Israeli attacks kill over 40 in Gaza

Aug 23, 2024 News

Gaza’s health authorities reported at least 42 more deaths from Israeli attacks on Thursday bringing the overall death toll since last Oct. 7 to 40,265.

(AL JAZEERA) Gaza’s health authorities reported at least 42 more deaths from Israeli attacks on Thursday, bringing the overall death toll since last Oct. 7 to 40,265.

A Health Ministry statement said that some 93,144 others have been injured in the ongoing assault. “Israeli forces killed 42 people and injured 163 others in four ‘massacres’ of families in the last 24 hours,” the ministry said. “Many people are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them,” it added.

Israel has continued a brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023, following a Hamas attack despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire. Over 10 months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine. Israel faces accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which has ordered a halt to military operations in the southern city of Rafah, where over one million Palestinians had sought refuge before the area was invaded on May 6.

Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum says residents of Deir el-Balah are now looking for new areas to flee to after Israeli forces pushed deeper into the city in central Gaza. “The Israeli army is starting a new military incursion in the eastern areas, with residents in certain blocks asked to flee to the western parts,” he reported. “We have seen families since yesterday morning until now who are fleeing from these areas. The cars are loaded with basic furniture … and they are looking for any empty space of land in order to set up their tents, despite the lack of any humanitarian aid, including food and water.” Moreover, Abu Azzoum said, Israeli army operations were not only taking place in central Gaza but continued “to expand to the northern and southern parts” of the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, AlJazeera also reported that an Israeli official told The Times of Israel that a ceasefire deal would not mean the end of the war in Gaza. “So long as Hamas doesn’t agree to a deal, we will continue fighting,” the official was quoted as saying. “Even if they do, the war will continue. Of course, if there is a deal, there will be a lull in the fighting in the first stage. But we will continue fighting until we achieve all of our war aims.”

The insistence on the war continuing echoes the words of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has himself insisted that any ceasefire deal still allow the Israelis to continue to attack Gaza, despite the US insistence that a deal would lead to an end to the war. Hamas has repeatedly stated that any deal to secure the release of captives held in Gaza lead to a lasting ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the enclave.

The talks between Egyptian, Israeli and US officials will focus on the border as Israel demands that it maintain a military presence in the Philadelphi Corridor – the name used for the stretch of land along the border, the US news website Axios reports.

Egypt has rejected any long-term Israeli presence there, seeing it as a security threat. Hamas has also demanded the Israelis withdraw from the area, which Israeli forces captured in late May. The Palestinian group has insisted that a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza – including the Philadelphi Corridor – be part of any ceasefire deal. The issue is a major sticking point, and Axios reports that Biden urged Netanyahu to be “flexible” on the issue during the talks.

The UN agency for children’s Regional Director for Middle East and North Africa Adele Khodr has urged world leaders to secure a ceasefire deal, warning that the daily violence in Gaza should not be the “new normal”.  “With each day passing, the violence intensifies in #Gaza: small children’s bodies being pulled out from under the rubble, injured children crying in fear with no safe space or place remaining for them,” she posted on X. “The daily violence should not become the new normal. World leaders have to act to save children’s lives. A ceasefire is needed now.”

• attacks, death, Israeli, people, UN Security Council