Israeli airstrikes kill dozens in Gaza
Military offers rare glimpse at roundup of Palestinian males
By Najib Jobain and Samy Magdy
RAFAH, Gaza Strip — More than 90 Palestinians, including dozens from an extended family, were killed in Israeli airstrikes on two homes in Gaza, rescuers and hospital officials said Saturday, a day after the U.N. chief warned that nowhere is safe in the territory and that Israel’s offensive creates “massive obstacles” to distribution of humanitarian aid.
President Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday, calling it a long and private conversation a day after the Biden administration again shielded Israel in the diplomatic arena.
On Friday, the U.N. Security Council adopted a watered-down resolution that calls for speeding up aid deliveries to desperate civilians in Gaza, but not for a cease-fire.
“I did not ask for a ceasefire,” Biden said of the call.
Netanyahu’s office said the prime minister “made clear that Israel would continue the war until achieving all its goals.”
Also Saturday, the Israeli military said troops arrested hundreds of alleged militants in Gaza over the past week and transferred more than 200 to Israel for further interrogation, providing rare details on a controversial policy of mass roundups of Palestinian men.
The army said more than 700 people with alleged ties to the militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad have been sent to Israeli lockups.
Palestinian children wait to collect food Saturday at a refugee camp in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip.
Israel declared war after war, said Mahmoud Bassal, Israel blames Hamas for Hamas gunmen stormed a spokesman for Gaza’s Civil the high civilian death toll, across the border Oct. 7, killing Defense department. citing the terrorist group’s some 1,200 people and Among those killed use of residential areas and taking about 240 hostages. were Issam al-Mughrabi, a tunnels. Israel has launched More than 20,000 Palestinians veteran employee of the U.N. thousands of airstrikes have been killed in Israel’s Development Program, his since Oct. 7, and has largely war to destroy Hamas wife, and their five children. refrained from commenting and more than 53,000 have “The U.N. and civilians in on specific attacks. been wounded, according to Gaza are not a target,” said Israel’s offensive has health officials in Gaza. Achim Steiner, the head of been one of the most devastating
The Health Ministry in the agency. “This war must military campaigns Gaza on Saturday said 201 end.” in recent history, displacing people had been killed over And a strike pulverized nearly 85% of Gaza’s 2.3 the past 24 hours. the home of Mohammed million people and leveling
Airstrikes on Friday flattened Khalifa, a local TV journalist, wide swaths of the tiny two homes, including killing him and at least 14 coastal enclave. More than a one in Gaza City, others in the urban refugee half-million people in Gaza where 76 people from the camp of Nuseirat, according are starving, according to a al-Mughrabi family were to officials at the Al Aqsa report last week from the killed, making the attack Martyrs’ Hospital where the United Nations and other one of the deadliest of the bodies were taken. agencies.
In the southern city of Khan Younis, men walking through the rubble tried to shoo away cats feeding on unclaimed bodies.
The Israeli military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said forces were expanding their offensive in northern and southern Gaza and troops were fighting in “complex areas” in Khan Younis.
The army’s statement on detentions followed earlier Palestinian reports of large-scale roundups of teenage boys and men from homes, shelters and hospitals in northern Gaza where troops have established firmer control. Some of the released detainees have said they were stripped to their underwear, beaten and held for days with minimal water.
Channel 13 in Israel showed new footage of Palestinian men stripped to their underwear and walking in single file, with soldiers nearby. It was not clear when the footage was taken. In response to criticism, the army has said detainees are stripped to check them for weapons. It has denied abuse allegations and said those without links to combatants are quickly released.
Hamas called on the International Committee of the Red Cross and other organizations to pressure Israeli authorities to reveal the whereabouts and conditions of detainees.
Israel says it has killed thousands of Hamas combatants, including about 2,000 in the past three weeks, but has not presented evidence. It says 144 of its soldiers have been killed in the ground offensive.
Following the U.N. resolution, it was not clear how and when aid deliveries would accelerate. Trucks enter through two crossings — Rafah on the border with Egypt and Kerem Shalom on the border with Israel. On Friday, fewer than 100 trucks entered, the U.N. said — far below the daily average of 500 before the war.
Both crossings were closed Saturday by mutual agreement among Israel, Egypt and the U.N., Israeli officials said.
Netanyahu and his government also faced pressure at home, with calls to get the remaining hostages freed.
“Bibi, Bibi retire. We don’t want you anymore,” a crowd of thousands chanted in Tel Aviv.