The deaths came as the conflict enters its 100th day and amid growing fears the war could turn into a regional conflict.
More than 30 Palestinians, including young children, were killed in two Israeli airstrikes overnight from Friday to Saturday in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials said, as concerns continued to grow over a lack of fuel and of supplies for overloaded hospitals.
A video provided by the Gaza Civil Defense Department shows rescuers searching with flashlights through the rubble of a house in Gaza City early Saturday morning after it was hit by an Israeli attack.
The images show emergency workers carrying a little girl wrapped in blankets, injured in the face, and at least two other children who appear dead. A boy, covered in dust, grimaces as he is loaded into an ambulance.
The attack on the house in the Daraj neighborhood killed at least 20 people in total, according to civil defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal.
Another strike near the town of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on the Egyptian border, killed at least 13 people, including two children. The bodies of those killed, mainly those of a family displaced from central Gaza, were taken to the city’s Abu Youssef al-Najjar hospital.
Death toll rises to nearly 24,000
The health ministry in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip said Saturday that 135 Palestinians had been killed in the past 24 hours, bringing the overall death toll in the war to 23,843, according to the ministry. The count does not distinguish between fighters and civilians, but local authorities said about two-thirds of the dead were women and children. The ministry also said the total number of war casualties exceeded 60,000.
Israel says Hamas is responsible for the high number of civilian casualties because its fighters use civilian buildings and launch attacks from densely populated urban areas.
As the war in Gaza enters its 100th day on Sunday, the World Health Organization said only 15 of the territory’s 36 hospitals are still partially functional, according to the United Nations humanitarian agency (OCHA).
The main hospital in central Gaza, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the town of Deir al-Balah, fell into darkness on Friday morning after running out of fuel.
Staff were able to run fans and incubators on solar batteries during the day, and received a small shipment of emergency fuel from another hospital late Friday.
Hospital officials said fuel was expected to run out again on Saturday unless WHO was able to deliver the promised shipment. Aid delivery was disrupted by a new telecommunications disruption across much of the Gaza Strip, which began late Friday.
Israel reports 186 soldiers killed since conflict began
Since the start of the Israeli ground operation in late October, 186 Israeli soldiers have been killed and 1,099 others injured in Gaza, according to the army. More than 85% of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced as a result of Israel’s air and ground offensive, and large swaths of the territory have been razed.
Recent events, including US and British military strikes on Houthi-controlled sites in Yemen, have fueled growing fears that the war will turn into a regional conflict.
The strikes were carried out in response to a drone and missile campaign launched by the Houthis against commercial ships in the Red Sea, in response, they say, to the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip.
Persistent shortages of food, fuel and drinking water
With shortages of food, drinking water and fuel already severe in Gaza, OCHA said in its daily report that Israel’s severe constraints on humanitarian missions and outright refusals to accept them had increased. since the beginning of the year.
The agency said only 21 percent of planned deliveries of food, medicine, water and other supplies managed to reach the northern Gaza Strip.
“These refusals cripple the ability of humanitarian partners to respond meaningfully, coherently and at scale to widespread humanitarian needs.”the agency said.
Efforts by the United States and other international organizations to press Israel to do more to alleviate the suffering of Palestinian civilians have had little success.
ADVERTISEMENTThe lack of adequate humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza is part of South Africa’s complaint filed this week at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, accusing Israel of genocide.
In its complaint, South Africa claims that Israel failed to ensure that the medical needs of Palestinians were met and accuses it of “directly attacking Palestinian hospitals, ambulances and other health facilities.” health care in Gaza.
The country asked the Court to immediately order Israel to end its offensive and provide access to “adequate fuel, shelter, clothing, hygiene and sanitation services” as well as medical supplies and assistance.
Israel’s legal team has accused Hamas of using hospitals and other civilian facilities to launch attacks and shelter its fighters. Israel has argued that it is doing everything possible to protect civilians and working with hospitals to provide them with aid. Israel requested the dismissal of South Africa’s complaint.
The date of the decision of the International Court of Justice was not immediately specified.
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