. We urge all parties to exercise utmost restraint and avoid further escalation," Borrell said in a post on X.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that Hezbollah "will pay a heavy price" after accusing the group for being behind rocket fire that Israeli authorities said killed 12 people in the occupied Golan Heights.

"Israel will not let this murderous attack go unanswered and Hezbollah will pay a heavy price for it, a price it has not paid before," Netanyahu told a local community leader, according to a statement issued by the premier's office.

The US says it is "highly concerned" that the Golan attack could lead to an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah, Axios said citing US officials.

The Lebanese government condemned Saturday "all acts of violence and aggression against civilians", after Israeli authorities reported at least 10 killed in the annexed Golan Heights by rocket fire they blamed on Hezbollah.

"Targeting civilians is a flagrant violation of international law and goes against the principles of humanity," a government statement said, calling "for an immediate cessation of hostilities" after months of cross-border exchanges between Hezbollah and Israeli forces.

Saturday's strike on the Golan was the "deadliest attack on Israeli civilians since October 7," the Israeli army said.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Israel was approaching an all-out war against Hezbollah and Lebanon after a rocket attack on a football ground in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights killed ten people on Saturday, Axios reported.

"The Hezbollah attack today crossed all red lines, and the response will be accordingly. We are approaching the moment of an all-out war against Hezbollah and Lebanon," Katz told Axios.

The Iran-backed Lebanese group has denied any role in the attack.

The commander of the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL) says he is in touch with Lebanese and Israeli authorities after the deadly strike on Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, seeking to maintain calm.

An Israeli rescue official says at least 10 people were killed in a rocket strike on Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan.

It is the deadliest attack since the start of cross-border fighting with Hezbollah, which has denied any role in the strike.

Hezbollah has denied firing a rocket that killed at least nine people, including children, in Majdal Shams in the Israeli-annexed Golan.

The Israeli military however has blamed the group for being behind the attack on the football pitch.

At least nine people, including children, were killed in a rocket attack on a football ground in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday, Israeli Channel 13 reported.

The Israeli emergency service said earlier that nine people were critically wounded by a rocket fired from Lebanon that hit a village football pitch in the Druze village of Majdal Shams. A medic described great destruction and fire at the scene.

The attack on the soccer pitch followed an Israeli strike in Lebanon that killed four militants on Saturday. Two security sources in Lebanon said the four fighters killed in the Israeli strike on Kfarkila in southern Lebanon were members of different armed groups, with at least one of them belonging to Hezbollah.

Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon on Saturday killed three Hezbollah members, according to the Lebanese militant group, which retaliated by launching a rocket attack on the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, wounding several people.

Israel’s Magen David Adom paramedic service initially reported 11 people wounded, five critically, while the remaining six suffered severe injuries.

Hezbollah said in a statement the attack, which saw its militants firing Katyusha rockets at an Israeli army post in the Golan Heights, was in response to Israeli airstrikes on villages in south Lebanon.

The group said earlier that three of its members were killed on Saturday without specifying where. Israel’s military said its air force targeted a Hezbollah arms depot on the border village of Kfar Kila, adding that militants were inside at the time.

EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell on Saturday called for a "political solution" to end the "madness" in Gaza after the Hamas-run territory's health ministry said an Israeli strike on a school had killed 30 people.

"Ceasefire has to happen now. International Humanitarian Law has to be respected. Humanitarian assistance to civilians needs to be delivered at scale. Only a political solution will end this madness," Borrell said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

In another post, he said: "Yet another attack on a school used as a shelter for internal displaced people in Khan Younis... At the same time an already very fragile population is asked to relocate again and again, with no end in sight".

The latest strike, which Israel said targeted "terrorists", was at least the eighth time since 6 July that a school had been hit, leaving a total of more than 100 people dead, based on figures given by the health ministry and a hospital source.

Yet another attack on a school used as a shelter for internal displaced people in Khan Younis. Reports say at least 30 killed, 100 injured including many children

At the same time an already very fragile population is asked to relocate again and again, with no end in sight. 1/2 https://t.co/SMOopmH4uR

— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) July 27, 2024

Israel delivered its updated proposal for a Gaza captive and ceasefire deal to the United States on Saturday, Axios reported, citing an Israeli senior official and two other sources with knowledge of the issue.

"The proposal was delivered ahead of a meeting tomorrow in Rome between Mossad director, David Barnea, CIA director Bill Burns, the Prime Minister of Qatar and the head of Egyptian intelligence to discuss the hostage deal," Axios reporter Barak Ravid revealed on X.

(Reuters)

Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris on Saturday accused Israel of "unconscionable violence" after the health ministry in Gaza said an Israeli airstrike on a school had killed 30 people.

"This latest attack on a school by the Israeli military is a further demonstration of brutal, unconscionable violence," Harris said in a statement.

"Targeting an area populated with displaced families is inhumane and despicable," he added.

Israel said Saturday it targeted "terrorists" in the strike -- at least the eighth time since 6 July that a school has been hit by its forces.

Israeli settlers attacked the town of Hizma, northeast of occupied Jerusalem. Wafa correspondent reported settlers vandalised property, causing damage.

Settlers also stormed the Kharaba area on the eastern outskirts of the town, damaging homes and properties, uprooting trees and firing live ammunition.

While in the village of Burqa, east of Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, Israeli settler militias opened gunfire on civilians.

Multiple people have been injured in southern Lebanon as Israeli airstrikes target several towns.

Wafa reports Israeli warplanes and drones caused injuries at Kafr Kila and Odaisseh and shelled ays al-Jabal, al-Jabbeen, and al-Wazzani.

