Middle East: US condemns 'horrifying' Israeli strike on Gaza

The United States has condemned Israeli strikes on the city of Beit Lahiya in Gaza on Tuesday, saying it was "deeply concerned by the loss of civilian life" following reports that many children were killed in the bombing.

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

At least 93 people were killed or missing due to the attack, according to Palestinian medics.

Washington reached out to the Israeli government and "made clear we want to know exactly what happened," Miller said.

One of the questions posed by the US was "how you could have a result that produces, according to reports, dozens of children dead, and we don't yet know the answer to that question," according Miller.

The State Department spokesperson reiterated calls for a cease-fire in Gaza now that Israel "has decimated Hamas' military capabilities."

"It is critically important... that Israel be mindful of achieving a larger strategic success, and that (Israel) be mindful of finding a way to end this campaign in a way that brings the hostages home, in a way that ensures their security,and not just continuing in an endless, perpetual conflict," Miller said.

An Israeli human rights lawyer has condemned the Israeli government for banning the UN's aid agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, on Monday.

"When Israel denies the UN agency that is responsible for providing for these refugees and their descendants, it has the obligation to provide [aid] itself," Michael Sfard told DW's Emily Gordine. 

"The laws that were passed yesterday in the Israeli parliament were passed without establishing any substitute for UNRWA. And that, of course, that would lead to a humanitarian catastrophe."

Sfard also accused Germany of being "a central actor" that allows Israel to evade consequences of such moves internationally.

"Germany is probably the number one enabler, together with America, of course, of Israeli violations of international law," he said.

"If any other country would do it, let's say a country in Africa, I'm sure Germany would be in the top of the countries that would demand to put such pressure on this country that it will backtrack this horrendous violation, not only of international conventions and law, but also of the rights of innocent people," Sfard added.

"If Germany of all nations does not apply the same standards to Israel, it damages the whole notion of international law."

Norway said it will put forward a UN General Assembly resolution asking the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to clarify Israel's responsibility to provide aid to Palestinians.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said his government is "requesting that the ICJ pronounces on Israel's obligations to facilitate humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian population, delivered by international organizations, including the UN, and states."

The move is a response to Israel's decision on Monday to ban the the UN's aid agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, from operating in its territory.

"The Israeli government's policy is making it increasingly difficult for Palestinians to access life-saving assistance and basic services such as healthcare and education," Norway's Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide added.

The United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon says a rocket that hit its headquarters in the country's south was likely linked to Hezbollah.

Some peacekeepers were left with minor injuries from the strike.

"A rocket hit UNIFIL's headquarters in Naqoura, setting a vehicle workshop on fire," the force said in a statement. 

It added that the rocket "was fired from north of UNIFIL's headquarters, likely by Hezbollah or an affiliated group."

Austria's Defense Ministry says a rocket attack has injured eight of its soldiers with a UN peacekeeping contingent in southern Lebanon.

The ministry condemned the attack but added that it was "currently not possible to say where the attack came from."

"Eight Austrian army soldiers from the UNIFIL contingent [United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon] were injured today at 12:58 p.m. [1058 GMT] by a rocket hit in Camp Naqoura; none of them seriously," a statement said.

The injuries were "minor and superficial," the statement added, with none of the soldiers, who are members of a repair platoon, needing emergency medical attention.

Israeli emergency services and the military say a barrage of projectiles fired from Lebanon into northern Israel has killed at least one person in the town of Maalot.

"We saw an unconscious male with no pulse and no breathing... but his injury was critical and we had to pronounce him deceased," emergency service provider Magen Adam David said after sirens were activated in the town.

The Israeli military said separately that some 50 projectiles had been identified crossing from Lebanon into the Upper and Western Galilee regions on Tuesday morning.

The rockets came as Israel's military continued to strike targets in southern Lebanon.

A tally by the AFP news agency says at least 1,700 people have been killed in Lebanon since September 23, when Israel launched a full air and ground offensive against Hezbollah. 

Hezbollah says it is launching rockets at Israel to support of Hamas.

Israeli official figures say at least 63 people have been killed on the Israeli side, including 12 in the Israel-annexed Golan Heights.

The International Organization for Migration's director-general Amy Pope says the United Nations body is not capable of fully filling a gap left by UNRWA, describing the agency as "absolutely essential."

"They provide, education. They provide health care. They provide some of the most basic needs, for people who have been living there for decades," Pope said of UNRWA. "That's not something that IOM does what IOM does well."

Pope said the IOM was able to assist with some ongoing humanitarian support, such as offering help to displaced people and providing shelter and hygiene kits.

"There's no way for IOM to step in to do what UNRWA has done. UNRWA is absolutely essential to the people of Gaza, and I don't want to leave anyone with the misimpression that IOM can play that role, because we cannot," she said.

Turkey has condemned a ban passed by the Israeli parliament on the UN relief agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) as a violation of international law.

