Middle East latest: Rights group accuses Israel of genocidal acts in Gaza

Human Rights Watch on Thursday accused Israel of causing the deaths of thousands of Palestinians by systematically restricting and targeting Gaza’s water supply — in a campaign that amounts to “acts of genocide.”

The New York-based rights group is the latest among a growing number of critics to accuse Israel of genocidal acts in its war in Gaza. Israel vehemently denies the allegations, saying its war is directed at Hamas militants, not Gaza's civilians.

Israeli airstrikes slammed into two schools sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza City on Thursday, killing at least 13 people including five children, health officials said. Rescue workers said 30 people were also wounded. Israel said Hamas operated command centers inside the shelters, without providing evidence.

More than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed in 14 months of war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas militants. The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but has said more than half of the fatalities are women and children. The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas' October 2023 attack on southern Israel, which killed 1,200 people.

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Here’s the latest:

Medical aid group accuses Israel of systematic attacks on Gaza's health care system and restricting aid

NEW YORK — The medical aid group Doctors Without Borders released a report Thursday accusing Israel of systematically attacking Gaza’s health care system and restricting essential humanitarian assistance.

The group, which has worked in Gaza for more than 20 years, said its staff has been subjected to more than 40 attacks since the start of the war, including airstrikes, shelling and military incursions at health facilities. As of October, it said 19 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals were shut down and continual fighting prevented many residents from reaching those still functioning.

“Attacks on civilians, the dismantling of the healthcare system, the deprivation of food, water and supplies are a form of collective punishment inflicted by the Israeli authorities on the people of Gaza,” the report said. “This must stop now.”

Israel’s Foreign Ministry called the report “entirely false and misleading.” It said Israel does not target innocent health workers and tries to ensure delivery of aid, and charged the medical group with failing to acknowledge Hamas’ use of hospitals as bases “for terrorist activities and operations.”

Some of the allegations leveled Thursday were echoed in a report by Human Rights Watch, which accused Israel of a campaign in Gaza that amounted to “acts of genocide,” cutting the flow of water and electricity, destroying infrastructure and preventing the distribution of critical supplies.

Israel bombs 2 shelters in northern Gaza, killing at least 13 Palestinians

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israeli airstrikes hit two schools sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza City on Thursday, killing at least 13 people, including five children, health officials said.

Associate Press video showed a donkey cart carrying the headless body of a man from the scene after the strikes on the Shaaban al-Rais and Al-Karama schools in the city's in Daraj Tuffah district. At the Ahli Baptist Hospitals where casualties were taken, a dead child was wrapped in a white shroud and another lay next to him, his face covered.

Hospital officials confirmed a toll of 13 dead. Gaza’s Civil Defense said at least 30 people were wounded.

The Israeli army acknowledged in a statement that it struck the two schools, saying Hamas operated command centers inside them, without providing evidence. It said it took steps to mitigate the risk of civilian harm.

Tens of thousands of people are sheltering in Gaza City after being displaced by a monthslong Israeli offensive in heavily destroyed areas further north.

Blinken says the U.S. is hopeful for a Gaza ceasefire in final days of Biden administration

NEW YORK — Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the U.S. remains hopeful that a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal can be negotiated between Israel and Hamas before the Biden administration leaves office next month.

Blinken said negotiations between the parties are ongoing despite multiple false starts and failed previous efforts. But he would not predict if an agreement was likely.

“We are encouraged because this should happen, and it should happen because Hamas is at a point where the cavalry it thought might come to the rescue isn’t coming to the rescue, Hezbollah not coming to the rescue, Iran not coming to the rescue,” he said in an interview with MSNBC on Thursday.

Hamas “sought to have a wider war from day one” when it launched attacks in Israel last Oct. 7 but that has not come to pass, Blinken said. “In the absence of that, I think the pressure is on Hamas to finally get to ‘yes’. So, we should be able to get there, but look, I think we also have to be very realistic.”

He noted that CIA director William Burns and national security council official Brett McGurk are currently in the Middle East engaged in negotiations with Qatari, Egyptian and Turkish officials and that both he and national security adviser Jake Sullivan were also recently in the region.

“Everyone is pushing on this,” Blinken said. “We want to get it over the finish line. We want to get the hostages home. We want to get a ceasefire so that people can finally have relief in Gaza.”

