DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza City: Israeli airstrikes overnight and into Saturday killed at least 23 Palestinians in Gaza, including three children and their parents whose tent was bombed in Gaza City, health officials said.
The bombardment continued as international warnings grow over Israeli plans to control aid distribution in Gaza as Israel’s blockade on the territory of over 2 million people is in its third month.
The UN and aid groups have rejected Israel’s aid distribution moves, including a plan from a group of American security contractors, ex-military officers and humanitarian aid officials calling itself the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
Among the 23 bodies brought to hospitals over the past 24 hours were those of the family of five whose tent was struck in Gaza City’s Sabra district, Gaza’s Health Ministry said.
Another Israeli strike late Friday hit a warehouse belonging to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, in the northern area of Jabaliya. Four people were killed, according to the Indonesian Hospital, where bodies were taken.
AP video showed fires burning in the shattered building. The warehouse was empty after being hit and raided multiple times during Israeli ground offensives against Hamas fighters over the past year, said residents including Hamza Mohamed.
Israel’s military said nine soldiers were lightly wounded Friday night by an explosive device while searching Gaza City’s Shijaiyah neighborhood. It said they were evacuated to a hospital in Israel.
Israel resumed its bombardment in Gaza on March 18, shattering a two-month ceasefire with Hamas. Ground troops have seized more than half the territory and have been conducting raids and searching parts of northern Gaza and the southernmost city of Rafah. Large parts of both areas have been flattened by months of Israeli operations.
Under Israel’s blockade, charity kitchens are virtually the only source of food left in Gaza, but dozens have shut down in recent days as food supplies run out. Aid groups say more closures are imminent. Israel has said the blockade is meant to pressure Hamas to release remaining hostages and disarm. Rights groups have called the blockade a “starvation tactic” and a potential war crime.
Israel accuses Hamas and other militants of siphoning off aid in Gaza, though it hasn’t presented evidence for its claims. The UN denies significant diversion takes place, saying it monitors distribution.
The 19-month-old war in Gaza is the most devastating ever fought between Israel and Hamas. It has killed more than 52,800 people there, more than half of them women and children, and wounded more than 119,000, according to the Health Ministry. The ministry’s count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. Israel says it has killed thousands of militants, without giving evidence.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel in which militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped over 250 others. Hamas still holds about 59 hostages, with around a third believed to still be alive.
Hamas released a video Saturday showing hostages Elkana Bohbot and Yosef-Haim Ohana, who appeared under duress. They were abducted during the Oct. 7 attack from a music festival where over 300 people were killed. Hamas released a video of them a month and half ago and has released several videos of Bohbot alone since then.
Protesters on Saturday night rallied once more in Tel Aviv to demand a ceasefire that would bring all hostages home.
“Can you grasp this? The Israeli government is about to embark on a military operation that could and will endanger the lives of the hostages,” Michel Illouz, father of hostage Guy Illouz, told the gathering, referring to the plan to vastly expand operations in Gaza.
Israeli airstrikes kill 23 in Gaza as outcry over aid blockade grows
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Israeli airstrikes kill 23 in Gaza as outcry over aid blockade grows
- Israel has said the blockade is meant to pressure Hamas to release remaining hostages and disarm
Gaza access: Foreign press group welcomes Israel court deadline
- The Foreign Press Association, which represents hundreds of foreign journalists in Israel and the Palestinian territories, filed a petition to the Supreme Court last year, seeking immediate access for international journalists to the Gaza Strip
JERUSALEM: The Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem on Sunday welcomed the Israeli Supreme Court’s decision to set Jan. 4 as the deadline for Israel to respond to its petition seeking media access to Gaza.
Since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, sparked by the attack on Israel, Israeli authorities have prevented foreign journalists from independently entering the devastated territory.
Israel has instead allowed, on a case-by-case basis, a handful of reporters to accompany its troops into the blockaded Palestinian territory.
The Foreign Press Association, which represents hundreds of foreign journalists in Israel and the Palestinian territories, filed a petition to the Supreme Court last year, seeking immediate access for international journalists to the Gaza Strip.
On Oct. 23, the court held its first hearing in the case and gave Israeli authorities one month to develop a plan to grant access.
Since then, the court has granted several extensions to the Israeli authorities to develop their plan, but on Saturday, it set Jan. 4 as the final deadline.
“If the respondents (Israeli authorities) do not inform us of their position by that date, a decision on the request for a conditional order will be made on the basis of the material in the case file,” the court said.
The FPA welcomed the court’s latest directive.
“After two years of the state’s delay tactics, we are pleased that the court’s patience has finally run out,” the association said in a statement.
“We renew our call for the state of Israel to immediately grant journalists free and unfettered access to the Gaza Strip.
“And should the government continue to obstruct press freedoms, we hope that the Supreme Court will recognize and uphold those freedoms,” it added.
An AFP journalist serves on the FPA board.
Meanwhile, US Senator Lindsey Graham accused Hamas of rearming during a visit to Israel on Sunday, and charged that the Palestinian group was also consolidating power in Gaza.
“My impression is that Hamas is not disarming, they are rearming,” Graham said in a video statement issued by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
“It’s my impression that they are trying to consolidate power (and) not give it up in Gaza.”
Graham’s remarks came a day after mediators the US, Qatar, Egypt, and Turkiye urged both sides in the Gaza war to uphold the ceasefire.
Hamas has called on the mediators and Washington to stop Israeli “violations” of the ceasefire.
On Friday, six people, including two children, were killed in an Israeli bombing of a school serving as a shelter for displaced people, according to the civil defense agency in Gaza.
