Strikes deepen humanitarian crisis
Deadly airstrikes pounded the Gaza Strip as talks towards a truce between Israel and Palestinians were set to resume in Cairo on Sunday.
Heavy fighting raged on in the besieged Palestinian territory, including in or around several hospitals, in the nearly six-monthold war sparked by October 7 attack.
As an Israel siege has deepened the humanitarian crisis, an aid delivery inside Gaza descended into deadly chaos with shots fired and a stampede before dawn on Saturday. At least five people were killed and dozens wounded, according to a Red Crescent paramedic, while the Israeli army said it had “no record of the incident described”.
Witnesses said that gunshots were fired, both by Gazans overseeing the delivery and Israeli troops nearby, and that lorries hit people. At least 75 people were killed overnight in new
Israeli bombardment and ground combat, most of them women and children, according to the health ministry in the territory.
The fighting has raged on unabated despite a UN Security Council resolution last Monday that demanded an “immediate ceasefire” and the release of all hostages held by militants.
Tensions have risen over the spiralling civilian death toll between Israel and its chief backer the United States, especially over Israeli threats to send ground forces into Gaza’s crowded farsouthern city of Rafah.
Washington has nonetheless approved billions of dollars worth of bombs and fighter jets for Israel in recent days.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 32,782 people, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry.
In Gaza, vast areas of which have been reduced to a rubblestrewn wasteland, heavy fighting has rocked areas around several Gaza hospitals.
Israel accuses Palestinian militants of hiding inside and in tunnels beneath the medical facilities, and of using patients and medical staff as cover, charges which the groups deny.
The Gaza health ministry said 107 patients remained inside Al Shifa, including 30 with disabilities, and that the army had stopped attempts to evacuate them.
Israeli military operations were also ongoing at two hospitals in the southern city of Khan Younis — at Nasser hospital, according to the government press office, and at Al Amal hospital, according to the Red Crescent.