IDF admits 'error' in strike killing children at water distribution point
An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson told NHK on Monday that the airstrikes had targeted someone the IDF claims was "an Islamic Jihad terrorist."
They said a "technical error" caused the munition to fall "dozens of meters" from the target, and they regret "any harm to uninvolved civilians."
They said the incident is under review.
Ahmed Abu Saifa, an emergency physician at Al-Awda Hospital, said most of the injured were children and women.
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russel called for an immediate ceasefire. She wrote on social media that the Israeli military needs to protect civilians, including children, and ensure "full compliance" with international humanitarian law.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NHK
3 hours ago
- NHK
Israel attacks southern Syria after Damascus airstrikes
The Israeli military attacked southern Syria on Thursday following airstrikes on Damascus the previous day. Israel has launched the military campaign after members of the minority Druze community and Bedouin tribes clashed in southern Syria, prompting the interim government to send troops. The Israeli forces attacked military headquarters and other targets in the capital and southern Syria. Israel says the military campaign is aimed at protecting the Druze community as some members live in Israel. Arab media have reported that the Israeli forces carried out strikes against an armed Bedouin group in southern Syria on Thursday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement on the same day, "We have set forth a clear policy: demilitarization of the region to south of Damascus." Netanyahu stressed that Israel will not allow Syrian forces to enter the southern Syrian region near the border with Israel. Israel appears to be prepared for further action amid growing concerns for escalation. A US State Department spokesperson told reporters on Thursday that "the United States did not support recent Israeli strikes." The spokesperson called for a ceasefire.
Japan Times
5 hours ago
- Japan Times
The 'Trump Doctrine' is wishful thinking
U.S. Vice President JD Vance recently tried to cast President Donald Trump's strikes on Iran's nuclear infrastructure as a wildly successful example of the 'Trump Doctrine.' According to Vance, the doctrine is simple: you identify a problem that threatens U.S. interests, which 'you try to aggressively diplomatically solve.' If diplomacy fails, 'you use overwhelming military power to solve it and then you get the hell out of there before it ever becomes a protracted conflict.' If only it were that easy. What Vance describes is neither a doctrine nor unique to Trump. It is the same wishful thinking that produced many of the long, costly and unsuccessful U.S. military interventions that Vance himself has often decried. If Vance thinks that the strikes 'solved' the problem of Iran's nuclear program, then he must believe that they fully destroyed Iran's nuclear capabilities: its centrifuges, its stocks of enriched uranium and any other materials used for weaponization. Either that, or he views this display of America's military might as powerful enough to persuade the Islamic Republic to abandon its nuclear program and not reconstitute it in the future. There is no question that the U.S. strike severely damaged the Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear facilities. But it is far from clear that the bombing of these sites, coupled with Israel's assassination of senior Iranian nuclear scientists, has set Iran back to zero. It appears more likely that Iran's program has only been delayed, though estimates of the setback vary from months to years. Unless and until there is sufficient evidence to support the claim that Iran's nuclear program was completely obliterated, then Vance must rely on the belief that, as U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth put it, 'American deterrence is back.' The Trump administration is not the first to be tempted by the idea that short, sharp displays of military strength can convince other countries to capitulate to U.S. demands. Since achieving its unquestioned military primacy in 1990, the United States has compiled a long record of such attempts, many of which failed. Some targets of U.S. military coercion proved willing to tolerate more pain than American officials anticipated. Throughout the 1990s, Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq endured multiple U.S.-led bombing campaigns for repeatedly obstructing International Atomic Energy Agency and United Nations weapons inspectors. This cycle, as Vance knows well, culminated in 2003 with America's 'shock and awe' campaign, which set off a grinding eight-year war that killed thousands of U.S. service members and roughly a half-million Iraqis. Similarly, in the 1990s, NATO's threats, blockades and shows of force did not deter Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic from waging brutal wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. In particular, Milosevic was unmoved by NATO's early bombing campaign in Kosovo, which was restricted to military targets and did not threaten his hold on power. The air strikes that were supposed to last a matter of days ended up continuing for months without success. The presumption, in other words, that simply bringing superior force to bear would convince Milosevic to abandon a cause he was deeply committed to was dead wrong. It was only when NATO shifted from targeting Serbian forces to targeting infrastructure in and around Belgrade — which threatened to undermine the Serbian elite's support for Milosevic — that he agreed to leave Kosovo. Other targets have played possum when faced with U.S. military threats, seeming to concede in the moment before resuming their unwanted behaviors weeks, months, or even years later. North Korea has long taken this approach. Despite repeated reminders of the U.S. military's overwhelming strength, the country eventually resorts to its old ways, issuing nuclear threats, conducting missile tests, launching satellites and engaging in other provocations. China's behavior follows a similar pattern. In 2016, America successfully used an ostentatious joint military exercise to deter Chinese island building and claims around the Philippines. But just a few months ago, the Chinese Coast Guard landed on an island that the Philippines claims as its own. Still others have responded by inflicting pain on the U.S. The Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid found that killing a few Americans is all it takes for the world's most powerful military to back down. Iran seems willing to do all three. The Islamic Republic has displayed an ability to absorb both economic and military blows. Its military provocations and nuclear activities have ebbed and flowed, sometimes in sync with — and other times irrespective of — the intensity of U.S. responses. And as Iran expert Vali Nasr recently recounted, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei apparently shares Aidid's assessment, having told his advisers that 'America is like a dog. If you back off, it will lunge at you, but if you lunge at it, it will recoil and back off.' It is understandable that Vance wants to believe — and wants Trump's anti-interventionist constituency to believe — that impressive demonstrations of the U.S. military's reach and power are uniquely persuasive. But if short-of-war displays of military power were sufficient to achieve U.S. political objectives — especially ones as difficult to achieve as convincing Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions — then they would be a pillar of every president's doctrine. Melanie W. Sisson, senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Program at the Brookings Institution, is co-editor of "Military Coercion and U.S. Foreign Policy: The Use of Force Short of War" (Routledge, 2020) and author of "The United States, China, and the Competition for Control" (Routledge, 2024). © Project Syndicate, 2025