Lebanon's Hezbollah and Israel have been engaging in cross-border fire since Israel's war on Gaza on 7 October.

Lebanon's Hezbollah revealed it carried out an air attack against the Israeli army in the Yiftah settlement on the eastern side of the Lebanon-Israel border.

Writing on Telegram, the group said its drone attack has "confirmed casualties".

At least one Palestinian was killed, and others, including a paramedic, were injured after an Israeli drone strike targeted the Balata refugee camp north of the occupied West Bank.

BREAKING: At least one Palestinian killed and others injured, including a paramedic, in an Israeli drone strike in Balata refugee camp, north of the occupied West Bank, according to medical sources. pic.twitter.com/g00hJV7etT

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) July 27, 2024

Protesters in Germany are marching through the streets of Kiel in solidarity with the people of Gaza and condemn Israel's war on Gaza.

Marchers can be seen waving the Palestine flag and chanting for the people of Palestine.

Pro-#Palestine protesters are marching through the streets of Kiel, #Germany, to express solidarity with #Gaza and condemn the ongoing #Israeli genocide.#GazaGenocide‌ #IsraeliNewNazism #IsraeliWarCrimes #IsraeliButchers #IsraeliApartheid #IsraeliCriminalMassacres pic.twitter.com/NcTe6R96nm

— ACT 4 PALESTINE 🇵🇸 (@Act4pal1) July 27, 2024

Nearly 200 members of the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) have been killed in the almost ten months of Israel's war on Gaza.

Philippe Lazzarini said on X: "These are not numbers, these are our colleagues and our friends. They are teachers, doctors, nurses, engineers, support staff, technicians who spent their life supporting the community," adding that many of these members were killed with their families or on the line of duty.

"This is by far the largest loss of personnel killed in a single conflict or natural disaster since the creation of the United Nations – a reality the world must never accept," he added.

Lazzarini also echoed the call of the UN Secretary-General for full accountability for every one of these deaths

#Gaza
Ibtihal, an @UNRWA teacher was killed last week with her four-month-old baby in a place where she thought she would be safe.

When the war in #Gaza started nearly 10 months ago, no one thought we will reach this grim milestone.
Nearly 200 @UNRWA team members have been…

— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) July 27, 2024

Hamas has condemned Israel's attack on a UNRWA-run school housing displaced civilians in Deir el-Balah. 

"The occupation continues to commit massacres against civilians without any deterrence and with criminal cover provided by the American administration," it said in a statement.

"We call on the international community and the United Nations to break the policy of silence and take steps to force the occupation to stop its crimes."

Gaza's civil defence agency said on Saturday that Israel's military operation in the area of Khan Younis city has killed around 170 people and wounded hundreds since it began on Monday.

"Since the beginning of the Israeli military operation in the Khan Yunis area, we are talking of approximately 170 martyrs and hundreds of wounded," the agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

At least 39,258 Palestinians have been killed, and over 90,589 have been injured since 7 October - the Gaza Health Ministry confirms. 

At least 30 Palestinians have now died, with over 100 injured after an Israeli airstrike targeted a UNRWA-run school sheltering displaced people in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip

At least 18 Palestinians were killed on Saturday in an Israeli attack on a UNRWA-run school housing displaced people west of Gaza's Deir al-Balah, Gaza's Civil Defence service said. 

Israeli strikes fired three missiles at the hospital. Medical teams at Al-Aqsa Hospital say they have received dozens of victims, martyrs and wounded.

"We condemn in the strongest terms the Israeli occupation's horrific massacre against a field hospital providing medical services to dozens of patients and wounded, all of whom were civilians," the statement reads.

"We hold the Israeli occupation and the US administration fully responsible for the continuation of these massacres against the displaced people and civilians."

A child has died from malnutrition and dehydration at Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza - Al Jazeera reports.

The Gaza Health Ministry revealed in April that 28 children had died of malnutrition and dehydration at hospitals in northern Gaza.

Foreign ministers of the Southeast Asian regional bloc ASEAN on Saturday condemned violence against civilians in military-ruled Myanmar and urged all parties to end hostilities and follow an agreed peace plan.

In a joint communique issued two days after their closed-doors retreat in Laos, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations also welcomed unspecified practical measures to reduce tension in the South China Sea and prevent accidents and miscalculations.

It described North Korea's missile tests as worrisome developments and urged peaceful resolutions to the wars in Ukraine as well as Gaza, expressing concern over the dire humanitarian situation and "alarming casualties" there.

(Reuters)

Five Palestinians were detained in different incidents north of the occupied West Bank in Kafr Ra'i.

Sources say Israeli militants stormed the town and detained three Palestinians after raiding their homes, and two brothers were arrested in the town. 

Over 7,000 Palestinians have been arrested in the occupied West Bank.

Five Palestinians were killed, and many were injured after an Israeli airstrike targeted north Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip.

Local sources told Wafa that airstrikes targeted a home, and emergency services and medical teams are working to provide aid and assess the extent of the damage.

The Israeli military told Palestinians to temporarily evacuate southern neighbourhoods of Gaza's Khan Younis region so it could "forcefully operate" there, telling them to relocate to a humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi, a statement from the military said on Saturday.

On Friday, the military claimed its troops fought Palestinian fighters in Khan Younis, a city in the south of the enclave, and destroyed tunnels and other infrastructure as they sought to suppress small militant units that have continued to hit troops with mortar fire.

(Reuters)

Four Palestinians have been killed after an Israeli airstrike targeted an apartment in Abasan al-Kabira, east of Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip.

Airstrikes also targeted land in the Armida area, east of Bani Suhaila and east of Khan Yunis.