Killer Israel pounds Southern Gaza as martyrs' toll at 29,514
GAZA, Palestine (AFP) - Israeli air strikes targeted homes in southern Gaza, witnesses said on Friday, adding to what aid groups describe as an increasingly hopeless humanitarian situation despite efforts towards new truce talks.
The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said that at least 29,514 people had been martyred in the Palestinian territory during the war between Hamas-led militants and Israel. It added that over 100 people martyred in the past 24 hours, while another 69,616 have been wounded since the war began on October 7.
Israeli media reported a delegation led by David Barnea, head of the Mossad intelligence agency, was heading to Paris for new truce discussions in the war with Hamas militants. Israeli bombardment destroyed one house and left a gaping hole in the earth east of Rafah, on the border with Egypt, where about 1.4 million Gazans have converged in a futile search to escape the fighting.
"We were sleeping in our house when we heard the sound of a missile," said Abdul Hamid Abu el-Enein. "We rushed to the site and found people martyred and injured" in the strike which "completely erased" the two-storey home. Witnesses reported several other houses targeted during the night, and an AFP reporter described heavy strikes in the city of Khan Yunis several kilometres (miles) to the north, as well as in Rafah itself.
Israel's military said fighting, including with drone strikes and sniper fire, continued in the western Khan Yunis area. More than four months of fighting and bombardment have flattened much of Gaza and pushed its population of around 2.4 million to the brink of famine as disease spreads, according to the United Nations.
The UN humanitarian agency OCHA has blamed "limitations on the entry of aid" as well as the combat and growing insecurity for severely hampering assistance. The war started after Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack which resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures. Hamas militants also took hostages, 130 of whom remain in Gaza including 30 presumed dead, according to Israel.
'Die hungry'
At Rafah's Najjar hospital on Friday, mourners grieved over two dead children whose faces poked through white shrouds. Mahmud Jarghun said he had no hope in the negotiations because "the intention is to annihilate the Palestinian people".
"I want to die hungry," he said, so "God will hold them accountable for what we are suffering from." Fierce gun battles occurred in the neighbouring Zeitun district, where tanks were deployed, according to witnesses.
The army said helicopters were in action to support "targeted raids" in the area. "I fear we are on the edge of a monumental disaster with grave implications for regional peace, security and human rights," said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the main aid agency in Gaza, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).
In a letter to the United Nations General Assembly, he said UNRWA "has reached a breaking point", as donors freeze funding, Israel exerts pressure to dismantle the agency and humanitarian needs soar.
