UN raises alarm on civilian deaths in Khartoum attacks

GAZA/CAIRO: At least 70 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded in Israeli airstrikes across Gaza on Thursday, after Israel resumed its bombing campaign on the enclave, a Gaza health official said.

Medics said Israeli strikes targeted several houses in northern and southern areas of the Gaza Strip. There was no immediate comment from Israel.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military said its forces had resumed ground operations in central and southern Gaza, after a ceasefire that had broadly held since January collapsed.

The renewed ground operations came a day after more than 400 Palestinians were killed in airstrikes in one of the deadliest episodes since the beginning of the conflict in October 2023.

Since Tuesday, airstrikes have killed 510 Palestinians, with more than half of them women and children, the health official said.

The Israeli military said its operations extended Israel’s control over the Netzarim Corridor, which bisects Gaza, and were a “focused” maneuver aimed at creating a partial buffer zone between the north and the south of the enclave.

The Palestinian militant group Hamas said the ground operation and the incursion into the Netzarim Corridor were a “new and dangerous violation” of the two-month-old ceasefire agreement. In a statement, the group reaffirmed its commitment to the deal and called on mediators to “assume their responsibilities.”

Speaking to Reuters on Thursday, a Hamas official said mediators had stepped up their efforts with the two warring sides but added that “no breakthrough has yet been made.”

The group has made no clear threats to retaliate.

The war started after Hamas militants attacked Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 and taking more than 250 hostages, by Israeli tallies.

More than 49,000 Palestinians have been killed in the ensuing conflict, according to Gaza’s health authorities, with the enclave reduced to rubble.

DEIR AL-BALAH: Israel said Wednesday it launched a “limited ground operation” in northern Gaza to retake part of a corridor that bisects the territory, and the country’s defense minister warned that the army plans to step up the attacks that shattered a two-month ceasefire “with an intensity that you have not seen.”
The military said it had retaken part of the Netzarim corridor, which bisects northern Gaza from the south and from where it had withdrawn as part of the ceasefire with Hamas that began in January.
Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Palestinians in Gaza that the army would again order evacuations from combat zones soon, and that its attacks against Hamas would become more fierce if dozens of hostages held for more than 17 months weren’t freed.
The move appeared to deepen a renewed Israeli offensive in Gaza, which shattered a ceasefire with Hamas.
The Gaza Health Ministry said at least 436 people, including 183 children and 94 women, have been killed since Israel launched the strikes early Tuesday. It said another 678 people have been wounded.
The military says it only strikes militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas because it operates in densely populated areas. Gaza’s Health Ministry records do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
The military said in a statement that as part of the new offensive, it struck dozens of militants and militant sites on Wednesday, including the command center of a Hamas battalion.
The war in Gaza, which was paused in January by an internationally-mediated ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, has been among the deadliest conflicts ever for humanitarian workers, according to the UN.
The resumption of fighting launched by Israel early Tuesday risks plunging the region back into all-out war. It came weeks after the end of the first phase of the ceasefire, during which Israel and Hamas exchanged hostages for prisoners and were set to negotiate an extension to the truce that was meant to bring about an eventual end to the war.
But those negotiations never got off the ground. Hamas has demanded that Israel stick to the terms of the initial ceasefire deal, including a full withdrawal from Gaza and an end to the war. Israel, which has vowed to defeat Hamas, has put forward a new proposal that would extend the truce and free more hostages held by Hamas, without a commitment to end the war.