Friday, September 20, 2024
HomeBreaking NewsGaza hit by hundreds of Israeli air and ground attacks after end...

Gaza hit by hundreds of Israeli air and ground attacks after end of truce : NPR

Published on

spot_img


A Palestinian man carries a child wounded during an Israeli bombardment in Rafah, on the southern Gaza Strip, on Saturday.

Mohammed Abed/AFP via Getty Images


hide caption

toggle caption

Mohammed Abed/AFP via Getty Images


A Palestinian man carries a child wounded during an Israeli bombardment in Rafah, on the southern Gaza Strip, on Saturday.

Mohammed Abed/AFP via Getty Images

TEL AVIV, Israel — The Israeli military says it attacked more than 400 targets throughout Gaza in the 24 hours since the end of a week-long cease-fire with Hamas sparked a resumption of combat operations.

The Israel Defense Forces released video and photos of Israeli soldiers conducting ground operations and aerial footage showing airstrikes on buildings and infrastructure. One video, that appeared to target a human figure walking in a street, was described by the IDF as “a strike on terrorists” in western Jalalia, an area in Gaza’s north.

In a statement, the IDF said that air force fighter jets had struck more than 50 targets around Khan Younis, a city in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

The heavy bombardment and ground operations across Gaza killed nearly 200 Palestinians and wounded hundreds more in the first day of fighting, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza.

The temporary truce that collapsed early Friday followed seven weeks of fighting in Gaza sparked by simultaneous attacks on southern Israel by Hamas militants on Oct. 7. The attacks killed 1,200 people, Israel says. The militants also seized around 240 captives, more than 100 of whom were subsequently freed in a series of hostages-for-prisoners swaps during the cease-fire. Israel released nearly 250 Palestinian prisoners and detainees as part of the deal.

See also  Opioid settlement funds can be spent on traditional healing in tribal nations : Shots

Israel has notified at least five Israeli families that their loved ones taken hostage by Hamas are no longer alive. More than 100 others remain in captivity, according to Israel’s military.

A United Nations official tells NPR that about 50 aid trucks managed to enter Gaza via a border crossing with Egypt and were waiting to be unloaded Saturday morning. However, the vehicles did not reach Gaza’s hardest-hit north. The number of trucks delivering aid on Friday was also far fewer than the around 200 per day during the week-long pause in fighting — a number that relief officials have said is far too small to meet the needs of Gaza’s 2.2 million people.

Even so, a senior official of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the cease-fire “offered a glimpse of what can happen when the guns fall silent.”

A picture taken from southern Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip on Saturday, shows smoke billowing over the Palestinian territory as a result of Israel’s bombardment of the Palestinian territory.

Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images


hide caption

toggle caption

Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images


A picture taken from southern Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip on Saturday, shows smoke billowing over the Palestinian territory as a result of Israel’s bombardment of the Palestinian territory.

Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images

“We need to maintain – and build on – the progress in aid delivery,” Martin Griffiths, OCHA’s under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, said. “We need civilians and the life-sustaining infrastructure they rely on to be protected. We need the remaining hostages to be released immediately and unconditionally. We need a humanitarian ceasefire. We need the fighting to stop.”

See also  Moment Tupac's murder suspect 'Keffe D' gets arrested

Amid what international groups have described as a growing humanitarian crisis in besieged Gaza, Israel says it will not renew the visa of the top U.N. aid official for the Palestinian territories.

Nearly three years ago, Canadian-born Lynn Hastings was named deputy special envoy for the Middle East peace process and the resident coordinator for the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

But a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said on Friday that the U.N. had been informed by Israeli authorities “that they would not renew the visa of Miss Hastings past its due date at some point later this month,” according to Israeli media.

In a statement to NPR, Israel’s foreign ministry confirmed that Hastings’ visa would not be renewed. Citing what it calls the U.N.’s “one-sided and biased attitude” in the conflict in Gaza, the foreign ministry said it had decided ” not to automatically approve the granting of visas to U.N. representatives in Israel and to examine each case individually.”





Source link

Latest articles

Plenty of cold ones – San Diego Union-Tribune

From the Archives heads down way south and across the border for this...

Which is the cowboyiest state of all? Mosey on over and we’ll tell ya

Steer, steer on the wall; what’s the cowboyiest state of them all?Here in...

Abandoned Hollywood Hills mansion covered in graffiti, taken over by taggers and squatters

HOLLYWOOD HILLS, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- What was once a posh mansion in...

More like this

Plenty of cold ones – San Diego Union-Tribune

From the Archives heads down way south and across the border for this...

Which is the cowboyiest state of all? Mosey on over and we’ll tell ya

Steer, steer on the wall; what’s the cowboyiest state of them all?Here in...

Abandoned Hollywood Hills mansion covered in graffiti, taken over by taggers and squatters

HOLLYWOOD HILLS, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- What was once a posh mansion in...