"By targeting UNRWA, Israel aims to destroy the two-state solution and prevent the return of Palestine refugees to their homeland," the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

"It is the legal and moral obligation of the international community to take a strong stance against attempts to ban UNRWA, which was established by a UN General Assembly resolution," it said.

Turkey has pledged as chair of the UNRWA financing group to continue providing the agency with political and financial support.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says a drone that came down near the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon was launched from Yemen.

The statement was made after experts examined fragments of the drone.

It also said Israeli air defenses had intercepted another drone launched towards Western Galilee from Lebanon.

That drone landed in open ground in Nahariya on the coast near the border with Lebanon. Fragments were identified in the area.

Israel is fighting on a northern front against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia, considered a terrorist organization by the US, Germany and several Sunni Arab countries. Iran-supported Houthis in Yemen have also attacked Israel, saying they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Israel's year-long war in Gaza.

Jordan has said the Israeli parliament's decision to ban the UN agency for Palestinian refugees is a violation of international law and part of its bid to dismantle the organization.

The kingdom's foreign ministry said the vote was "part of the systematic targeting" of UNRWA and a "continuation of Israel's frantic efforts to assassinate the UN agency politically, in addition to its aggressive war on the Palestinian people."

Israel's decision to ban the relief agency UNRWA could result in the deaths of more children and represent a form of collective punishment for Gazans if fully implemented.

The agency, which employs thousands of people in Gaza, provides almost all of the territory's population with basic supplies, but it requires access through Israel.

"If UNRWA is unable to operate, it'll likely see the collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza," said UNICEF spokesperson James Elder, who has worked extensively in Gaza since the war began. "So a decision such as this suddenly means that a new way has been found to kill children."

Gaza's Hamas-run health authorities' data show that more than 13,300 children whose identities have been confirmed have been killed in the Gaza war. Many more are believed to have died of disease because of a collapsing medical system and food and water shortages.

Steffen Seibert,the German ambassador to Israel, said he was "very worried about the effects" of the Knesset vote to ban the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

"The humanitarian situation of displaced men, women and children in Gaza is already disastrous. These laws put them at even greater risk," Seibert wrote on social media site X. "Right now UNRWA is vital for bringing aid to them — and so much more is needed."

The new laws are expected to make the UN's relief work in Gaza and the Occupied West Bank virtually impossible.

Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah movement says it has chosen deputy leader Naim Qassem to succeed Hasan Nasrallah as its leader after he was killed in an Israeli strike on south Beirut last month.

"Hezbollah's [governing] Shura Council agreed to elect... Sheikh Naim Qassem as secretary general of Hezbollah," the Iran-backed group said more than a month after Nasrallah's killing. 

Hezbollah vowed that it would continue with Nasrallah's policies "until victory is achieved."

Iran-backed Hezbollah is considered a terrorist organization by the US, Germany and several Sunni Arab countries, while the EU lists its armed wing as a terrorist group.

An overnight Israeli air strike killed more than 55 people in a residential building in the northern district of Beit Lahia, according to Gaza's Hamas-run civil defense agency.

The rescuers in Gaza said another 17 are missing under the rubble.

"More than 55 people have been martyred and dozens more wounded are under the rubble of a five-storey residential building belonging to the Abu Nasr family that was hit by the Israeli occupation last night in Beit Lahia," agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said on Tuesday.

Many of the those killed included women and children, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

Israel did not comment about the air strikes immediately.

Around 100,000 people were marooned in Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun without medical or food supplies, according to the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service. 

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that an Israeli law that would ban the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA in Israel "could have devastating consequences for Palestine refugees in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which is unacceptable."

"In the midst of all the upheaval, UNRWA, more than ever, is indispensable. UNRWA, more than ever, is irreplaceable," UN Guterres said in a statement.

"There is no alternative to UNRWA," he added.

"The implementation of these laws would be detrimental for the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and for peace and security in the region as a whole. As I said before, UNRWA is indispensable."

Guterres said he would bring the matter to the attention of the 193-member UN General Assembly.

The Israeli parliament on Monday passed two laws threatening the aid work by UNRWA in war-torn Gaza.

The laws would ban UNRWA's operations in Israeli territories, lead to disasscoiation with it and deem it a terror organization.

The legislation, which will not be immediately implemented, is indicative of a new low for the already muddled realtionship between Israel and the UN.

The Knesset passed the bills with an overwhelming majority despite objections from the United States and warnings from the UN Security Council.

The UN agency is the main humanitarian aid provider in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli move could threaten its work in Gaza, given its reliance on Israeli border crossings to access the area. 

The Israeli government accuses UNRWA of being involved in the October 7 terror attack, claiming that the aid organization has been infiltrated by Hamas.

The allegations prompted several donor countries — including the US, the EU and Germany — to suspend contributions to UNRWA.

The UN launched an internal investigation into the allegations. In a statement published on August 5, 2024, it said that nine UNRWA employees had been dismissed due to possible involvement in the Hamas-led attacks against Israel on October 7, 2023.

Allegations against 10 other employees could not be substantiated.