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Israeli strike kills nearly 100 in Gaza school refuge, civil defence officials say
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
CAIRO (Reuters) -An Israeli airstrike on a Gaza City school compound housing displaced Palestinian families killed around 100 people, the Gaza Civil Emergency Service said on Saturday.
Israel said around 20 militants had been operating at the compound.
Video from the site showed body parts scattered around and more bodies being carried away and covered in blankets on the floor. Empty food tins lay in a puddle of blood, and burnt mattresses and a child’s doll lay among the debris.
In another video, men prayed over a dozen body bags laid out on the ground of the Tabeen school complex.
The territory’s Civil Emergency Service, which has a credible record in stating casualty numbers, and the Hamas-run government media office said in separate statements that the complex had been attacked as its occupants were performing dawn prayers.
“So far, there are more than 93 martyrs, including 11 children and six women. There are unidentified remains,” Palestinian civil defence spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal told a televised press conference.
Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought shelter in Gaza’s schools, most of which have been closed since the war began 10 months ago.
Around 350 families had been sheltering at the compound, Bassal said – some of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by Israel’s onslaught on Gaza.
The upper floor housing families and the lower floor, used as a mosque, were both hit, he said.
The Israeli military said the death toll was inflated.
“The compound, and the mosque that was struck within it, served as an active Hamas and Islamic Jihad military facility,” Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said on X.
He said the numbers published by the Hamas-run media office did not appear to correspond to the Israel Defense Forces’ information, but the army provided no evidence of that.
An Israeli army official said the part of the mosque that was struck was reserved for men.
“This was verified by intelligence, and the strike was carried out using three small, precise munitions which cannot cause the scale of damage that the Palestinians are reporting,” the official said.
It was not immediately clear which floor or floors the videos had been filmed on.
Israel says Palestinian militants embed themselves among Gaza’s civilians, operating from within schools, hospitals and designated humanitarian zones – which Hamas and its allies deny.
Hamas said the strike was a horrific crime and a serious escalation. Izzat El-Reshiq of Hamas’s political office said the dead did not include a single combatant.
A separate strike on Saturday killed three Palestinians in Al-Nuseirat in central Gaza and another killed one person in nearby Deir Al-Balah, medics said.
Later in the day an Israeli strike killed three Palestinians in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, where the Israeli army has operated since May, medics said.
Separately, the Israeli military said the head of general security in Hamas’s military wing, Walid Alsousi, had been assassinated in southern Gaza. There was no immediate Hamas comment.
NEW ROUND OF CEASEFIRE TALKS
The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on X that he was horrified by the images from the school.
A spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, urged Israel’s ally Washington to put an end to “blind support that leads to the killing of thousands of innocent civilians, including children, women, and the elderly”.
Egypt, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Turkey all condemned the strike.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said it should serve as a turning point as mediators push to resume ceasefire talks.
A Hamas official told Reuters the group was studying a new proposal for discussion but did not elaborate.
Egypt said the killing of Gaza civilians showed Israel had no intention of ending the war. Qatar’s foreign ministry described the strike as a “horrific massacre”.
Speaking to Al-Jazeera television, Khalil Al-Hayya, the head of the Hamas team for the indirect ceasefire talks with Israel, said statements of condemnation were no longer sufficient.
“Dismiss (Israeli) ambassadors, close down embassies, and sever ties with the occupation,” he said.
Egypt, the United States and Qatar have scheduled a new round of ceasefire negotiations for Thursday, as fears grow of a broader conflict involving Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has said he will not end the war until Hamas no longer poses a threat to Israelis, said he would send a delegation.
Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, nearly 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive in Gaza, according to the health ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Health officials say most of the fatalities have been civilians but Israel says at least a third are fighters. Israel says it has lost 329 soldiers in Gaza, while Iranian-backed Hamas does not publish its casualties.
By Dawoud Abu Alkas and Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA/CAIRO (Reuters) -Palestinians said an Israeli strike killed at least 22 people in a school sheltering displaced people in southern Gaza City on Saturday, while the Israeli military said the attack targeted a command centre of militant group Hamas.
The Gaza health ministry said most of those killed were women and children. The Hamas-run government media office said 13 children and six women were among the dead.
The military said it hit a Hamas command centre embedded in the compound that previously served as a school, repeating an accusation that the group uses civilian facilities for military purposes. Hamas denies that.
Reuters footage from the site showed blasted walls, wrecked and burnt furniture, and holes in the ceiling of one room as people tried to salvage what they could of belongings.
“The women and their children were sitting in the playground of the school, the kids were playing, and suddenly two rockets hit them,” said one witness Said Al-Malahi.
Some of the dead were wrapped in blankets and carried away on donkey carts, as ambulances transferred other bodies.
