GAZA: Hamas on Saturday denounced as “barbaric” overnight strikes it said damaged a Gaza children’s hospital, while Israel’s army said it was responding to rocket fire from the enclave.
The Israeli army said it struck three Hamas targets, including a rocket manufacturing site, underground infrastructure and a military post, after two rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip.
But Gaza’s ruling Hamas in a statement said a “barbaric” Israeli strike had damaged a children’s hospital and a center for people with special needs.
Medical sources in Gaza said the strikes “lightly wounded” two civilians, including a child.
The Israeli army, however, insisted on Saturday afternoon that it did not hit the hospital.
“Secondary explosions, which were identified from the strike on the Hamas rocket manufacturing site, are suspected of causing the damage to the nearby located hospital,” an army statement said.
Hamas “deliberately places military targets at the heart of densely populated areas,” while the Israeli army “takes all possible precautions to avoid harming civilians and civilian buildings,” the statement added.
Sirens had sounded on Friday night in the southern port city of Ashkelon and the area surrounding the Gaza Strip, according to an earlier army statement.
“Two rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip toward Israeli territory,” the statement said, adding that they were intercepted by the Iron Dome Aerial Defense System.
There were no reports of damage as a result of the interceptions.
Israeli emergency medical services said several people were treated for shock.
The latest fire from the Palestinian enclave came over a month after one rocket was launched from the coastal strip into Israel.
Islamist group Hamas, which Israel considers a terrorist organization, seized control of Gaza from rival Palestinian movement Fatah in 2007 in a near civil war.
Since then, Hamas has fought three devastating wars with Israel in the territory, where about two million Palestinians live.
Israel has since maintained a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip to prevent Hamas from arming.
Hamas says ‘barbaric’ Israeli strike damaged children’s hospital
https://arab.news/mp3bx
Hamas says ‘barbaric’ Israeli strike damaged children’s hospital
- The Israeli army said it struck three Hamas targets
- Medical sources in Gaza said the strikes “lightly wounded” two civilians
In major policy shift on Syria, UN Security Council lifts sanctions on Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham
- Move reflects evolving Syrian political landscape in the post-Assad era, ending a global freeze on assets, travel ban and arms embargo
NEW YORK CITY: The UN Security Council on Friday removed Al-Nusra Front, the militant group that evolved into Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, from its so-called Daesh and Al-Qaeda Sanctions List.
The move signals a major shift in international policy toward Syria’s evolving political landscape in the post-Assad era, and ends a global freeze on assets, travel ban and arms embargo that have been imposed on the group since 2014.
Al-Nusra Front and Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham were led by Ahmad Al-Sharaa, formerly Abu Mohammed Al-Julani, who is now Syria’s president and was a leading figure in the offensive that toppled the Assad regime.
The consensus decision by the Security Council’s sanctions committee was announced by the UK, which holds the presidency of the Security Council this month and was acting in the absence of the chair of the committee. It followed a request by the new Syrian authorities to delist “Al-Nusrah Front for the People of the Levant.”
The decision means measures that were applied to Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham under Security Council Resolution 2734, adopted in 2024, no longer apply. As a result, UN member states are notrequired to freeze the group’s funds, restrict the movement of its representatives, or block the supply or transfer of arms and related materiel.
Al-Nusra Front was added to the sanctions list for its ties to Al-Qaeda and involvement in the financing and execution of militant activities during the war in Syria. The UN initially continued to treat the group’s successor organization, Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, as a listed alias.
Al-Sharaa has said the group severed all prior transnational jihadist links and is now solely focused on local Syrian matters.