Nearly 2,000 Syrian soldiers return from Iraq under a new amnesty program

BEIRUT — Nearly 2,000 former Syrian army soldiers who fled to Iraq have returned to Syria under an amnesty program, Iraq’s security forces said.

The Iraqi government has close ties with neighboring Iran, which was a primary backer of ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad. Baghdad is seeking to build ties with the new Syrian government, after jihadi-led rebels overthrew Assad last week.

On Thursday, more than 1,900 Syrian army personnel crossed back into Syria via the Qaim border crossing, and an additional 36 soldiers had through the Abu Kamal crossing the previous day.

These returns followed the soldiers' written pledges to abide by the amnesty issued by Syria’s current authorities, which grants clemency to former military personnel and transfers them to designated centers, according to a statement from the Security Media Cell, affiliated with Iraq’s security forces.

The statement also noted that weapons previously held by the Syrian army remain under the Iraqi Ministry of Defense’s custody and will be transferred to Syria’s new government once it is established.

More than 4,000 former Syrian army soldiers had fled into Iraq in the wake of Assad's overthrow, according to a local militia official in western Iraq.

Syria's new authorities have set up “reconciliation centers” nationwide where former soldiers must register their names, hand over their weapons if they had not already discarded them, and receive a “reconciliation ID” allowing them the right to move freely and safely in Syria for three months.

UN chief says Syria must not miss opportunity for a peaceful political transition

UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations chief says the Syrian people have a long-sought chance to start a peaceful and inclusive political transition leading to democratic elections — and “the opportunity cannot be missed.”

But Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Thursday that “if the ongoing situation is not managed carefully — by Syrians themselves, with the support of the international community — there is a real risk that progress could unravel.”

Guterres said the United Nations is mobilizing to facilitate a transition process and U.N. special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, was in Damascus this week urging a broad Syrian dialogue to chart a way forward which he hopes can start “as quickly as possible.”

While stability has returned to parts of Syria, he said, there are still significant hostilities in the north and a major threat from Islamic State group extremists in many parts of the country. He also said Israel must end its incursion into the demilitarized buffer zone between the two countries, which violates a 1974 Disengagement Agreement.

With more than 130,000 people missing in Syria, he announced the appointment of Karla Quintana, who led Mexico’s commission searching for tens of thousands of people who disappeared, to head of the Independent Institution on Missing Persons in Syria established by the U.N.

Human Rights Watch says Israel’s restriction of water supply in Gaza amounts to acts of genocide

NEW YORK — Human Rights Watch has accused Israel of causing the deaths of thousands of Palestinians by systematically restricting and targeting Gaza’s water supply in a campaign that amounted to “acts of genocide.” The rights group is the latest among a growing number of critics to accuse Israel of genocidal acts in its war in Gaza.

In Thursday’s report, HRW alleged that countless infants, children and adults have died from malnutrition, dehydration and illness as a result of actions by Israeli authorities over more than a year of war to deliberately cut the flow of water and electricity to Gaza, destroy infrastructure and prevent the distribution of critical supplies.

“As a state policy, these acts constitute a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population. Israeli officials are therefore committing the crime against humanity of extermination,” the New York-based group said.

The rights group said the “pattern of conduct” outlined in its report and statements from Israeli officials “may indicate” genocidal intent — but it did not come down definitively on one side. Under international law, proving intent is key in concluding whether the crime of genocide has been committed.

Israel vehemently denies the allegations, saying its war is directed at Hamas militants, not Gaza’s civilians.

“Human Rights Watch is once more spreading its blood libels in order to promote its anti-Israel propaganda,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry said. It claimed Israel has worked to facilitate the flow of water and humanitarian aid into Gaza throughout the war.

“Israel will continue to ensure humanitarian aid enters Gaza, in full compliance with international law,” the statement said.

US-backed force in Syria calls on northern Syrians to fight Turkish troops

DAMASCUS, Syria -- The main U.S.-backed force in Syria has called on residents of a northern town to carry weapons and fight Turkish troops and fighters they back, saying “resistance is the only way to victory.”

The statement by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces came a day after intense fighting between their fighters and Turkey-backed gunmen in the country’s northern province of Aleppo, mainly near the border town of Kobani and the Tishrin dam on the Euphrates river.

