Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue the offensive until “total victory” against the Islamist group Hamas and expand it to the southernmost Gaza city of Rafah, home to more than half of the enclave’s population of 2.3 million. Palestinians sought refuge from the fighting elsewhere.
A total of 127 people have been killed and 68,883 injured in the past 24 hours since the start of the war on October 7, the Gaza Health Ministry said.
Overnight, an airstrike in Rafah killed six people, including a woman and three children, while another airstrike killed five men in Khan Yunis, the main target of the offensive in the past two months. Journalists from the AP news agency saw bodies being brought to Rafa Hospital.
In Gaza City, which was isolated, largely evacuated and badly damaged in the first weeks of the war, an airstrike leveled a family home and killed seven people, including three women, according to a relative interviewed.
The Israeli military rarely comments on individual strikes and blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the militants operate in densely populated areas.
Meanwhile, the United States has said it will veto another draft United Nations resolution on the ceasefire.
US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in a statement late Saturday that the draft resolution contradicted Washington’s efforts to end the fighting and “will not be accepted.”
The United States, Israel’s main ally, is hoping to broker a deal between Israel and Hamas for a ceasefire and hostage release, as well as a broader resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Netanyahu is pushing back against these demands, calling Hamas’ demands “illusions” and rejecting US and international calls for Palestinian statehood.
The war in the Gaza Strip was sparked by an unprecedented attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7, which killed around 1,160 people in the Jewish state, mostly civilians, according to AFP news agency figures based on official figures.
After vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched a massive military offensive that killed at least 28,985 people, mostly women and children, in the Gaza Strip, according to the Health Ministry of the Hamas-ruled territory.
The militants also took about 250 hostages, and Israel says 130 hostages remain in the Gaza Strip, including at least 30 who are believed to have been killed.
Several countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan, have suspended funding to UNRWA in response to Israeli allegations that some of its staff were involved in the October 7 attack.
#people #killed #Israeli #strikes #Gaza #Strip
2024-05-06 01:23:04