Dozens of people from one family have been killed in the Jabalia refugee camp, the Palestinian foreign minister said, as Israel continues to bombard the besieged Gaza Strip in the hours after the conclusion of an agreement for a truce which should come into force. THURSDAY.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said on Wednesday during a visit to London that 52 members of one family had been killed in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.
“Just this morning, in the Qadoura family in Jabalia, 52 people were completely wiped out, killed,” he said.
“I have the list of names, there are 52 of them. They have been completely wiped out, from the grandfather to the grandchildren. »
In southern Gaza, Tel Aviv Tribune’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said heavy strikes continued on Wednesday as the humanitarian pause approached.
“These areas are considered ‘safe places’ to flee to from the north,” he said after an Israeli strike left a residential building in Khan Younis “completely destroyed”.
“But they suffer the same level of Israeli bombing. »
Separately, in Khan Younis, the bodies of more than 100 Palestinians initially detained at al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza, which was the subject of repeated raids by Israeli forces, were buried in a mass grave .
The agreement between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian armed group that governs Gaza, comes after nearly seven weeks of war in the besieged territory that has killed thousands of people and displaced hundreds of thousands more.
The main details of the agreement remain unclear, but it is expected to include the release of 50 civilian hostages held in Gaza, the release of 150 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and a four-day cessation of hostilities in Gaza. This pause is expected to coincide with an influx of humanitarian aid into the besieged enclave.
United Nations chief Antonio Guterres called the agreement “an important step in the right direction” but added that “much more needs to be done to end the suffering.”
The deal, set to take effect Thursday morning, was welcomed by human rights groups and political leaders as a sign of potential progress toward ending the fighting, which began Oct. 7 when Hamas launched an attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials.
Israeli authorities said most of the victims were civilians and that Palestinian armed groups also captured around 240 other people in the attack.
Israel vowed to dismantle Hamas and launched a devastating attack on Gaza that wiped out entire neighborhoods and killed more than 14,500 people, according to Palestinian authorities, including more than 5,600 children.
Alongside the bombings, Israel has severely restricted the supply of food, electricity, fuel and water for more than 2.3 million residents of the Gaza Strip, with international aid groups warning of a humanitarian catastrophe.
Medical officials have warned that the disease could spread in dire conditions and with contaminated water.
Refugee camps, UN schools and hospitals housing the displaced have all been targeted, and the small trickle of humanitarian aid arriving across the border with Egypt has not been enough to cope with the surge. extent of suffering.
Aid groups say one of their main ambitions is to deliver aid to northern Gaza, which has remained largely inaccessible and where almost all hospitals have ceased functioning during a blistering air and ground offensive Israeli forces.
“The entire humanitarian sector is ready to step up its efforts once everything is resolved,” said Tommaso Della Longa, spokesperson for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Israeli authorities stressed that the temporary pause in fighting would not mean the end of the war.
“We are at war, and we will continue the war until we have achieved all of our goals: destroying Hamas, returning all our hostages and ensuring that no entity in Gaza can threaten Israel,” the prime minister said. Israeli Benjamin Netanyahu in a recorded message.
Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said implementing the deal was a “complex process that could take time.”
Officials from Arab countries welcomed the truce and said they hoped it could lead to new agreements in the future.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud also welcomed the truce, but insisted that the increased humanitarian aid resulting from the deal “must remain in place and must be expanded.”
Qatari official Mohammed al-Khulaifi, who helped negotiate the deal, said he hoped the agreement would result in a “broader agreement and a permanent ceasefire.”