“I couldn’t take it, I did not see a single man that is injured, it was all women and children, let the Arab countries rejoice, let them rejoice and clap for (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu and the United States of America,” said another eyewitness, Ahmed Azzam, bitter that regional neighbours were not taking a tougher line against Israel.
MEDICS KILLED
In Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, the Gaza health ministry said four health workers were killed by an Israeli strike that hit ministry warehouses. Ambulance crews could not reach the dead or treat the wounded, it added.
In a statement, the Israeli military said forces, operating in Rafah since May, have killed dozens of militants in recent weeks and dismantled military infrastructure and tunnel shafts.
Israel’s demand to keep control of the southern border line between Rafah and Egypt has been a major sticking point in international efforts to conclude a ceasefire deal.
Hamas says it is focused on an agreement to end the war and get Israeli forces out of Gaza, while Israel says the war can only end once Hamas is eradicated. Another sticking point has been the specifics of an exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
This war in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7 when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s subsequent assault on the enclave has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry, and displaced nearly the entire 2.3 million-strong population.
(Reporting and writing by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Additional reporting by Dawoud Abu Alkas in Gaza, Adam Makary in Cairo and Ali Sawafta in Ramallah; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Andrew Cawthorne)
By James Oliphant
(Reuters) – Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will not be joined by his party’s embattled pick for North Carolina governor when he visits the critical electoral state on Saturday, the Trump campaign said.
Trump previously endorsed Mark Robinson, who was the subject of an explosive CNN report this week that he once called himself a Black Nazi and proposed bringing back slavery in comments posted on a pornography website.
Robinson, the state’s lieutenant governor, denied the allegations and has said he will remain in the governor’s race. His campaign could not be reached for comment.
Some Republicans fear his candidacy in one of the country’s highest-profile down-ballot races this year could damage Trump’s chances in the battleground state, where polls show Trump essentially tied with Democratic rival Kamala Harris ahead of the Nov. 5 election.
Ahead of Trump’s afternoon rally in Wilmington, North Carolina on Saturday, the Democratic National Committee launched new advertising across the cities of Raleigh, Charlotte and Greensboro tying the former president to Robinson.
The billboard ads show a photo of the two men together, along with direct quotes from Trump previously calling Robinson an “outstanding person” and an “incredible gentleman.”
The Harris campaign also began running a TV ad in the state on Friday featuring Trump’s past praise for Robinson.
In March, Trump called Robinson “Martin Luther King on steroids” after Robinson delivered remarks in Greensboro, and Robinson appeared at a Trump event as recently as last month. Robinson would be the state’s first Black governor if elected.
Robinson has a history of inflammatory rhetoric, at times referring to Muslims as “invaders” and calling gay and transgender people “filth.” He has made comments denying the Holocaust.
Trump has yet to address the latest allegations against Robinson. One Trump adviser, who asked not to be named, said Trump should stay silent and not fan the controversy.
“Ignore it, and let it die,” the adviser said.
Trump’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Harris’ campaign and its allies have made a significant investment in North Carolina, including two stops by the vice president last week. A Democratic presidential candidate has not won the state since 2008, but voters elected Democrat Roy Cooper as governor in 2016 and 2020.
Robinson had been trailing his opponent, Democrat Josh Stein, even before the CNN report, suggesting that he could be a drag on Trump’s chances in the state if some disaffected Republicans stay home on Election Day or defect to Harris.
Chris Cooper, a professor of political science at Western Carolina University, said in a state that Trump won by just 1.3 percentage points in 2020, the Robinson scandal could damage Republicans’ chances up and down the ballot in November, including Trump’s.
“If some people feel that the Republican brand is stained enough that they’d rather stay home, then that’s going to matter,” Cooper said. “It doesn’t take a big difference to flip the state.”
Thom Tillis, a Republican U.S. senator from North Carolina, responded to the allegations against Robinson by telling voters on X that “we must focus on the races we can win,” citing the presidential contest but omitting the gubernatorial vote.
“If Harris takes NC, she takes the White House,” Tillis wrote. “We can’t let that happen.”
(Reuters) – General Motors (NYSE:) will begin laying off 1,695 workers at its Fairfax Assembly plant in Kansas, the company said in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notice earlier this week.
The first of two rounds of layoffs will begin Nov. 18 and will include the temporary layoff of 686 full-time workers and the termination of 250 temporary employees, Automotive News reported on Saturday citing a company filing to the state of Kansas.
Starting Jan. 12, 759 full-time workers will be temporarily laid off, the report added.
GM did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the details of the latest layoffs.
Earlier in May, GM had said that it would pause production of the Cadillac XT4 after January 2025 in Kansas, resulting in layoffs of production employees until production resumes in late 2025 for both the Bolt EV and XT4 on the same assembly line.
The company had also said in August that it was laying off more than 1,000 salaried employees at its software and service units worldwide.
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