Overnight strikes on Gaza killed dozens, the territory’s Ministry of Health said on Saturday, as Israel’s spy chief joined talks in Paris seeking to unblock negotiations on a truce.
The negotiations come after a plan for a post-war Gaza unveiled by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drew criticism from key ally the United States and was rejected by Hamas and the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank.
They also come alongside deepening fears for Gaza’s civilians. The United Nations’ main aid body for Palestinians, UNWRA, said Gazans were “in extreme peril while the world watches.”
Hamas said on Saturday morning that Israeli forces had launched more than 70 strikes on civilian homes in Deir al-Balah, Khan Yunes, and Rafah, among other locations, over the previous 24 hours. The Ministry of Health said at least 92 people were killed.
The Palestinian Islamist movement that has ruled Gaza since 2007 also said fighting was raging in the northern district of Zeitun.
AFPTV footage showed distraught Gazans queueing on Friday for food in Jabalia, also in the besieged Palestinian territory’s devastated north, and protesting over dire living conditions.
“We have no water, no flour, and we are very tired because of hunger. Our backs and eyes hurt because of fire and smoke,” said one of them, Oum Wajdi Salha.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health said a two-month-old baby identified as Mahmud Fatuh had died of “malnutrition.”
The UN humanitarian agency OCHA warned that “the elevated risk of famine in Gaza is projected to increase” without enough food and water, as well as health services.
The war began after Hamas’ unprecedented October 7 attack, which resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Hamas militants also took hostages, 130 of whom remain in Gaza, including 30 presumed dead, according to Israel.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 29,606 people, mostly women and children, according to the latest count by Gaza’s Ministry of Health.
With AFP