The Mainichi
10 hours ago
- The Mainichi
Israeli strike hits Gaza church, killing 3 and wounding priest who was close to Pope Francis
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) -- An Israeli shell slammed into the compound of the only Catholic church in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing three people and wounding 10 others, including the parish priest, according to church officials. The late Pope Francis, who died in April, had regularly spoken to the priest about the war's toll on civilians. The shelling of the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza also damaged the church compound, where hundreds of Palestinians have been sheltering from the 21-month Israel-Hamas war. Israel expressed regret over what it described as an accident and said it was investigating. Pope Leo XIV on Thursday renewed his call for an immediate ceasefire in response to the attack. In a telegram of condolences for the victims, Leo expressed "his profound hope for dialogue, reconciliation and enduring peace in the region." The pope said he was "deeply saddened to learn of the loss of life and injury caused by the military attack," and expressed his closeness to the wounded priest, Rev. Gabriel Romanelli, and the entire parish. President Donald Trump called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to express his frustration over the strike on the church, the White House said. Netanyahu later released a statement saying Israel "deeply regrets that a stray ammunition hit Gaza's Holy Family Church." Hundreds of people sheltered at the church The church compound was sheltering both Christians and Muslims, including a number of children with disabilities, according to Fadel Naem, acting director of Al-Ahli Hospital, which received the casualties. The Catholic charity Caritas Jerusalem said the parish's 60-year-old janitor and an 84-year-old woman receiving psychosocial support inside a Caritas tent in the church compound were killed in the attack. Parish priest Romanelli was lightly wounded. "We were struck in the church while all the people there were elders, innocent people and children," said Shady Abu Dawood, whose mother was wounded by shrapnel to her head. "We love peace and call for it, and this is a brutal, unjustified action by the Israeli occupation." The Israeli military said an initial assessment indicated that "fragments from a shell fired during operational activity in the area hit the church mistakenly." It said it was still investigating. The military said it only strikes militant targets, "makes every feasible effort to mitigate harm to civilians and religious structures, and regrets any unintentional damage caused to them." Israel has repeatedly struck schools, shelters, hospitals and other civilian buildings, accusing Hamas militants of sheltering inside and blaming them for civilian deaths. Palestinians say nowhere has felt safe since Israel launched its offensive in response to Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack. Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni blamed Israel for the strike on the church. "The attacks on the civilian population that Israel has been demonstrating for months are unacceptable," she said. Church compounds have been struck before The church is just a stone's throw from Al-Ahli Hospital, Naem said, noting that the area around both the church and the hospital has been repeatedly struck for over a week. The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which also has a church in Gaza that previously sustained damage from Israeli strikes, said the Holy Family Church was sheltering 600 displaced people, including many children, and 54 people with disabilities. It said the building suffered significant damage. Targeting a holy site "is a blatant affront to human dignity and a grave violation of the sanctity of life and the inviolability of religious sites, which are meant to serve as safe havens during times of war," the Church said in a statement. Separately, another person was killed and 17 wounded Thursday in a strike against two schools sheltering displaced people in the Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, according to Al-Awda Hospital. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strike. The Gaza Health Ministry said that over the past 24 hours, local hospitals received the bodies of 94 people killed in Israeli strikes and another 367 wounded. Pope Francis spoke almost daily with Gaza church In the last 18 months of his life, Francis would often call the lone Catholic church in the Gaza Strip to see how people huddled inside were coping with a devastating war. Francis had repeatedly criticized Israel's wartime conduct, and last year suggested that allegations of genocide in Gaza -- which Israel has rejected as a "blood libel" -- should be investigated. The late pope also met with the families of Israeli hostages and called for their release. Only 1,000 Christians live in Gaza, an overwhelmingly Muslim territory, according to the U.S. State Department's international religious freedom report for 2024. Most are Greek Orthodox. The Holy Land's Christian population has dwindled in recent decades as many have emigrated to escape war and conflict or to seek better opportunities abroad. Local Christian leaders have recently denounced attacks by Israeli settlers and Jewish extremists. Ceasefire talks continue There has been little visible progress in months of indirect talks between Israel and Hamas aimed at a new ceasefire and hostage release agreement, after Israel ended an earlier truce in March. According to an Israeli official familiar with the details, Israel is showing "flexibility" on some of the issues that have challenged negotiators, including Israel's presence in some of the security corridors the military has carved into the territory. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were discussing ongoing negotiations, said Israel has shown some willingness to compromise on the Morag Corridor, which cuts across southern Gaza. However, other issues remain, including the list of Palestinian prisoners to be freed by Israel and commitments to end the war. The official says there are signs of optimism but there won't be a deal immediately. Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7 attack and abducted 251 people, most of whom have since been released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Fifty hostages are still being held, less than half of them believed to be alive Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed over 58,600 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which has said women and children make up more than half of the dead. It does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its tally. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government but is led by medical professionals. The United Nations and other international organizations consider its figures to be the most reliable count of war casualties.
