Israeli jets pound central Gaza with chaotic strikes
Israeli jets intensified attacks on central Gaza on Sunday, residents and medics said, as battles raged through the rubble of towns and refugee camps in a war that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said would take “many more months” to end.
Netanyahu’s comments signal no let up in a campaign that has killed many thousands and levelled much of Gaza, while his vow to restore Israeli control over the enclave’s border with Egypt raises new questions over an eventual two-state solution.
Air strikes pounded al-maghazi and al-bureij in the centre of the Palestinian enclave, killing eight people in one house and driving more to flee to Rafah on the border with Egypt from front lines where Israeli tanks strike.
A Red Crescent video showed the chaotic aftermath of strikes in central Gaza, as rescuers worked in the dark to carry an injured child from smoking rubble.
The stated goal of Israel’s military is to eliminate the Palestinian groups.
Israel’s air and artillery bombardment has killed more than 21,800 people according to health authorities in Gaza, with many more feared dead in the rubble, and pushed nearly all its 2.3 million people from their
A Red Crescent video showed the chaotic aftermath of strikes in central Gaza, as rescuers worked in the dark to carry an injured child from smoking rubble
homes.
The war and lack of supplies has left 40 per cent of Gazans at risk of famine, the Gaza director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said on social media.
Israel blockaded most food, fuel and medicine after the Oct. 7.
People on Sunday sat outside their makeshift tents in Rafah, wedged among the ruins of houses destroyed by Israeli bombardment, as some sought food or clean water. In central Gaza, dark smoke rose above the fighting.
The United States, Israel’s main ally, has urged it to scale down the war and European states have signalled alarm at the extent of
Palestinian civilian suffering.
However Netanyahu’s comments, when he said he would not resign despite opinion polls showing his government is broadly unpopular and defended his security record despite the Oct. 7, indicate there will be no easing any time soon.
Israel says 174 of its military personnel have been killed in the Gaza fighting but that its operations are making progress, including by destroying some tunnels under the enclave.
Palestinian media reported on Saturday that Abdel-fattah Maali, a senior member of Palestinian groups armed wing, was killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza. It said Maali, originally from the West Bank, was freed during a 2011 prisoner swap and expelled to Gaza.