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Airstrikes in Gaza Kill 60 05/14 06:51
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Israeli airstrikes pounded northern and
southern Gaza on Wednesday, killing at least 60 people, including almost two
dozen children, according to local hospitals and health officials, a day after
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there was "no way" he would halt
Israel's offensive in the Palestinian territory before Hamas is defeated.
At least 50 people, including 22 children, were killed in the strikes around
Jabaliya in northern Gaza, according to local hospitals and Gaza's Health
Ministry. At least ten other people were killed in the southern city of Khan
Younis, the European Hospital reported.
The strikes came a day after Hamas released an Israeli-American hostage, a
gesture that some thought could lay the groundwork for a ceasefire.
But Netanyahu said Tuesday he would not halt Israel's war in Gaza -- even if
Hamas releases its hostages -- dimming hopes for a truce.
The Israeli military refused to comment on the strikes, but had warned
residents of Jabaliya to evacuate late Tuesday night due to militant
infrastructure in the area, including rocket launchers.
In Jabaliya, rescue workers smashed through collapsed concrete slabs using
hand tools, lit only by the light of cellphone cameras, to remove bodies of
some of the children who were killed.
Israel threatens to escalate operations in Gaza
In comments released by Netanyahu's office Tuesday, the prime minister said
Israeli forces were just days away from a promised escalation of force and
would enter Gaza "with great strength to complete the mission. ... It means
destroying Hamas."
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people in a 2023
intrusion into southern Israel. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed over
52,800 Palestinians, many of them women and children, according to Gaza's
Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were combatants or
civilians.
Israel's offensive has obliterated vast swathes of Gaza's urban landscape
and displaced 90% of the population, often multiple times.
The strikes came amid hopes that Trump's visit to the Middle East could
usher in a ceasefire deal or renewal of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
France condemns Israeli blockade of humanitarian aid to Gaza
International food security experts issued a stern warning earlier this week
that the Gaza Strip will likely fall into famine if Israel doesn't lift its
blockade and stop its military campaign.
French President Emmanuel Macron strongly denounced Netanyahu's decision to
block aid from entering Gaza as "a disgrace" that has caused a major
humanitarian crisis.
"I say it forcefully, what Benjamin Netanyahu's government is doing today is
unacceptable," Macron said Tuesday evening on TF1 national television. "There's
no medicine. We can't get the wounded out. Doctors can't get in. What he's
doing is a disgrace. It's a disgrace."
Macron, who visited injured Palestinians in El Arish hospital in Egypt last
month, called for the reopening of the Gaza border to humanitarian convoys.
"Then, yes, we must fight to demilitarize Hamas, free the hostages and build a
political solution," he said.
Nearly half a million Palestinians are facing possible starvation, living at
"catastrophic" levels of hunger, while 1 million others can barely get enough
food, according to findings by the Integrated Food Security Phase
Classification, a leading international authority on the severity of hunger
crises.
Israel has banned all food, shelter, medicine and any other goods from
entering the Palestinian territory for the past 10 weeks, even as it carries
out waves of airstrikes and ground operations.
Gaza's population of around 2.3 million people relies almost entirely on
outside aid to survive, because Israel's 19-month-old military campaign has
wiped away most capacity to produce food inside the territory.
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