Fire breaks out at Gaza hospital after Israeli strike

The European Union’s top diplomat said today that the 27-nation bloc should have criticized Israel’s attack against the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon sooner.

“It takes too long to say some things which are quite evident,” Josep Borrell told the E.U. foreign affairs council. “It is quite evident that we should be against Israeli attacks against UNIFIL, especially because our soldiers are there.”

“I would appreciate if Members States could have reached an agreement on that quicker,” he added.

The second polio vaccination campaign for children in Gaza has begun today, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said.

“To reach as many children as possible with this critical vaccine, all parties must respect area humanitarian pauses,” the agency said in a post on X. The agency had previously said the war in Gaza was hurting vaccination efforts.

Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories said it was carrying out the campaign jointly with UNICEF and WHO, adding nearly 341,000 doses of the vaccine has entered the strip since the war began.

Iran says it has halted indirect communications with the United States over the ongoing conflict in the region.

“It is known that unofficial channels for communication were established through Oman,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was quoted as saying today in Iran’s semiofficial news agency Farsna.

“We do not see any grounds for discussions until we can resolve the ongoing crisis,” he added in the interview conducted during a visit to Oman’s capital, Muscat.

“After that, we will decide whether to enter into new negotiations and how to proceed,” he added.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez today called for the European Union to suspend the bloc’s free trade agreement with Israel over its war in Gaza.

Spain made the joint call with Ireland, and the two countries have been among the most vocal critics of Israel in the E.U. and were also the first to move to recognize an independent Palestinian state.

They say Israel may be breaching a human rights clause in its partnership agreement with the E.U.

A former senior Israeli air defense chief says drones like the one that killed four Israeli soldiers and wounded more than 60 people at a base last night were “the most challenging” and most complicated threats” Israel is facing.

“They are very small. Low altitude. Low speed, a huge challenge for the detection,” he said. “If you’re not detecting the UAVs, you are not alerting and you will not intercept.”

“We are not prepared enough for situation, and the fact is that our enemies recognize that,” Haimovich added.

Fire breaks out in an encampment housing displaced civilians after Israeli attacks in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al Balah, central Gaza, in the early hours of today.

Hezbollah’s drone strike on Israel last night has injured at least 61 people, three of whom are in critical condition, Magen David Adom, Israel’s emergency services said today, declaring a “mass casualty event.”

A total of 37 victims had been airlifted to hospitals, it added.

It had earlier said dozens were injured in the attack that also killed four of Israeli soldiers and severely wounded seven others.

IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said earlier that all soldiers on the military base there had been told to call their families to tell them they are safe.

Sirens had been sounded in central Israel this morning as the Israeli military said it had intercepted all the rockets fired from Lebanon.

Hezbollah had earlier said it fired rockets towards a military base northern Israel, but it is unclear if the rockets intercepted by IDF were part of the same attack.

At least 10 people were killed in Israeli strikes on a flour distribution center in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, an official at Al-Awda Hospital in the camp told NBC News.

The official said 40 more were injured in the attack.

A renewed Israeli operation in northern Gaza has put the Jabalia camp and the hospitals in the area under siege. More than 200 people have been killed in the new Israeli offensive in the area.

Iran did not have prior knowledge of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel a year ago and did not take part in the assault, Iran’s mission to the United Nations said in a statement.

Iran’s U.N. mission was responding to reports in The New York Times and The Washington Post citing secret Hamas documents seized by Israeli forces. The documents cited by the media reports showed Hamas discussed the planned attack with Iranian commanders in advance and had asked Iran and Hezbollah to take part in the attacks.

“While Doha-stationed Hamas officials have themselves stated that they, too, had no prior knowledge of the operation and that all the planning, decision-making, and directing were solely executed by Hamas’s military wing based in Gaza, any claim attempting to link it to Iran or Hezbollah—either partially or wholly—is devoid of credence and comes from fabricated documents,” Iran’s U.N. mission said.