Israeli airstrikes kill 28 in Gaza, including 7 children, health officials say

Palestinian medical officials say Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 28 people in the Gaza Strip, including seven children and a woman, hours after the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

One of the strikes overnight and into Thursday flattened a house in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby city of Deir al-Balah, where the casualties were taken.

Two other strikes killed 15 men who were part of local committees established to secure aid convoys. The committees were set up by displaced Palestinians in coordination with the Hamas-run Interior Ministry.

On Wednesday, the U.N. General Assembly approved resolutions demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and expressing support for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees that Israel has moved to ban. General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, although they reflect world opinion.

The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 people. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Israel’s offensive has killed over 44,800 Palestinians in Gaza, more than half of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not say how many were combatants. The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

Israel launches deadly strike on a Lebanese border town

KHIAM, Lebanon — An Israeli strike killed at least one person Thursday in the Lebanese border town of Khiam, the state news agency said, less than a day after Israeli troops handed the hilltop village back to the Lebanese army in coordination with U.N. peacekeepers,

Khiam is the first Lebanese town Israel has pull out of since a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah militants began two weeks ago, and marks an important test of the fragile truce.

Lebanon’s news agency did not provide details on who was killed, and the Israeli army said it was looking into reports about the strike.

Lebanese troops deployed in the northern section of the town on Thursday morning and were coordinating with U.N. peacekeepers to finalize Israel’s withdrawal before fully entering into other neighborhoods.

An Associated Press reporter who visited Khiam on Thursday observed widespread destruction, with most houses reduced to rubble. Entire neighborhoods were flattened, with collapsed walls and debris scattered across the streets.

Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, sharply criticized Israel for striking the town less than 24 hours after the Lebanese army returned, saying it was “a violation of the pledges made by the parties that sponsored the ceasefire agreement, who must act to curb Israeli aggression.” The truce was brokered by the U.S. and France.

Israel has previously said the ceasefire deal allows it to use military force against perceived ceasefire violations. Thursday’s strike was among near-daily attacks by Israel during the ceasefire, mostly in southern Lebanon, which have killed at least 29 people and wounded 27 others.

Khiam, which sits on a ridge less than 3 miles from the border with Israel, saw some of the most intense fighting during the war.

The Lebanese army was clearing debris and reopening roads in the northern section of the town. Civilian access to other areas remained challenging as the army clears roads and works alongside the U.N. peacekeepers to ensure the area is free of unexploded ordnance.

Paraguay reopens embassy in Jerusalem

JERUSALEM — Paraguay reopened its embassy in Jerusalem on Thursday, becoming one of a small handful of nations to recognize the city as Israel’s capital and marking a diplomatic victory for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israel’s international isolation has increased as the war in Gaza drags on, and Paraguay was the first country to move its embassy to Jerusalem since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack that kickstarted the war.

The United States, Honduras, Guatemala, Kosovo, and Papua New Guinea are among the few countries with Jerusalem embassies. Israel annexed east Jerusalem in 1967 but it wasn’t recognized by the international community, and most countries run their embassies out of Tel Aviv.

Spirits were high at the ceremony marking the embassy’s inauguration Thursday, with Netanyahu and Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar lavishing praise on Paraguayan President Santiago Pena.

“My good friend Santiago,” said Netanyahu, addressing Pena. “We’re a small nation. You’re a small nation. We suffered horrible things but we overcame the odds of history…we can win and we are winning.”

Paraguay had an embassy in Jerusalem in 2018, under Former President Horacio Cartes. That embassy was moved back to Tel Aviv by Cartes’ successor, Mario Abdo Benitez, prompting Israel to close its embassy in Asuncion.

Saar said Israel and Paraguay shared a “friendship based not only on interests but also values and principles.” He and the Paraguayan foreign minister, Rubén Ramírez Lezcano, signed a series of bilateral agreements and Saar said he would soon visit Asunción with a delegation from the Israeli private sector.

“Israel is going to win and the countries we are standing next to Israel, we are going to win,” Pena said.

G7 leaders say they support inclusive political transition in Syria

ROME — Leaders of the Group of 7 industrialized nations offered their full support for an inclusive political transition in Syria and invited all parties to preserve the country’s territorial integrity.

In a message released by Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni’s office, the leaders said they were ready to support a transition that “leads to a credible government, inclusive and not sectarian, that guarantees respect for the state of law, universal human rights, including rights for women, (and) the protection of all Syrians, including religious and ethnic minorities.”

The leaders also underlined the importance that ousted President Bashar Assad’s government is held responsible for crimes, citing “decades of atrocities.”

They said they would also cooperate with groups working to prohibit chemical weapons “to secure, declare and destroy” remaining chemical arms in Syria.

Italy currently holds the rotating presidency of the G-7, which also includes Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the United States.

Netanyahu says Israeli forces will remain in Syrian buffer zone for now

JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israeli forces will remain in a Syrian buffer zone until a new force on the other side of the border can guarantee security.

After the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad, Israeli forces pushed into a buffer zone that had been established after the 1973 Mideast war. The military says it has seized additional strategic points nearby.

Israeli officials have said the move is temporary, but Netanyahu’s conditions could take months or even years to fulfill as Syria charts its post-Assad future, raising the prospect of an open-ended Israeli presence in the country.

Netanyahu’s office said in a statement Thursday that Assad’s overthrow by jihadi rebels created a vacuum on the border.

“Israel will not permit jihadi groups to fill that vacuum and threaten Israeli communities on the Golan Heights with October 7th style attacks,” it said, referring to Hamas’ 2023 attack out of Gaza, which ignited the war there.

“That is why Israeli forces entered the buffer zone and took control of strategic sites near Israel’s border.”

The statement added that “this deployment is temporary until a force that is committed to the 1974 agreement can be established and security on our border can be guaranteed.”

The buffer zone is adjacent to the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed. The international community, except for the United States, views the Golan as occupied Syrian territory.