Israeli strikes kill 13 persons in Gaza

GAZA, Sept 02 (AFP/AP): Gaza's civil defence agency said on Tuesday that Israeli strikes on an apartment and a residential building killed 13 people overnight.
Spokesman Mahmud Bassal said in a statement to AFP that Israeli warplanes hit the top floor of a residential building in southwestern Gaza City, killing 10 people.
Bassal said Israeli helicopters also struck an apartment in the west of the city, killing three and wounding several others.
Israeli forces have been preparing for an offensive to seize Gaza City, the largest urban centre in the Palestinian territory, intensifying bombardments in the area in recent days and warning of imminent evacuation.
The UN estimates that nearly a million people live in Gaza City and its surroundings, where famine has been declared.
Belgium to recognise
Palestinian state
Belgium will move toward recognizing a Palestinian state, the country's foreign minister said Tuesday, joining a growing list of countries preparing to take the step as Israel steps up its offensive in Gaza.
Maxime Prévot said Belgium's plans to recognize a Palestinian state will be announced at the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 9.
However, the acknowledgment is predicated on two conditions - the return of all Israeli hostages held in Gaza and the removal of Hamas from political power in the coastal exclave. The conditions make it unlikely the recognition will be formalized anytime soon.
The announcement marks the latest sign of international support for a Palestinian state, and would add Belgium to a list of more than 140 countries to recognize Palestinian statehood, including more than a dozen in Europe.
Erdogan urges US not to bar
Palestinian leaders
from UN summit
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday urged the United States to "revise" its decision to deny visas to members of the Palestinian Authority to attend the UN General Assembly this month.
A US official on Saturday said that Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas was among 80 officials from his authority who would be denied visas to attend the UN General Assembly, where France is leading a push to recognise. Palestinian state.
The highly unusual decision further aligns President Donald Trump's administration with Israel's government, which is fighting a war against Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza.
Israel adamantly rejects calls for the creation of a Palestinian state and has sought to lump together the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority with its rival Hamas which rules Gaza.
Speaking to Turkish journalists on the plane back from China after attending a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, Erdogan said the US decision was "not in line with the raison d'etre" of the United Nations.