Middle East latest: Israeli strike on a Gaza school kills 17 people sheltering there

Israeli airstrikes slammed into two schools sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza City on Thursday, a Health Ministry official said, killing at least 17 people including five children in one of the schools. The resolution seeks the ICJ’s guidance on additional questions about its July ruling, including what Israel’s obligations are “to ensure and facilitate the unhindered provision of urgently needed supplies essential to the survival of the Palestinian civilian population.” Yemen’s Houthis claim a drone attack on Israel, hours after firing a missile DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed a drone strike targeting Israel on Thursday, hours after they fired at least one long-range missile that hit an Israeli school building. “This must stop now.” Israel’s Foreign Ministry called the report “entirely false and misleading.” It said Israel does not target innocent health workers and tries to ensure delivery of aid, and charged the medical group with failing to acknowledge Hamas’ use of hospitals as bases “for terrorist activities and operations.” Some of the allegations leveled Thursday were echoed in a report by Human Rights Watch, which accused Israel of a campaign in Gaza that amounted to “acts of genocide,” cutting the flow of water and electricity, destroying infrastructure and preventing the distribution of critical supplies. UN chief says Syria must not miss opportunity for a peaceful political transition UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations chief says the Syrian people have a long-sought chance to start a peaceful and inclusive political transition leading to democratic elections — and “the opportunity cannot be missed.” But Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Thursday that “if the ongoing situation is not managed carefully — by Syrians themselves, with the support of the international community — there is a real risk that progress could unravel.” Guterres said the United Nations is mobilizing to facilitate a transition process and U.N. special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, was in Damascus this week urging a broad Syrian dialogue to chart a way forward which he hopes can start “as quickly as possible.” While stability has returned to parts of Syria, he said, there are still significant hostilities in the north and a major threat from Islamic State group extremists in many parts of the country. With more than 130,000 people missing in Syria, he announced the appointment of Karla Quintana, who led Mexico’s commission searching for tens of thousands of people who disappeared, to head of the Independent Institution on Missing Persons in Syria established by the U.N. Human Rights Watch says Israel’s restriction of water supply in Gaza amounts to acts of genocide NEW YORK — Human Rights Watch has accused Israel of causing the deaths of thousands of Palestinians by systematically restricting and targeting Gaza’s water supply in a campaign that amounted to “acts of genocide.” The rights group is the latest among a growing number of critics to accuse Israel of genocidal acts in its war in Gaza.