Battles, bombardment in Gaza as US says Israel talks back on
Gaza Strip: Battles and bombardment pounded the Gaza Strip on Thursday after Washington said Israel had agreed to reschedule talks that had been cancelled amid tensions between the allies.
Israel’s military said it struck dozens of militant targets including tunnels over the previous day, and the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza reported at least 62 more deaths over a similar period.
The United States’ criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has mounted over Gaza’s civilian death toll, dire food shortages, and Israeli plans to push its ground offensive against Hamas militants into Rafah.
Gaza’s far-southern city is crowded with displaced civilians and world leaders have warned against a Rafah offensive.
They fear it would worsen a catastrophic humanitarian situation for the Palestinian territory’s 2.4 million residents, many of whom are sheltering in Rafah along the Egyptian border. The United Nations reported late Wednesday that famine “is ever closer to becoming a reality in northern Gaza,” and said the territory’s health system is collapsing “due to ongoing hostilities and access constraints”.
Bombardment and fighting have not eased despite a binding UN Security Council resolution passed on Monday demanding an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza and the release of hostages held by militants.
Netanyahu had scrapped an Israeli delegation’s visit called by Washington to discuss the Rafah plan -- a protest after the United States had abstained from voting on the UN ceasefire resolution, allowing it to pass.
Israel’s government has since backtracked. White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said Israel had agreed “to reschedule the meeting dedicated to Rafah”.
US officials say they plan to present Israel with an alternative for Rafah, focused on striking Hamas targets while limiting the civilian toll.
Even without a ground invasion, Rafah is under regular bombardment that on Wednesday left the city’s al-Kuwaiti Hospital coping with the wounded and the dead.
A motorcycle cart roared up with a man lying motionless in the back, part of his pants soaked with blood.
The war began with Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack that resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
The militants also took about 250 hostages. After an earlier truce and hostage release deal, Israel says about 130 captives remain in Gaza, including 34 presumed dead.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign, aiming to destroy Hamas, has killed at least 32,552 people, most of them women and children, according to the latest toll issued Thursday by the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
Israel has launched raids on and near several Gaza hospitals since the war began, saying fighters have used them as bases. Palestinian militants deny such accusations.
Troops began raiding Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City early last week, and on Wednesday night carried out an air strike “while avoiding harm to civilians, patients and medical teams,” the army said on Thursday.
It said the air strike came after militants fired at troops “from within and outside” the hospital’s emergency ward over recent days. An earlier Israeli raid on Al-Shifa last November sparked an international outcry.
