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Israeli warplanes struck two refugee camps within the Gaza Strip early Sunday, killing at the least 53 individuals and wounding dozens, Palestinian well being officers stated. The strikes got here as Israel stated it will press on with its offensive to crush the territory’s Hamas rulers, regardless of U.S. appeals for a pause to get help to determined civilians.
Israel has rejected the thought of halting its offensive, even for temporary humanitarian pauses proposed by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken throughout his present tour of the region. Gaza’s Health Ministry stated greater than 9,700 Palestinians have been killed within the territory in practically a month of war, a quantity that’s prone to rise as Israeli troops advance into dense, city neighborhoods.
Airstrikes hit the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza in a single day, killing at the least 40 individuals and wounding 34 others, the Health Ministry stated.
An Associated Press reporter at a close-by hospital noticed eight dead kids, together with a child, who had been introduced in after the strike. A surviving little one was led down the hall, her garments caked in mud, an expression of shock on her face.
Arafat Abu Mashaia, who lives within the camp, stated the Israeli airstrike flattened a number of multi-story houses the place individuals compelled out of different components of Gaza had been sheltering. “It was a real bloodbath,” he stated whereas standing on the wreckage. “All listed here are peaceable individuals. I problem anybody who says there have been resistance (fighters) right here.”
There was no rapid remark from the Israeli navy. The camp, a built-up residential space, is situated within the evacuation zone the place Israel’s navy had urged Palestinian civilians to hunt refuge because it focuses its navy offensive on the north.
Another airstrike hit a home close to a faculty on the Bureji refugee camp in central Gaza on Sunday, and workers at Al-Aqsa Hospital informed the AP at the least 13 individuals had been killed. The camp is residence to an estimated 46,000 individuals and was struck on Thursday as properly.
Despite appeals and abroad demonstrations, Israel has continued its bombardment throughout Gaza, saying it’s concentrating on Hamas and accusing it of utilizing civilians as human shields. Critics say Israel’s strikes are sometimes disproportionate, contemplating the massive variety of civilians killed.
Blinken met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas within the occupied West Bank on Sunday, a day after talks with Arab overseas ministers in neighboring Jordan.
Abbas, who has had no authority in Gaza since Hamas took over in 2007, stated the Palestinian Authority would solely assume management of Gaza as a part of a “complete political resolution” establishing an impartial state that may additionally take within the West Bank and east Jerusalem, lands Israel seized within the 1967 struggle.
His remarks appeared to additional slim the already slim choices for who would govern Gaza if Israel succeeds in toppling Hamas. The final peace talks with Israel broke down greater than a decade in the past, and Israel’s authorities is dominated by opponents of Palestinian statehood.
Earlier in his tour, Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who on Sunday reiterated whereas visiting an air power base that “there can be no ceasefire without the return of our abductees.” He added: “We will simply proceed till we beat them, we’ve no different.”
Arab leaders have known as for an instantaneous cease-fire. But Blinken stated that “would merely go away Hamas in place, in a position to regroup and repeat what it did on Oct. 7,” when the group launched a wide-ranging assault from Gaza into southern Israel, triggering the struggle.
Blinken stated humanitarian pauses may very well be vital in defending civilians, getting help in and getting overseas nationals out, “whereas nonetheless enabling Israel to realize its goal, the defeat of Hamas.”
Swaths of residential neighborhoods in northern Gaza have been leveled in airstrikes. The U.N. workplace for humanitarian affairs says greater than half the remaining residents, estimated at round 300,000, are sheltering in U.N.-run services. Deadly Israeli strikes have repeatedly hit and broken these shelters.
Israeli planes as soon as once more dropped leaflets urging individuals to go south throughout a four-hour window on Sunday. Crowds of individuals may very well be seen strolling down Gaza’s most important north-south freeway carrying baggage, even pets, or pushing wheelchairs. Others led donkey carts.
One man stated they needed to stroll 500 meters (yards) with their palms raised whereas passing Israeli troops. Another described seeing our bodies in broken automobiles alongside the street. “The kids noticed tanks for the primary time. Oh world, have mercy on us,” stated one Palestinian who declined to present his title.
Another Israeli airstrike in a single day struck a water properly in Tal al-Zatar in northern Gaza, reducing off water for tens of 1000’s of individuals, the Hamas-run municipality within the city of Beit Lahia stated in a press release.
The U.N. stated about 1.5 million individuals in Gaza, or 70% of the inhabitants, have fled their houses. Food, water and the gasoline wanted for turbines that energy hospitals and different services is working out.
The struggle has stoked tensions throughout the area, with Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group repeatedly trading fire alongside the border.
In the occupied West Bank, at the least two Palestinians had been shot dead throughout an Israeli arrest raid in Abu Dis, simply exterior of Jerusalem, in keeping with the Palestinian Health Ministry. The navy stated a militant who had arrange an armed cell and fired at Israeli forces was killed through the raid.
At least 150 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank for the reason that begin of the struggle, primarily throughout violent protests and gun battles throughout arrest raids.
Thousands of Israelis protested exterior Netanyahu’s official residence in Jerusalem on Saturday, urging him to resign and calling for the return of roughly 240 hostages held by Hamas. Some households are traveling abroad to attempt to ensure the hostages aren’t forgotten.
Netanyahu has refused to take duty for the Oct. 7 assault in southern Israel that killed more than 1,400 people. Ongoing Palestinian rocket hearth has compelled tens of 1000’s of individuals in Israel to go away their houses.
In one other reflection of widespread anger in Israel, a junior authorities minister, Amihai Eliyahu, prompt in a radio interview Sunday that Israel may drop an atomic bomb on Gaza. He later walked again the remarks, saying they had been “metaphorical.” Netanyahu issued a press release saying the minister’s feedback had been “not based mostly in actuality.”
Netanyahu suspended Eliyahu from cupboard conferences, a transfer that has no sensible impact.Among the Palestinians killed in Gaza are more than 4,800 children, the Gaza Health Ministry said, with out offering a breakdown of civilians and fighters.
The Israeli navy stated 29 of its troopers have died through the floor operation.
TIME has contacted the IDF and the Israeli Government press workplace for remark concerning the Palestinian Health Ministry reporting that Israeli warplanes struck the refugee camps.
