GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Gaza’s civil defense agency said Israeli forces killed more than 20 people across the Palestinian territory on Friday, ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at the United Nations in New York.
It comes as the Israeli military presses its offensive against Hamas in Gaza City, from which hundreds of thousands have been forced to flee.
The civil defense agency — a rescue force operating under Hamas authority — reported at least 22 people killed since dawn across the territory, including 11 in Gaza City.
Israel’s military said in a statement Friday that the air force had over the past day “struck over 140 targets throughout the Gaza Strip, including terrorists, tunnel shafts (and) military infrastructure.”
AFP footage from the Al-Shati refugee camp near Gaza City showed heavy damage to buildings after an air strike.
Buildings stood with facades blown off by blasts, while people including a barefoot young girl searched through rubble for belongings. Toppled poles created a web of powerless electric wires on the ground.
Israel launched its ground offensive on the territory’s largest city on September 16. The military on Thursday said that 700,000 Palestinians had fled the urban hub since late August.
The UN’s humanitarian agency, OCHA, said that the displacement of 388,400 people had been recorded since mid-August, most of them from Gaza City.
On the ground, Palestinians struggle to meet their basic needs after nearly two years of war that has left the territory devastated and bereft of basic goods.
“We just want the bare minimum to survive, and here in Al-Mawasi, we don’t even have that,” said Khaled Abu Alba, a Palestinian from Gaza City who has been displaced to a designated humanitarian area in south Gaza.
“Even for water, we wait for hours just to get a single bucket,” the 35-year-old added.
Um Youssef Al-Shaer, 50, who is also displaced in Al-Mawasi after fleeing northern Gaza, told AFP that the area had become overcrowded as more and more Palestinians sought refuge there.
“We are piled on top of each other in a single tent — me, my husband, our six children, and my husband’s elderly parents — 10 people in a small tent,” she said.
“There’s no room to sleep in that cramped space... There’s no privacy.”
On Friday, Netanyahu ordered troops to broadcast his speech at the UN headquarters to Gazans from loudspeakers mounted on trucks on the Israeli side of the border, his office said.
Over nearly two years, Israeli military operations in Gaza have killed at least 65,549 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, figures the UN considers reliable.
Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
Civil defense says over 20 killed in Gaza ahead of Netanyahu’s UN speech
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Civil defense says over 20 killed in Gaza ahead of Netanyahu’s UN speech
- The civil defense agency reported at least 22 people killed since dawn across the territory
- Israel’s military said in a statement Friday that the air force had over the past day “struck over 140 targets throughout the Gaza Strip “
Lebanon urges UNSC delegation to press Israel to respect ceasefire
- Israel has kept up strikes on Lebanon and has also maintained troops in five south Lebanon areas it deems strategic
BEIRUT: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun urged a United Nations Security Council delegation on Friday to pressure Israel to respect a year-old ceasefire and to support his army’s efforts to disarm Hezbollah.
Despite a November 2024 ceasefire that was supposed to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group, Israel has kept up strikes on Lebanon and has also maintained troops in five south Lebanon areas it deems strategic.
Aoun “stressed the need to pressure the Israeli side to implement the ceasefire and withdraw, and expressed his hope for pressure from the delegation,” according to a statement from the presidency.
He also noted “Lebanon’s commitment to implementing international resolutions” and asked the envoys to support the Lebanese army’s efforts to disarm non-government groups.
The Lebanese government ordered its military to fully disarm Hezbollah in August, and the army expects to complete the first phase of its plan by the end of the year.
The UN delegation visited Damascus on Thursday and after its meeting with Aoun was due to inspect the border area in southern Lebanon on Saturday, accompanied by US envoy Morgan Ortagus.
The visit comes as Lebanese and Israeli civilian representatives held their first direct talks in decades.
On Thursday, Information Minister Paul Morcos quoted Aoun calling the initial negotiations “positive” and stressing “the need for the language of negotiation — not the language of war — to prevail.”
That same day, Israel struck four southern Lebanese towns, saying it was targeting Hezbollah infrastructure including weapons depots to stop the group from rearming.
UN peacekeepers called the strikes “clear violations of Security Council resolution 1701,” which ended the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel.
The peacekeepers also said their vehicles were fired on by six men on three mopeds near Bint Jbeil on Thursday. There were no injuries in the incident.
“Attacks on peacekeepers are unacceptable and serious violations of resolution 1701,” the international force added.
Hezbollah refuses to disarm but has not responded to Israeli attacks since the ceasefire. It has, however, promised a response to the killing of its military chief in a strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs last month.
