Israeli strikes kill 28 in Gaza
Agence France-Presse . Palestinian Territories 23 December, 2024, 00:12
A youth searches for survivors at the site of an Israeli strike that targeted the Abu Samra family home in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday, amid the on-going war between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. | AFP photo
Gazaโs civil defence agency said on Sunday Israeli strikes killed at least 28 Palestinians, as the director of one of two hospitals still operating in the territoryโs north reported bombardment nearby.
More than 14 months into the Israel-Hamas war, there was no let-up in the violence in the Gaza Strip even as Palestinian groups involved in the fighting said a ceasefire deal was โcloser than everโ.
Israel has faced growing criticism of its actions during the war, triggered by Hamasโs October 7, 2023 attack, including from rights groups accusing it of โacts of genocideโ which the Israeli government strongly denies.
Pope Francis denounced on Sunday the โcrueltyโ of Israelโs bombardment, highlighting the deaths of children and attacks on schools and hospitals in Gaza for the second time in as many days, while Israel accused the pontiff of โdouble standardsโ.
On the ground in Gaza, civil agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said that at least 13 people were killed in an air strike on a house in central Gazaโs Deir el-Balah belonging to the Abu Samra family.
An AFP photographer saw residents searching through the debris for survivors, while others looked for belongings they could salvage.
In a nearby compound, bodies covered in blankets were laid on the ground.
โWe are losing loved ones every day,โ said Deir el-Balah resident Naim al-Ramlawi.
โI pray to God that a truce will be reached soonโ and would allow Gazans to finally โlive a decent life, instead of this miserable lifeโ, he said.
There was no comment from the Israeli military, which has confirmed a separate strike further north, on a school in Gaza City.
Bassal said that eight people including four children were killed in the attack on the school, which had been repurposed as a shelter for Palestinians displaced by the war.
The Israeli military said it had carried out a โprecise strikeโ overnight targeting a Hamas โcommand and control centreโ inside the school compound in the cityโs east.
AFP impages showed the damaged school building where mangled concrete slabs and iron beams lay strewn amid patches of blood.
Bassal said in a statement that an overnight strike killed three people in Rafah, in the south.
And a drone strike early on Sunday hit a car in Gaza City, killing four people, the spokesman added.
Meanwhile a hospital director in northern Gaza said Israeli forces were bombing buildings near the facility.
Hossam Abu Safia, director of Kamal Adwan hospital, said in a statement that the facilityโs generators were hit and that โthe army is attempting to target the fuel tank, which is full of fuel and poses a significant fire risk.โ
Contacted by AFP, the military said it was unaware of any strikes on the hospital, one of only two still operating in northern Gaza.
The unprecedented Hamas attack last year that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also took 251 hostages, of whom 96 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israelโs retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed at least 45,259 people, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territoryโs health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.
Hamas and two other Palestinian armed groups said in a rare joint statement on Saturday that an agreement to end the bloodshed was โcloser than everโ, after Qatari-hosted talks that followed months of stalled negotiations.
The groups, which include Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said that a truce in Gaza and hostage release deal may be within reach, provided Israel does not impose new conditions in negotiations.
Negotiations have faced multiple challenges since a one-week truce in November 2023, with the primary point of contention being the establishment of a lasting ceasefire. Another unresolved issue is the territoryโs post-war governance.
In the Vatican City, Pope Francis renewed on Sunday his condemnation of Israelโs attacks, a day after decrying their โcrueltyโ.
โWith pain I think of Gaza, of so much cruelty, of the children being machine-gunned, of the bombings of schools and hospitals,โ the pope said after his weekly Angelus prayer.
An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman hit back at Francisโs initial comments on Saturday, saying they were โparticularly disappointingโ and showed โdouble standardsโ, singling out Israel for criticism.