At least 700 Gazans killed in a single day as Israeli bombing intensifies
US VP: Gaza images, videos are devastating
Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip sought shelter in an ever-shrinking area of the south on Sunday as Israel stepped up its bombing from air, sea and land across the enclave, killing at least 700 in a single day.
The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza announced on Sunday that more than 700 Palestinians were killed in the past 24 hours, as a result of Israel’s ongoing aggression on the besieged strip.
The renewed warfare followed the collapse on Friday of a seven-day pause in the fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas fighters. The Israeli Army also ordered more areas in and around the enclave’s second-largest city of Khan Younis to evacuate.
Heavy bombardments were reported overnight and into Sunday in the area of Khan Younis and the southern city of Rafah, as well as parts of the north that had been the focus of Israel’s blistering air and ground campaign.
US Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday reiterated Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas, but said international and humanitarian law must be respected, noting that too many Palestinians have been killed.
“Frankly, the scale of civilian suffering, and the images and videos coming from Gaza are devastating,” Harris told reporters. “So, we all want this conflict to end as soon as possible, and to ensure Israel’s security and ensure security for the Palestinian people. We must accelerate efforts to build an enduring peace.”
‘Too much to bear’
The UN human rights chief urged for an end to the war, saying the suffering of civilians was “too much to bear.”
Many of the territory’s 2.3 million people are crammed in the south after Israeli forces ordered civilians to leave the north in the early days of the two-month-old war, sparked by an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in southern Israel.
Gaza deaths over
15,000
The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the death toll has surpassed 15,200, and 70% of those killed are women and children.
With the resumption of fighting, hopes for another temporary truce receded. A weeklong cease-fire, which expired Friday, had facilitated the release of dozens of Gaza-held Israeli and foreign prisoners and Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
Britain’s Defence Ministry confirmed at the weekend that its military will conduct surveillance flights over Gaza to help locate prisoners held by Hamas.
Hamas fighters seized around 240 Israelis and foreigners, according to Israeli authorities. Around 110 have since been freed, mainly during the recent week-long truce.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday that France was “very concerned” by the resumption of violence in Gaza, and that he was heading to Qatar to help in efforts to kickstart a new truce.
Macron also told a press conference at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai that the situation required the doubling down on efforts to obtain a lasting cease-fire and the freeing of all prisoners. He said Israel “must more precisely define” what it seeks to accomplish in its war as the full elimination of the Hamas resistance group would take a decade.
Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said the United States’ supportive policies are the main factor encouraging the Zionist regime to continue the massacre of civilians in the besieged strip.
In a Saturday phone call with the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, Amir-Abdollahian stressed the necessity of putting an immediate end to Israel’s crimes against Palestinians.
“The Zionist regime’s military attacks against the people of Gaza must stop as soon as possible to pave the way for the dispatch of humanitarian aid,” he said.
More than 1.7 million people have been displaced, most of them from northern Gaza, since Israel launched its military offensive on Gaza.
Reuters, AP, Al Jazeera, and Press TV contributed to this report.