Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at a deadly Israeli strike on a Gaza school, Britain’s strained health care system, and Japan’s upcoming leadership race.
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“No One Is Safe in Gaza”
An Israeli airstrike on a school in central Gaza on Wednesday killed six U.N. staff members, according to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA). The Gazan civil defense agency said that a total of 18 people were killed in a strike that targeted the al-Jaouni school, which is being used to shelter some 12,000 internally displaced Palestinians, mostly women and children.
UNRWA said that this is the fifth time that the school has been hit since the beginning of the war last October. In July, a similar strike on the school compound killed 16 people. “No one is safe in Gaza,” the U.N. agency wrote on X, adding, “No one is spared.”
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres wrote on X that what’s happening in Gaza is “totally unacceptable” and that the strike represents “dramatic violations of international humanitarian law.”
However, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that it had taken numerous steps to “mitigate the risk of harming civilians” and that the operation had targeted Hamas militants who were using the compound as a “control and command center.”
“It is unconscionable that the UN continues to condemn Israel in its just war against terrorists, while Hamas continues to use women and children as human shields,” said Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the U.N., on X.
Earlier this year, Israel accused UNRWA of having ties to Hamas and alleged that several of the agency’s staff members had participated in the militant group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. In August, the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) completed its investigation into the allegations against 19 UNRWA employees, finding that in nine of the cases, “evidence obtained by OIOS indicated that the UNRWA staff members may have been involved in the 7 October attacks.” The head of UNRWA said the employment contracts of those nine staff members would be terminated.
As for the remaining 10 cases, “In one case, no evidence was obtained by OIOS to support the allegations of the staff member’s involvement, while in nine other cases, the evidence obtained by OIOS was insufficient to support the staff members’ involvement,” the office found.
UNRWA employs 30,000 people and provides humanitarian relief services to 5.9 million Palestinian refugees in Gaza; Jordan; Lebanon; Syria; and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
Several other countries, including Britain, Ireland, Qatar, and Jordan, also condemned Israel’s Wednesday strike on the school, which brought the number of UNRWA employees killed in Gaza during the conflict to 220. Over the past 11 months, Israel’s military campaign in the enclave has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians and left more than 2.1 million people displaced and at risk of hunger and malnutrition.
Today’s Most Read
What We’re Following
A strained NHS. Britain’s National Health Service (NHS), the country’s publicly funded health care system, is in “critical condition,” and public satisfaction with the system is at an all-time low, according to a U.K. government-commissioned report released late Wednesday.
The review, commissioned by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, cited multiple contributing factors including a surge in long-term health conditions following the COVID-19 pandemic, an overall increase in the cost of living, and a lack of capital. According to the report, budget cuts introduced by the Conservative Party-led government in the 2010s led to the “most austere decade” since the NHS’s founding, putting the country’s most valued public institution under strain.
Starmer described the findings as “unforgiving.” In a speech delivered on Thursday, he said that the NHS is “broken but not beaten” and pledged to draw up a new 10-year plan for the health service that will include transitioning to a digital NHS and focusing on prevention over sickness. “We need to have the courage to deliver long-term reform—major surgery, not sticking plasters,” said Starmer. “We’ve got to face up to the challenges.”
A divisive legacy. Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, who ruled the country from 1990 to 2000 and was later imprisoned for human rights crimes, died on Wednesday at age 86 as a result of cancer, his daughter announced on X.
Fujimori leaves behind a contested legacy. He is widely credited for implementing shock economic reforms and defeating the Shining Path, a Maoist rebel movement, both of which helped stabilize a Peruvian economy that was ravaged by runaway inflation and food shortages. At the same time, he has been accused of corruption and the use of paramilitary forces to silence opponents. In 2009, a court found him guilty of massacring civilians and sentenced him to 25 years in prison.
“The Fujimori name not only survived but also has dominated Peruvian politics for the past three decades,” Mitra Taj, a Lima-based freelance journalist, wrote in Foreign Policy. “No leader since Fujimori has reshaped Peru as much as he did—or left as divisive a legacy.”
A leadership race in Tokyo. Japan’s governing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has named nine candidates, including two women, as options to replace Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, ahead of the party’s Sept. 27 leadership vote. The LDP hopes to restore public confidence following the numerous scandals that have plagued Kishida’s administration.
The leading candidate so far, according to public opinion polls, is former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who has proposed an Asian version of the NATO security alliance. He is running for the LDP’s top position for the fifth time and has struggled to win support from fellow party members.
Another close contender is Shinjiro Koizumi, the son of a former prime minister and the heir to the Koizumi political dynasty, which has helped govern Japan for more than a century. Koizumi, who previously served as the country’s environment minister and is the youngest candidate, has promised to reform an “old-fashioned LDP” and hold snap elections soon after taking office.
Odds and Ends
Last week, a U.S. federal court struck down a decision by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that prohibited gambling companies from offering bets on the outcome of congressional elections. Ruling in favor of Kalshi, a New York-based trading company, the judge, Jia Cobb, potentially cleared the way for Americans to legally bet on the country’s upcoming elections—though the commission immediately appealed the decision. Feeling lucky? You have just over 50 days to put your money down!
The post Israeli Airstrike on Gaza School Kills 18, Including 6 U.N. Employees appeared first on Foreign Policy.
