Air strikes hit the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza overnight, killing at least 40 people and wounding 34 others, the Health Ministry said. It said first responders and residents were still digging through the rubble, hoping to find survivors.
An AP reporter at a nearby hospital saw eight dead children, including a baby, who had been brought in after the strike. A surviving child was led down the hospital corridor by an adult holding her hand, her clothes caked in dust, an expression of shock on her face.
Arafat Abu Mashaia, who lives in the camp, said the Israeli air strike flattened several multi-story homes where people forced out of other parts of Gaza were sheltering.
“It was a true massacre,” he said early on Sunday while standing on the wreckage of destroyed homes. “All here are peaceful people. I challenge anyone who says there were resistance (fighters) here.”
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
03:21
Dozens killed as Gaza’s largest refugee camp hit by Israeli air strike targeting ‘Hamas terrorists’
Dozens killed as Gaza’s largest refugee camp hit by Israeli air strike targeting ‘Hamas terrorists’
The camp, a built-up residential area, is located in the evacuation zone where Israel’s military had urged Palestinian civilians in Gaza to seek refuge as it focuses its military offensive on the north.
Despite such appeals, Israel has continued its bombardment across Gaza, saying it is targeting Hamas fighters and assets everywhere and accusing it of using civilians as human shields. Critics say Israel’s strikes are often disproportionate, considering the large number of women and children killed.
Blinken met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, a day after meeting with Arab foreign ministers in neighbouring Jordan. Abbas has had no authority in Gaza since Hamas routed forces loyal to him in 2007.
Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday, who insisted there could be no temporary ceasefire until all hostages held by Hamas are released.
Arab leaders have called for an immediate ceasefire. But Blinken said that “would simply leave Hamas in place, able to regroup and repeat what it did on October 7,” when the group launched a wide-ranging attack from Gaza into southern Israel, triggering the war.
He said humanitarian pauses can be critical in protecting civilians, getting aid in and getting foreign nationals out, “while still enabling Israel to achieve its objective, the defeat of Hamas”.
Egyptian officials said they and Qatar were proposing humanitarian pauses for six to 12 hours daily to allow aid in and casualties to be evacuated. They were also asking for Israel to release a number of women and elderly prisoners in exchange for hostages, suggestions Israel seemed unlikely to accept. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief the press on the discussions.
Swaths of residential neighbourhoods in northern Gaza have been levelled in air strikes. The UN office for humanitarian affairs says more than half the remaining residents, estimated at around 300,000, are sheltering in UN-run facilities. But deadly Israeli strikes have also repeatedly hit and damaged those shelters.
Israeli planes dropped leaflets urging people to head south from 10am to 2pm. Few appear to have heeded a similar order the day before.
Month of war changed everything as ‘Gaza has become a graveyard’: Al Quds
Month of war changed everything as ‘Gaza has become a graveyard’: Al Quds
An Israeli air strike overnight struck a water well in Tal al-Zatar in northern Gaza, cutting off water for tens of thousands of people, the Hamas-run municipality in the town of Beit Lahia said on Sunday.
The UN said about 1.5 million people in Gaza, or 70 per cent of the population, have fled their homes. Food, water and the fuel needed for generators that power hospitals and other facilities is running out.
The war has stoked tensions across the region, with Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group repeatedly trading fire along the border.
In the occupied West Bank, at least two Palestinians were shot dead during an Israeli arrest raid in Abu Dis, just outside Jerusalem, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The military said a militant who had set up an armed cell and fired at Israeli forces was killed during the raid.
At least 150 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the start of the war, mainly during violent protests and gun battles during arrest raids.
Thousands of Israelis protested outside Netanyahu’s official residence in Jerusalem on Saturday, urging him to resign and calling for the return of roughly 240 hostages held by Hamas. Netanyahu has refused to take responsibility for the October 7 attack in southern Israel that killed more than 1,400 people. Ongoing Palestinian rocket fire has forced tens of thousands of people in Israel to evacuate their homes.
In another reflection of widespread anger in Israel, a junior government minister, Amihai Eliyahu, suggested in a radio interview on Sunday Israel could drop an atomic bomb on Gaza. He later walked back the remarks, saying they were “metaphorical”. Netanyahu issued a statement saying the minister’s comments were “not based in reality” and that Israel would continue to try to avoid harming civilians.
The radio said Netanyahu suspended Eliyahu from Cabinet meetings until further notice, a move that has no practical effect.
Defence Minister Gallant also criticised Eliyahu, saying, “It’s a good thing that people like this are not in charge of Israel’s security.”
Among the Palestinians killed in Gaza are more than 4,800 Palestinian children, the Gaza Health Ministry said, without providing a breakdown of civilians and fighters.
The Israeli military said 29 of its soldiers have died during the ground operation.