Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at deadly Israeli strikes on a designated safe zone in Gaza, drone warfare between Russia and Ukraine, and parliamentary elections in Jordan.
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at deadly Israeli strikes on a designated safe zone in Gaza, drone warfare between Russia and Ukraine, and parliamentary elections in Jordan.
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Designated Safe Zone
Israeli airstrikes targeted the densely populated al-Mawasi tent camp in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis overnight, killing at least 19 people and injuring more than 60 others. The space, which the Israeli military has designated a “humanitarian area,” houses tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians who had fled Israeli bombardments in other parts of the Gaza Strip.
“There are entire families who have disappeared under the sand in the Mawasi Khan Younis massacre,” Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal said, citing large craters left in the strikes’ wake. Local authorities initially estimated the death toll at around 40 people.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the operation targeted Hamas militants “operating within a command-and-control center embedded inside the humanitarian area,” a claim that Hamas called a “blatant lie.” The Israeli military said the strikes specifically targeted Samer Ismail Khadr Abu Daqqa, the head of Hamas’s aerial unit in Gaza; Osama Tabesh, the head of the observation and targets department in Hamas’s military branch; and Ayman Mabhouh, a senior Hamas militant—all of whom the IDF claimed were “directly involved in the execution” of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and had planned to “carry out terror activities” against the country.
Israeli officials said the military sought to mitigate the strikes’ civilian harm by using “precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and additional means.” The IDF did not say whether Palestinian civilians in the area were warned ahead of time.
Locals are struggling to recover victims from the rubble, largely due to a lack of resources, according to the Gaza Civil Defense, the branch of the Palestinian Security Services that oversees emergency response and rescue operations. Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed more than 41,000 Palestinians and injured nearly 95,000 others since the war began 11 months ago. Almost all of Gaza’s roughly 2.1 million people have been displaced multiple times due to the war.
The Israeli military labeled al-Mawasi as a humanitarian zone in December 2023, and Palestinians have been encouraged multiple times to temporarily relocate there to avoid heavy fighting in other parts of Gaza. Yet despite that, al-Mawasi has been the target of Israeli operations several times in the past year. One of the deadliest occurred just two months ago, when Israeli bombings killed at least 90 Palestinians and wounded another 300 in a military campaign aimed at assassinating Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif. The IDF has repeatedly accused Hamas and other militant groups of systematically abusing civilian and humanitarian infrastructure, including designated safe zones, to carry out “terrorist activity.”
International calls for a truce and hostage release deal escalated on Tuesday after the al-Mawasi strikes. “The shocking deaths in Khan Younis [are] only reinforcing how desperately needed that cease-fire is,” British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said. Yet Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Tuesday that the window for achieving a temporary cease-fire deal was closing.
Today’s Most Read
What We’re Following
Targeting Moscow. Ukraine on Tuesday launched one of its largest drone strikes on the Russian capital since the war began more than two years ago. The Russian Defense Ministry said it intercepted more than 140 drones across the country, including around 20 over the Moscow area. At least one person was killed, and three major airports suspended operations.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the operation justified Russia’s military actions in Ukraine, and he added that peace negotiations were impossible so long as Ukrainian forces remained in Russia’s Kursk region. Earlier this month, Ukraine targeted Russian power plants and an oil refinery with nearly 160 drone strikes across the country. The Kremlin has repeatedly launched similar attacks on Ukraine’s energy and transportation infrastructure.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Iran on Tuesday of supplying Russia with short-range ballistic missiles for its war against Ukraine. Moscow is expected to use the shipments within the next few weeks. Until now, U.S. officials said Iran has mainly supplied Moscow with drones and has even set up a drone production factory in Russia. The U.S. Treasury Department announced new sanctions on Tehran in response—including on Iran Air, the country’s main airline—and identified nine Russian-flagged vessels allegedly involved in the deliveries. The United Kingdom, Germany, and France also announced new sanctions on Iran and Russia on Tuesday.
To the polls. Jordan held parliamentary elections on Tuesday, its first under a new law that aims to bolster political parties. Under the 2022 legislation, 41 out of 138 seats in the lower house must be reserved for political party candidates, which experts say will help liberal and secular parties secure greater participation in a traditionally conservative, tribal-dominated system. The law also raised the quota for women’s representation from 15 to 18 seats, and it lowered the age for elected deputies from 30 to 25.
Jordan is a constitutional monarchy, and its parliament has limited power. Around 5 million Jordanians—or almost half of the country’s population—are eligible to vote. Tuesday’s elections are expected to boost support for pro-Palestinian groups and Islamist parties that have largely been ignored in tribal politics. Jordan hosts a large Palestinian urban population that has increasingly criticized the country’s close ties with Israel; Jordan is one of two Arab countries that have a full peace treaty with Israel. Election results are expected early Wednesday.
Mass medical strikes. India’s Supreme Court ordered doctors on strike to return to work by 5 p.m. on Tuesday or face “adverse action.” Hundreds of medical professionals have walked off their jobs in recent weeks to demand better workplace protections after a doctor-in-training in Kolkata was raped and killed in early August. They joined thousands of people across India and around the world calling for justice and an end to gender-based violence.
The West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front, which represents around 7,000 doctors in the region and has spearheaded the strike, refused on Tuesday to abide by the court’s ruling; the Kolkata murder occurred in West Bengal. The organization reiterated its demands, including for authorities to install additional CCTV security cameras; deploy female security personnel; and provide women medical workers with adequate lighting, bathroom, and resting spaces that are separate from men.
Odds and Ends
Very few celebrities are pulling crowds like Taylor Swift, whose record-breaking Eras Tour drew nearly 700,000 people to London during her eight shows there in August. But Pope Francis makes that list. Nearly half of East Timor’s entire population—or roughly 600,000 people—attended the pope’s final mass of his visit to the country. The ceremony, which took place at Tasitolu park on Tuesday, saw the largest turnout for a papal event in history in terms of the proportion of the national population.
The post Israel Strikes Humanitarian Zone in Gaza appeared first on Foreign Policy.
