DM Monitoring
GAZA: An Israeli airstrike killed at least 24 Palestinians in a tent encampment housing displaced families in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, local health authorities said on Sunday, as mediators hosted a new round of talks between Israel and Hamas.
Israel expanded its military offensive in the enclave and ramped up bombing that has killed hundreds of people over the past 72 hours.
Medics said the latest strike that also killed women and children, wounded dozens of other people and set several tents ablaze.
The Gaza health ministry said Israeli strikes in the past few days had killed hundreds of Palestinians despite a visit by U.S. President Donald Trump to the region.
Hamas described the strike as a “new brutal crime” in a statement on Sunday and blamed the U.S. administration for the escalation. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the latest strikes but it said in an earlier statement that it was conducting extensive strikes in areas of Gaza as part of its plan to reach its war objectives. Egypt and Qatar mediators, backed by the United States, began a new round of indirect ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas on Saturday, officials from both sides said.
Sources close to the negotiation told Reuters there has been no breakthrough reported in the talks in the Qatari capital, Doha, as each of the sides remained committed to its stance. Israel’s airforce killed at least 146 Palestinians in new attacks on Gaza over the past 24 hours and injured many more, local health authorities said.
More than 300 Gazans have been killed in Israeli strikes since Thursday, according to local health authorities, one of the deadliest phases of bombardment since a truce collapsed in March. The latest strikes came after U.S. President Donald Trump ended his Middle East tour on Friday with no apparent progress towards a new ceasefire.
“Since midnight, we have received 58 martyrs, while a large number of victims remain under the rubble. The situation inside the hospital is catastrophic,” said the director of the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, Marwan Al-Sultan. Israel’s military said on Saturday it is conducting extensive strikes and mobilizing troops as part of preparations to expand operations in the Gaza Strip and achieve “operational control” in areas of the Palestinian enclave. The escalation, which includes the build-up of armoured forces along the border, is part of the initial stages of “Operation Gideon’s Wagons”, which Israel says is aimed at defeating Hamas and getting its hostages back. An Israeli defence official said earlier this month that the operation would not be launched before Trump concluded his visit to the Middle East.
United Nations experts warn that famine looms in Gaza after Israel blocked aid deliveries to the strip 76 days ago, with UN aid chief Tom Fletcher asking the Security Council this week if it would act to “prevent genocide”.