The SDF said despite U.S. efforts to reduce tension in the area, Turkish troops and fighters they back launched a wide offensive on the area on Wednesday on the area of the dam. It said SDF fighters repelled the attack.

Earlier this week, the SDF said U.S.-led mediation efforts have failed to reach a permanent truce in Syria’s north between the force’s fighters and Turkish-backed gunmen.

On Tuesday, the SDF suggested the demilitarizing of Kobani and placing the redistribution of security forces under U.S. supervision.

Kobani featured in international headlines a decade ago when it came under a monthslong siege by members of the Islamic State group. SDF fighters broke the siege in early 2015.

Israeli police detain 4 Israelis who crossed illegally into Lebanon

Israel police said Thursday that it detained four Israeli citizens who crossed into Lebanon illegally. The civilians were detained after police received a report from the Israeli army that it had apprehended them inside Lebanese territory.

The police said in a statement that the suspects were being interrogated, and officials will decide on the next steps depending on the findings.

On Wednesday, the Israeli army acknowledged that a group of Israeli settlers had briefly crossed the border into Lebanon earlier in the week before being removed by troops. The civilians involved in that border breach came from the Uri Tzafon movement, a group calling for Israeli settlement of southern Lebanon. The army called it a “serious incident” and said it was investigating.

Netanyahu says Israel is acting on behalf of the whole world by striking Houthis

JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel was acting “for the entire international community” by attacking the Houthi rebels in Yemen, following deadly Israeli strikes carried out on Yemen overnight.

“They are not only attacking us — they are attacking the entire world, attacking the international shipping and trade routes. Thus, when Israel acts against the Houthis, it acts for the entire international community,” said Netanyahu.

Early Thursday, Israel carried out two waves of airstrikes on ports and power plants in Yemen it said were being used by the Houthi rebels, who have fired over 200 drones and missiles at Israel since the start of the war Oct. 7, 2023.

The airstrikes killed at least nine people, according to the Houthi-controlled satellite channel al-Masirah, and came after a missile fired by the Houthis collapsed a school building in central Israel.

Netanyahu suggested that more Israeli strikes on the Iranian-backed militant group could be coming.

“After Hamas, Hezbollah and the Assad regime in Syria, the Houthis are almost the last remaining arm of Iran’s axis of evil,” he said. “They are learning and they will learn the hard way, that whoever harms Israel pays a very heavy price for it.”

Israel's defense minister orders military to complete Oct. 7 investigation by January

JERUSALEM — Israel’s defense minister said Thursday he has ordered the military to finish its investigation into what went wrong on Oct. 7, 2023 by January.

In a statement, defense minister Israel Katz said he would halt appointments for new generals until the military finishes its investigation into the failings of that day. Katz said he wanted to read the investigation and understand its findings before choosing new generals.

Hamas militants carried out the deadliest-ever attack on Israeli soil on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and dragging roughly 250 hostages to Gaza. The attack sparked an Israeli retaliation on Gaza that has killed over 45,000 Palestinians and laid waste to the majority of the territory.

The military has not yet released the full results of its internal investigation. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- who appointed Katz -- has cast off calls for a wider investigation, to much public outcry.

Iraq begins to return thousands of former Syrian soldiers

Baghdad — Iraqi authorities will begin Thursday to return thousands of former Syrian army soldiers who fled their country, officials said.

Brig. Gen. Muqdad Miri, spokesperson for the Iraqi Interior Ministry and the Security Media Cell, said the soldiers would be returned to Syria via the Al-Qaim border crossing after coordination with Syrian authorities.

A local militia official in western Iraq told the Associated Press earlier that more than 4,000 former Syrian army soldiers had crossed into Iraq after rebel forces in Syria reached Damascus and overthrew the government of Bashar Assad.

The official with the Anbar Tribal Mobilization Forces said the soldiers had turned over their weapons, ammunition and armored vehicles and would be housed in a camp.

The Iraqi government has close ties with Iran, which was formerly one of the primary backers of Assad’s government, but Baghdad has now sought to build ties with the new Syrian government.

The new authorities in Syria have set up “reconciliation centers” around the country where former soldiers come to register their names, hand over their weapons if they had not already discarded them, and receive a “reconciliation ID” allowing them the right to move freely and safely in Syria for three months.

