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Dozens killed as Israel ramps up Gaza strikes
US ‘alarmed’ as 450 targets hit in 24hrs; UNSC delays vote on ceasefire
AGENCIES
Israel sharply ramped up strikes on the Gaza Strip, pounding the length of the Palestinian enclave and killing hundreds in a new, expanded phase of the war that Washington said veered from Israeli promises to do more to protect civilians.
The Israeli military yesterday said it had struck more than 450 targets in Gaza from land, sea and air over the past 24 hours - the most since a truce collapsed last week and about double the daily figures typically reported since then.
With 85 percent of Gazans now displaced and unable to access any aid, hospitals overrun and food running out, the main UN agency there said society was “on the verge of a full-blown collapse”.
Meanwhile, a UN Security Council vote on a demand for a humanitarian ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war was delayed by several hours yesterday until after a planned meeting between Arab ministers and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
The 15-member council had been due to vote on a brief draft resolution yesterday morning, but it was delayed at the request of the United Arab Emirates, which put forward the text with the support of Arab and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation states.
To be adopted, a resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the five permanent members - the United States, Russia, China, France or Britain. The US has said it does not support any further action by the council at this time.
On the ground, residents and the Israeli military both reported intensified fighting in both northern areas, where Israel had previously said its troops had largely completed their tasks last month, and in the south where they launched a new assault this week.
Gaza’s health ministry reported 350 people killed on Thursday, bringing the death toll from Israel’s two-month campaign in Gaza to more than 17,487, with thousands more missing and presumed buried under rubble. More strikes were reported yesterday morning in Khan Younis in the south, the Nusseirat camp in the centre and Gaza City in the north.
“As we stand here almost a week into this campaign into the south... it remains imperative that Israel put a premium on civilian protection,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a press conference in Washington on Thursday.
“And there does remain a gap between... the intent to protect civilians and the actual results that we’re seeing on the ground.”
Israel launched its attack on Gaza after Hamas fighters intruded into Israel on Oct 7, killing 1,200 people and seizing more than 240 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes, many forced to flee three or four times, with only the belongings they can carry.
With the fighting now extended across both halves of the Gaza Strip at the same time, residents say it has become almost impossible to find refuge.
Reuters journalists in the southern Gaza Strip have seen dead and wounded overrunning the main Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, where there was no room on the floor for arriving patients sprawled across bloodsmeared tiles.
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