Amid intense fighting in southern Gaza, Palestinians sought refuge while facing disrupted communications again on Monday. The mounting pressure on Israel is for a resolution that includes the long-sought goal of Palestinian statehood.
Palestinians sheltered from intense fighting in southern Gaza where communications were cut again on Monday, as pressure mounts on Israel for a solution involving long-sought Palestinian statehood.
Gaza’s main southern city of Khan Younes has become the epicenter of the war between Hamas militants and Israeli soldiers, now in its fourth month.
The health ministry in the Gaza Strip reported on Monday that more than 120 people had been killed in the previous 24 hours.
About 1,140 Israeli deaths have been reported since the beginning of the war, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
The death toll in Gaza has reached at least 25,295, around 70 percent of whom are women, children and adolescents, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
Relatives of the captives and campaigners for their release, who have held regular rallies demanding action from the Israeli government to free them, stormed a parliamentary committee meeting on Monday.
Telecoms operator Paltel said that services in Gaza were cut off on Monday “due to the ongoing and escalating aggression,” the tenth time since the war began.
Israel Pressured
The fresh strikes on southern Gaza came as European foreign ministers held meetings in Brussels with top diplomats from the warring sides and key Arab states.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told Israel that “peace and stability cannot be built only by military means.”
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has drawn condemnation from the United Nations and defied the United States—which provides Israel with billions of dollars in military aid—by rejecting calls for a Palestinian state.
The Palestinian Authority’s top diplomat, Riyad al-Maliki, demanded the European Union call for an immediate ceasefire and urged it to consider sanctions against Netanyahu for “destroying the chances for a two-state solution.”
Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said “the whole world” sees a two-state solution as “the only way out of this misery.”
Israel’s top diplomat Israel Katz ignored questions from journalists over a future two-state solution and said his government was focused on returning the hostages and ensuring its own security.
Iran Proxies Sanctioned
The United States announced sanctions on Iraqi low-cost airline Fly Baghdad, saying it provided assistance to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and proxies, while also targeting leaders of Kataeb Hezbollah, a pro-Iranian Iraq militia, with sanctions.
The moves come as Iraq’s powerful pro-Iranian armed group Kataeb Hezbollah has “carried out a series of sharply escalating drone and missile attacks against US personnel in Iraq and Syria,” said the US Treasury Department in a statement.
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The United Kingdom and the United States also unveiled new asset freezes and travel bans on Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) figures, in their latest coordinated asset freezes and travel bans aimed at regional militants.
Five “key figures” and an entity said to be involved in the leadership and financial networks of Hamas and PIJ were targeted, the British government said.
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Aid Urgency Grows
UN agencies and aid groups have sounded the alarm about the growing threat of disease and famine claiming more lives in Gaza than fighting.
The territory’s health system is sagging under the weight of the hostilities and an Israeli siege that has triggered dire shortages of food, water, fuel and medicine.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society on Monday called on the international community to protect its staff and facilities, particularly its headquarters and al-Amal hospital in Khan Younes.
The Israeli army said 12,000 trucks carrying 1,052 tons of medical aid have entered Gaza since the war began.
French Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu, on a visit to Israel, told AFP he hoped medicine delivered to Gaza last week under a deal mediated by France and Qatar would reach “every hostage.”
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The UN agency for Palestinian refugees estimates the war has displaced 1.7 million Gazans.
Khalil Wakim, with AFP