6 Palestinians killed

in the West Bank by an Israeli airstrike and gunfire

JERUSALEM — An Israeli airstrike and gunfire killed six Palestinians in two refugee camps in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, Palestinian health officials said, in the latest violence to strike the territory.

An airstrike in the Tulkarem refugee camp, a bastion of Palestinian militancy in the northern West Bank, killed four people and wounded three others, the health officials said. Israel’s military claimed responsibility for the strike but did not say what it was targeting.

Earlier in the day, Israeli fire killed two people in Balata refugee camp, near the city of Nablus. One was an 80-year-old woman shot in the chest and leg, said health officials.

Both Hamas and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an armed offshoot of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party, claimed the second person killed, Qusai Sarouji, as a fighter.

Israel’s military said it exchanged fire with militants in the area while trying to apprehend a suspect and that “hits were identified.” It said it was aware of the reports that “uninvolved civilians present in the area were harmed in the exchange of fire.”

Over 800 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the Hamas attack Oct. 7, 2023 that kicked off the war in Gaza. Israel has carried out near-daily military raids in the West Bank that it says are aimed at preventing attacks on Israelis, which have also been on the rise.

Israel captured the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three territories for an independent state.

Israeli airstrike kills 5, injures 7 in central Gaza Strip

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — An Israeli airstrike hit a house in the central Gaza Strip, killing five people including a boy and two women and injuring seven others early Thursday.

Those killed and injured at the Maghazi refugee camp were transferred to Aqsa Hospital, where officials confirmed the number of fatalities. An Associated Press journalist counted the bodies.

“No place is safe. Neither the tents nor the houses nor any place in the Gaza Strip is safe. It is all targeted. When we go out, we do not expect that we will return,” said Um Abed Darweesh, a Maghazi resident.

AP footage showed medics treating a malnourished girl on a hospital bed who was bleeding from the face and severely shaking. The boy who died was transferred from an ambulance to Aqsa hospital’s morgue, where people gathered to bid farewell to dead family members.

Outside the hospital, dozens gathered to perform funeral rites for those killed, who were wrapped in white shrouds before they were moved for burial.

Some gathered at the strike site to pull out those trapped under the rubble of a partially collapsed building, with one person using only a shovel.

Israel's defense minister warns Yemen's Houthis it would ‘strike with force’

Israel's defense minister said Thursday the country would "not allow the continuation" of shooting from Yemen's Houthi rebels, hours after Israel launched heavy airstrikes on rebel sites.

“I suggest the leaders of the Houthi organization to see, to understand and remember, whoever raises a hand against the state of Israel, his hand will be cut off. Whoever harms us will be harmed sevenfold,” said Israel Katz, the defense minister.

Israel would “strike with force,” Katz said, and “not allow the continuation of this situation of shooting and threats against the state of Israel.”

The statement followed a series of intense Israeli airstrikes that shook Yemen’s rebel-held capital and a port city early Thursday and killed at least nine people, officials said, shortly after a Houthi missile targeted central Israel and badly damaged a school building.

The Iran-backed Houthis have staged attacks throughout the war on ships in the Red Sea corridor and launched missiles at Israel. The rebels have so far avoided the same level of intense military strikes that have targeted Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Israel strikes Yemen’s capital after Houthi missile targets central Israel

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Israeli airstrikes hit Yemen’s rebel-held capital and a port city early Thursday and killed at least nine people, officials said, after a Houthi missile targeted central Israel.

Israel said it conducted two waves of strikes in a preplanned operation involving 14 fighter jets and targeting infrastructure at Red Sea ports and in Yemen’s rebel-held capital.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesman, said the strikes hit targets the Iranian-backed Houthis “have been using in ways that effectively contributed to their military action.”

The strikes risk escalating conflict with the Iranian-backed Houthis, whose attacks on the Red Sea corridor have impacted global shipping. The rebels have so far avoided the same level of intense military strikes that have targeted the Palestinian Hamas militant group and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

The Houthi-controlled satellite channel al-Masirah said some of the strikes targeted power stations in the capital, as well as the Ras Isa oil terminal on the Red Sea. The channel, citing its correspondent in the port city of Hodeida, said at least seven people were killed at the nearby port of Salif, while another two were killed at Ras Isa.