The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
Israeli airstrikes kill 15 in Gaza school, nine West Bank militants
AN ISRAELI airstrike on a school sheltering displaced persons in Gaza City kille d at least 15 Palestinians on Saturday, hours after two strikes in the occupied West Bank killed nine militants including a local Hamas commander, Hamas said.
The Israeli military said the first of two West Bank airstrikes hit a vehicle in a town near the city of Tulkarm, targeting a militant cell. A Hamas statement said one of those killed was a commander of its Tulkarm brigades. Hours later, a second airstrike in the area targeted another group of militants who had fired on troops, Israel’s military said. Hamas said all nine of those killed in the two Israeli attacks in the West Bank were fighters.
In Gaza, at least 15 people were killed in the Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan, the Hamas media office said.
The Israeli military said the school was being used as a command centre for Hamas, to hide militants and manufacture weapons. Hamas has denied Israeli accusations that it operates from civilian facilities such as schools and hospitals.
Earlier on Saturday, Israeli strikes in the enclave killed six people in a house in the southern area of Rafah and two others in Gaza City, health officials said.
Iran’s threats: US to boost regional defences
The US military will deploy additional fighter jets and Navy warships to the Middle East, the Pentagon said on Friday, as Washington seeks to bolster defenses following threats from Iran and its allies Hamas and Hezbollah. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had approved sending additional Navy cruisers and destroyers — which can shoot down ballistic missiles — to the Middle East and Europe. It is also sending an additional squadron of fighter jets to the Middle East.
The US is bracing for Iran to make good on its vow to respond to the killing of Ismail Haniyeh two days ago in Tehran.
There had been speculation that the Pentagon might not replace the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group in the Middle East once it completed its ongoing deployment. But Austin decided to rotate in the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier strike group to replace it.