World News at a Glance

Plan to Storm Fence Gets Bloody Preview in Gaza

For weeks, Palestinians protesting along the fence between Gaza and Israel have conjured up the idea of swarming across the barrier all at once, a mass of tens of thousands of people too numerous for Israeli soldiers to stop. Israelis have been worrying about what their soldiers would do in response. On Friday, both sides got a small sense of what that could mean when hundreds of Palestinians rushed the security barrier and tried to cross into Israel. Dozens made it through a barbed-wire barrier using wire cutters, hooks and winches. Israeli troops opened fire with live ammunition and rubber bullets, killing three people and wounding nearly 1,000 more.

Eight of 10 Victims in Toronto Van Rampage Were Women

Women accounted for 8 of the 10 people killed when a van plowed through pedestrians along Toronto’s main street this week, officials said Friday. Police would not say whether they believed that Alek Minassian, the man identified as the van’s driver, had singled out women in Monday’s rampage. But Bryan Bott, a Toronto homicide inspector, said investigators were examining a Facebook message hostile to women they said Minassian had posted minutes before the attack, along with testimony from 170 witnesses and evidence gathered from the suspect’s home. Minassian’s Facebook account has been suspended, but the company confirmed in an email the authenticity of the posting.

North and South Korea Set Bold Goals: A Final Peace and No Nuclear Arms

The leaders of North and South Korea agreed Friday to work to remove all nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula and pursue talks with the U.S. to declare an official end to the Korean War, which ravaged the peninsula from 1950 to 1953. At a historic meeting, the first time a North Korean leader had ever set foot in the South, the leaders vowed to negotiate a treaty to replace a truce that has kept an uneasy peace on the divided Korean Peninsula, while ridding it of nuclear weapons. A peace treaty has been one of the incentives North Korea has demanded in return for dismantling its nuclear program.

A Libyan Strongman Returns Home and Asserts That He’s Fit

Smiling and looking hale, Libyan strongman Gen. Khalifa Hifter flew home Thursday to Benghazi and delivered a spirited televised address, seemingly dispelling for now reports that health problems could imperil his grip on power. Hifter’s assured return offered a dramatic counterpoint to the storm of speculation that gripped Libya after he vanished into a Paris hospital for medical treatment more than two weeks ago, setting off rumors that he was gravely ill, incapacitated or even dead. “I assure you that I am in good health,” said Hifter, 75, who saluted and shook hands with well-wishers. He declined to give further details about any ailments.

Knife Attack at Chinese Middle School Leaves Nine Children Dead

A man wielding a knife killed nine children and injured 10 others outside a middle school in central China on Friday, authorities said, in one of the worst attacks at a Chinese school in recent years. The incident took place shortly after 6 p.m., officials said, as students were being dismissed at the school in Shaanxi province. Police said they had taken a man with the surname Zhao into custody. They said the man was a graduate of the middle school and he had told police he was seeking revenge because he had been bullied during his time there. Police said the dead were seven girls and two boys.

Mike Pompeo, Wasting No Time, Warns Europe About Iran Deal

On his first full day as secretary of state, Mike Pompeo traveled to Europe and delivered a warning leaders here have been dreading: President Donald Trump will soon pull out of the Iran nuclear deal unless major changes are made. “Absent a substantial fix, absent overcoming the shortcomings, the flaws of the deal, he is unlikely to stay in that deal past this May,” Pompeo said. He said Trump had not made a decision on the accord, but Pompeo’s itinerary on his first overseas trip as the nation’s chief diplomat suggested he was preparing allies for a likely decision by Trump to pull out of the deal.