Israel begins Gaza ground operation, kills 144 in relentless bombardment

Israel begins Gaza ground operation, kills 144 in relentless bombardment

AP

Deir Al-Balah : Israel launched “extensive” new operations in the Gaza Strip while airstrikes in a new offensive killed at least 130 people, including dozens of children, overnight and into Sunday, hospitals and medics said, and forced northern Gaza’s main hospital to close.

Airstrikes killed more than 48 people in and around the Palestinian territory’s southern city of Khan Younis, some hitting houses and tents sheltering displaced people, according to Nasser Hospital, which said it struggled to count the dead because of the condition of the bodies. Eighteen children and 13 women were among them.

In northern Gaza, a strike on a home in the built-up Jabaliya refugee camp killed nine members of a family, according to the Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency services.

Israel launched the offensive on Saturday with the aims of seizing territory, displacing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to Gaza’s south and taking greater control of aid distribution.

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An Israeli blockade on food, medicine and other supplies is now in its third month, with global food security experts warning of famine across the territory of more than 2 million people.

Israel has said it is pressuring Hamas to agree to a temporary ceasefire on Israel’s terms — one that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza, but wouldn’t necessarily end the war. Hamas says it wants a full withdrawal of Israeli forces and a pathway to ending the war as part of any new ceasefire deal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that his negotiating team in Qatar’s capital, Doha, was “working to realise every chance for a deal,” including one that would bring an end to fighting in exchange for the release of all remaining 58 hostages, Hamas’ exile from Gaza and the disarmament of the Palestinian territory.

Hamas has refused to leave Gaza or disarm. Israel shattered a previous eight-week ceasefire in March.