Fighting in Gaza continues amid criticism of “watered down” UNSC resolution
Israeli strikes and ground fighting continued on Saturday in the Gaza Strip following the UN Security Council resolution that approved aid without an appeal for a ceasefire.
Israel pressed its Gaza offensive on Saturday, with Hamas authorities reporting heavy shelling in several cities hours after world powers demanded more aid be allowed.
The UN Security Council’s passed a watered-down resolution on Friday boosting aid to Gaza, but without a call for a ceasefire. The resolution has been criticised by some countries as “nearly meaningless”.
IDF reported on Saturday it had “eliminated 8,000 terrorists affiliated with Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in the Gaza Strip since 7 October, the day Hamas launched an attack on Israel.
The Israeli army also released footage it says shows the troops’ operations around the Issa area in the Gaza Strip, as well as airstrikes on different Hamas targets.
Rockets alerts sounded in Israel throughout Saturday.
At least 201 have been killed in Gaza in the last 24 hours and 368 were injured as Israeli attacks continue in the enclave, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
The new toll brings those killed in Gaza since the beginning of the war to 20,258, with 53,688 injured.
On Friday, Israeli airstrikes flattened two homes, one in Gaza City and the other in the urban refugee camp of Nuseirat in the center of the territory.
The Gaza City strike killed 76 people from the al-Mughrabi family, making it one of the deadliest of the war, said Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for Gaza’s Civil Defence department.
Among those killed were Issam al-Mughrabi, a veteran employee of UN Development Program, his wife, and their five children.
Later Friday, a strike destroyed the Nuseirat home of Mohammed Khalifa, a local TV journalist, killing him and at least 14 others, according to officials at the nearby Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital, where the bodies were taken.
Mourners held funeral prayers Saturday in the hospital’s courtyard while rescue teams continued to search for survivors. The legs of at least two bodies were seen under what appeared to be a collapsed roof.
The UN continues to warn of the dire humanitarian situation for Palestinians, and say “four out of five of the hungriest people anywhere in the world are in Gaza”.
World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on social media that “famine is looming in Gaza”
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