Israel, US face growing isolation over Gaza as offensive continues

Rafah: Israeli forces carried out strikes across Gaza overnight and into Tuesday as they pressed ahead with an offensive that officials say could go on for weeks or months, even as global calls for a cease-fire left both Israel and its main ally, the United States, increasingly isolated.

The war ignited by Hamas’ Oct 7 attack into southern Israel has already brought unprecedented death and destruction to the impoverished coastal enclave, with much of northern Gaza obliterated, more than 18,000 Palestinians killed, and over 80% of the population of 2.3 million pushed from their homes.

The health care system and humanitarian aid operations have collapsed in large parts of the besieged enclave, and aid workers have warned of starvation and the spread of disease among displaced people in overcrowded shelters and tent camps.

Strikes overnight and into Tuesday in southern Gaza in an area where civilians have been told to seek shelter killed at least 23 people, including seven children and six women, according to hospital records and an Associated Press reporter who saw the bodies arrive at a hospital.

Islam Harb’s three children were among those killed overnight when Israeli airstrikes flattened four residential buildings in the the town of Rafah on the Egyptian border.

The family was sharing their home with nine displaced people, he said.

“My twin girls, Maria and Joud, were martyred, and my little son, Ammar, also martyred,” he said.

In central Gaza, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah received the bodies of 33 people killed in strikes overnight, including 16 women and four children, according to hospital records.