GAZA CITY: Israeli strikes killed at least 23 people in the Gaza Strip overnight into Tuesday, Palestinian medics said, as hospitals are flooded with dead and wounded since Israel resumed heavy bombardment last week, shattering the ceasefire that had halted the 17-month war.
The dead include three children and their parents who were killed in a strike on their tent.
Israel’s onslaught in Gaza has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 113,000, according to the Health Ministry.
Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence. Israel launched the campaign vowing to destroy Hamas after its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, in which militants killed some 1,200 people and abducted 251.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Israel has built well over 100 settlements, home to over 500,000 settlers who have Israeli citizenship.
• The 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule, with the Palestinian Authority administering population centers.
Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank, Israeli authorities released a Palestinian director of the Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land,” a day after he was beaten by Jewish settlers and detained by soldiers.
Hamdan Ballal and two other Palestinians were accused of throwing stones at a settler, allegations they deny.
Lamia Ballal, the director’s wife, said she heard her husband being beaten outside their home as she huddled inside with their three children. She heard him screaming, “I’m dying!” and calling for an ambulance. When she looked out the window, she saw three men in uniform beating Ballal with the butts of their rifles and another person in civilian clothes who appeared to be filming the violence.
“Of course, after the Oscar, they have come to attack us more,” Lamia said. “I felt afraid.”
On Tuesday, a small bloodstain could be seen outside their home, and the car’s windshield and windows were shattered. Neighbors pointed to a nearby water tank with a hole in the side that they said had been punched by the settlers.
“No Other Land,” which won the Oscar this year for best documentary, chronicles the struggle by residents of the Masafer Yatta area to stop the Israeli military from demolishing their villages.
Palestinians and rights groups say Israeli forces in the West Bank usually turn a blind eye to settler attacks or intervene on the settlers’ behalf.
Separately, Israel’s parliament passed a state budget, a move that shores up Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition and grants the embattled leader the chance at months of political stability even as public pressure mounts over the war in Gaza.
