Deadly Israeli strike in Gaza amid anger over UN agency ban

GAZA CITY - An Israeli air strike on a single residential block killed nearly 100 people on Tuesday, Gaza's civil defence agency said, leaving rescuers scrambling for survivors as Israel pursued its offensives in Gaza and Lebanon.

Israel's key ally and backer the United States called the strike, which killed a large number of children, "horrifying".

The bombing came with Israel facing an international backlash after its parliament voted overwhelmingly to ban UNRWA, the main United Nations aid agency working with Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Palestinian rescuers and desperate family members gathered around the demolished five-storey block in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza.

A charred body with long hair hung from an upper-storey window and bodies in blankets were lined up in the street as stunned relatives sought to identify loved ones.

"The number of martyrs in the massacre of the Abu Nasr family home in Beit Lahia has risen to 93 martyrs, and about 40 are still missing under the rubble," Gaza civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

Israel's military said it was "looking into the reports" of the strike. It earlier reported its forces had killed 40 Hamas fighters, and the loss of four soldiers in Gaza.

‘WOMEN AND CHILDREN'

"The explosion happened at night, and I first thought it was shelling, but when I went out after sunrise I saw people pulling bodies, limbs and the wounded from under the rubble," said Rabie al-Shandagly, 30.

"Most of the victims are women and children, and people are trying to save the injured, but there are no hospitals or proper medical care," he told AFP.

Washington expressed deep concern.

"This was a horrifying incident with a horrifying result," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.

"We have reached out to the government of Israel to ask what happened here."

Israel's military has been conducting a sweeping air and ground assault in northern Gaza since 6 October - particularly around Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun - saying it aims to prevent Hamas regrouping.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled the area, more than 12 months into the war sparked by Hamas militants launching a bloody cross-border assault into Israel on 7 October last year.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 43,061 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable, triggering warnings of a humanitarian catastrophe.

International concerns mounted after the Israeli parliament voted overwhelmingly to ban UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

Israel strictly controls all humanitarian aid shipments into Gaza, and UNRWA has provided essential aid, schooling and healthcare across the Palestinian territories and in the diaspora for more than seven decades.

'DEVASTATING CONSEQUENCES'

"There is a deep connection between the terrorist organisation [Hamas] and UNRWA, and Israel cannot put up with it," lawmaker Yuli Edelstein said in parliament as he presented the proposal.

But several of Israel's Western allies including the United States voiced deep disquiet.

Miller reiterated a warning to Israel that Washington could withhold military assistance without improvements in humanitarian aid into Gaza.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said London was "gravely concerned" and the French foreign ministry said it "very strongly regrets" the law.

Germany, a staunch defender of Israel's security, warned it would "effectively make UNRWA's work in Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem impossible".

UN chief Antonio Guterres said the Israeli law could have "devastating consequences" if implemented.

In a letter he sent to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, seen by AFP, Guterres argued that under international law an occupying power must implement mechanisms for aiding the people living in that occupied territory.

"If Israel is not in a position to meet such needs, it has an obligation to allow and facilitate the activities of the United Nations," Guterres wrote.

Israel's neighbour Jordan, which also hosts UNRWA offices, condemned the ban as a "continuation of Israel's frantic efforts to assassinate the UN agency politically".

Netanyahu said on social media that Israel was "ready" to continue providing aid to Gaza "in a way that does not threaten Israel's security".

HEZBOLLAH NAMES NEW LEADER

During the 7 October attack, Palestinian militants seized 251 hostages, including soldiers and civilians, of whom 97 are still in Gaza. The Israeli military says 34 of these are dead.

The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

In Lebanon, Israeli tanks entered the outskirts of the village of Khiam, their deepest incursion yet in the ground operation they launched against Hezbollah last month, state media reported.

Late Tuesday, the health ministry said an Israeli strike on Sarafand in south Lebanon killed at least eight people.

It also reported six dead in an earlier strike on Haret Saida near the main southern city of Sidon.

Hezbollah, meanwhile, announced it has chosen deputy head Naim Qassem to succeed Hassan Nasrallah as leader after his death in an Israeli strike on south Beirut last month.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant posted on X that Qassem was a "temporary appointment" who would not last for long. In a separate post in Hebrew, he added that the "countdown has begun".

Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian's website said Qassem's appointment would "strengthen the will of the resistance".

Separately, the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, said its southern Lebanon headquarters had been hit by a rocket fired "likely by Hezbollah or an affiliated group". Austria said eight of its soldiers were hurt.

According to an AFP tally based on official figures, at least 1,750 people have been killed in Lebanon since 23 September, when the fighting escalated as Israel launched an air and ground offensive against Hezbollah, which had been carrying out rocket attacks in support of Hamas.