Fighting rages amid ‘horror and starvation’
Heavy fighting raged in Gaza on Sunday as Israel has vowed to push on with its ground war in the territory’s far south despite US objections and truce talks.
UN chief Antonio Guterres said “horror and starvation stalk the people of Gaza” and urged an immediate ceasefire and the release of all captives held since October 7.
The health ministry in the Gaza Strip said another 84 people had been killed over the past 24 hours, raising the total death toll in the nearly six-month-old war to 32,226.
Israel had launched more than 60 airstrikes as well as artillery bombardment on Gaza City, the southern urban centre of Khan Yunis and other areas.
Israel’s military said fighter jets had struck about 65 targets “including a terror tunnel used to carry out attacks, military compounds where armed terrorists operated and additional military infrastructure”.
In Gaza’s far-southern Rafah city, local resident Hassan Zanoun looked sadly at the remains of his building, reduced to a jumble of broken concrete and rubble by an airstrike.
“My children and I were sleeping here,” he said. “I was surprised, we didn’t hear the sound of a rocket and suddenly everything was unleashed over our heads... strikes, screams.
“I got out from under the rubble, and my daughters got out from under the rubble too. What more can I say?”
Israel has faced ever greater global scrutiny and opposition to its military campaign as Palestinian civilian deaths have soared and its siege has brought widespread malnutrition and hunger.
Guterres urged an end to the “non-stop nightmare” endured by Gaza’s 2.4 million people in a visit on Saturday to the Egyptian border with the coastal territory.
He said “nothing justifies” either the October 7 attack or the “collective punishment” of Palestinians, and demanded Israel allow vastly more aid into Gaza.
Writing on social media platform X, he said “horror and starvation stalk the people of Gaza. Any further onslaught will make everything worse.
Worse for Palestinian civilians, for the captives, for all people of the region. “It’s more than time for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire & the immediate release of all captives.”
Israel has vowed to destroy the Palestinian groups, who seized about 250 captives, of whom Israel believes around 130 remain in Gaza, including 33 presumed dead.
Relatives and supporters of the captives, demanding greater efforts to bring them home, rallied on Saturday outside the defence ministry in Tel Aviv in a protest that saw scuffles between demonstrators and police.