Photo: Bashar Taleb Agence France-Presse Men transport injured people to Khan Younes hospital.
France Media Agency in the Gaza Strip
Published at 9:51 a.m. Updated at 12:38 p.m.
- Middle East
Israel on Tuesday increased strikes on the Gaza Strip, devastated by more than nine months of war with the Islamist movement Hamas, Washington having renewed criticism of its ally due to the high number of civilian casualties.
Started on October 7 after a Hamas attack on Israeli soil, the war knows no respite and hopes for a truce are dwindling despite efforts mediating countries — Qatar, Egypt and the United States — to achieve a ceasefire.
Denouncing “massacres” committed by Israel “against unarmed civilians” in the Gaza Strip, a Hamas leader announced on Sunday that the movement was suspending its participation in indirect negotiations but was “ready” to return to these discussions when the government Israeli would demonstrate a “serious desire” to succeed.
The Israeli army continued its operations in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, after the Secretary's statements the day before of State, Antony Blinken, saying that the number of casualties among Palestinian civilians “remains unacceptable”.
At dawn on Tuesday, four bodies were removed from rubble of a house in Khan Younes, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent. Five bodies were taken to the city's Nasser Hospital after an “attack” in Rafah, according to a medical source at the facility.
In the center, in Nousseirat, the Red Crescent and Civil Defense reported several deaths after an Israeli air raid. “I was 50 meters away” and “I saw a missile destroy a large building,” said Abou Ramzi Hamad, a witness who said he saw “the remains” of “an entire family.”
Worried about the intensification of Israeli operations, 13 NGOs have warned of the “deterioration” of access to aid in the Palestinian territory where the situation is catastrophic.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000“Catastrophic human toll”
The war was sparked by an unprecedented commando attack of Hamas infiltrated from Gaza into southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.
Of 251 people kidnapped, 116 are still held in Gaza, 42 of whom are dead, according to the army.
In response, Israel launched an offensive that left 38,713 people dead, including 49 in the past 24 hours, the majority of them civilians, according to data from the Health Ministry of the Hamas-led Gaza government.< /p>
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has always said he wants to continue the war until the destruction of Hamas, in power since 2007 in the Gaza Strip and classified as a terrorist organization by Israel , the United States and the European Union, and the release of all hostages.
Sunday evening, Civil Defense announced 15 dead in a strike on a school sheltering displaced people in a neighborhood of Gaza City, the sixth school bombed in nine days in the territory.
Previously, Hamas claimed that 22 people were killed in Nusseirat in the bombing of a school run by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
The Israeli army claimed to have targeted “terrorists”.
The day before, strikes attributed to the Israeli army left 92 dead near Khan Younes , in a place designated a “humanitarian zone” by Israel, which said it had targeted two senior Hamas leaders in the area.
French diplomacy denounced Tuesday “the strikes of recent days” which “increase the catastrophic human toll among the civilian population”.
Several NGOs including Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and Médecins du monde have denounced the “massacres” in “security zones” and the bombing in Nousseirat.
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Torture
These strikes “aggravate the humanitarian catastrophe”, NGOs continuing “to face obstacles imposed by the continuation of Israeli military operations, deplored MSF on Monday evening.
The capture of the Rafah crossing point by the Israelis in early May caused a “complete stop” of the delivery of aid, according to NGOs who affirm that 50% of households are classified in an “urgent” situation due to risk of famine in the north of the territory.
Israel accuses the UN of being responsible for blocking aid deliveries.
Additionally, Palestinian Minister for Prisoners Qadoura Fares on Monday accused Israel of waging a “war of revenge” against Palestinian detainees arrested in connection with the conflict.
A lawyer from the Department of Prisoner Affairs denounced acts of torture, including “rape” and “psychological” violence, according to the testimonies of detainees he visited in an Israeli prison in the occupied West Bank.
The army told AFP it “categorically rejects” the allegations.