An Israeli air strike hit a police station in Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip yesterday, killing at least 10 people, local health authorities said.
Medics said two Israeli missiles hit the police station, located near a market, which led to the wounding of dozens of people in addition to the 10 deaths. The identities of those killed were not immediately clear.
The Israeli military said in a statement apparently referring to the same incident, that it attacked a command and control centre operated by Hamas and the allied Islamic Jihad groups in Jabaliya, which they used to plan and execute attacks against Israeli forces.
It accused Palestinian groups of exploiting civilians and civil properties for military purposes, an allegation Hamas and other factions deny.
Local health authorities said Israeli strikes have killed at least 34 other people in separate air strikes across the enclave, bringing yesterday’s death toll to 44.
The Gaza Health Ministry said the Durra Children’s Hospital in Gaza City had become non-operational, a day after an Israeli strike hit the upper part of the building, damaging the intensive care unit and destroying the facility’s solar power panel system.
No one was killed. There was no Israeli comment on the incident.
Israel’s military said yesterday that one soldier was killed during combat in the northern Gaza Strip, while an officer and a reservist were severely injured.
Gaza’s health system has been devastated by Israel’s 18-month-old military campaign, launched in response to the October 7 attack by Hamas in 2023, putting many of the territory’s hospitals out of action, killing medics, and reducing crucial supplies.
Alongside, the Palestinian leadership approved the creation of the position of vice president of Mahmoud Abbas, and possibly his successor, yesterday, a step widely seen as needed to assuage international doubts over Palestinian leadership.
A statement published by state news agency WAFA said 170 members of the Palestinian Central Council, the Palestinians’ highest decision-making body, voted in favour of the decision, while one member voted against it and another abstained.
They have not immediately appointed someone to the role. According to the statement, Abbas has the right to assign tasks to the deputy, relieve him of his post, or accept his resignation.
Abbas, 89, has headed the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) since the death of veteran leader Yasser Arafat in 2004 but has for years resisted internal reforms, including the naming of a successor.
The Western-backed Palestinian Authority exercises limited rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and has not governed Gaza since fighting a civil war with Hamas in 2007.
l Lebanon’s foreign ministry reprimanded Tehran’s ambassador to Beirut yesterday over comments alleging that plans to disarm Iran-backed group Hizbollah were a “conspiracy”.
Hizbollah is under mounting pressure to relinquish its arsenal after a 2024 conflict with Israel badly weakened it and left much of southern Lebanon in ruins.
President Joseph Aoun is expected to begin talks with the group on disarmament, seen for years as a taboo subject because of the group’s sway over the Lebanese state.
On April 18, Iran’s ambassador to Beirut Mojtaba Amani posted on X that “the disarmament project is a clear conspiracy”.
“We in the Islamic Republic of Iran are aware of the danger of this conspiracy ... we warn others not to fall into the trap of enemies,” he wrote.
Yesterday, Lebanon’s foreign ministry said it had summoned Amani “due to his recent public stances” and that top ministry official Hani Shmaytelli “informed him of the need to adhere to diplomatic protocols ... on the sovereignty of states and non-interference in their internal affairs”.
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