Israel has stepped up its nightly bombardment of the southern Gaza Strip, where officials say a record number of Palestinians have again been killed, as violence spreads to other parts of the region and the showdown continues for the United Nations over desperately needed aid, reports RTE.
Health officials in the Hamas-led enclave said many of the dead were in the south, where tens of thousands fled after Israel warned them to destroy Hamas following the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel.
They claim that the death toll in Palestine now exceeds 6,500.
The strike destroyed several residential buildings in Khan Younis.
“This is something not normal, we have not heard something like this before,” said Khader Abu Odah, one of many shocked residents waiting for excavators to lift the rubble so they could search for survivors.
Palestinian anger over the loss of life is fueled by a sense of betrayal as many of those who obeyed the order to move south are also killed.
The Israeli military says Hamas, which took control of Gaza in 2005, has gained entrenchment among civilians around the world.
Israel said the latest attacks eliminated Hamas operatives, including Taysir Bebashar and Khan Younis, head of Hamas’ southern battalion.
The attacks targeted tunnel shafts, command centres, weapons depots and launch sites, as well as a cell of Hamas divers trying to reach Israel by sea near Kibbutz Zikim.
In northern Gaza City, rescuers pulled an apparently dead child from the rubble and then tried to calm a panicked, partially buried man by shouting his family’s name.
“They are OK, I swear,” one rescuer said in a video from the scene.
The United States and Russia are leading competing calls for a pause in the war at the United Nations to allow aid to Gaza, where living conditions are dire.
Limited supplies of food, medicine and water from Egypt resumed on Saturday through Rafah, the only crossing not controlled by Israel, which announced it had permanently closed the coastal enclave after the Hamas attack.
UN agencies say this is more than 20 times the needs of the 2.3 million inhabitants of the narrow coastal strip, even in peacetime, reports RTE.
In the proposal, to be considered later by the U.N. Security Council, Washington calls for a short pause to authorise aid while Russia favours a broader ceasefire.
Israel resisted both, arguing that Hamas would only take advantage and create new threats to its civilian population.
Hamas released a mother and daughter with dual US-Israeli citizenship, as well as two Israeli women.
Yossi Schneider, whose cousin Shiri Baibes is still held by Hamas along with her nine-month-old baby Kefir and four-year-old Ariel, said the release gave her and other relatives hope.
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