OVERNIGHT strikes on Gaza killed dozens, the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry said Saturday, as Israel’s spy chief joined talks in Paris seeking to unblock negotiations on a truce.
The negotiations come after a plan for a post-war Gaza unveiled by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drew criticism from key ally the United States, and was rejected by Hamas and the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank.
They also come alongside deepening fears for Gaza’s civilians. The United Nations’ main aid body for Palestinians, UNWRA, said Gazans were “in extreme peril while the world watches”.
Hamas said on Saturday morning that Israeli forces had launched more than 70 strikes on civilian homes in Deir al-Balah, Khan Yunis and Rafah among other locations over the previous 24 hours. The health ministry said at least 92 people were killed.
The Palestinian Islamist movement that has ruled Gaza since 2007 also said fighting was raging in the northern district of Zeitun.
AFPTV footage showed distraught Gazans queueing on Friday for food in Jabalia, also in the besieged Palestinian territory’s devastated north, and protesting over dire living conditions.
“We have no water, no flour and we are very tired because of hunger. Our backs and eyes hurt because of fire and smoke,” said one of them, Oum Wajdi Salha.
Gaza’s health ministry said a two-month-old baby identified as Mahmud Fatuh had died of “malnutrition”.
The UN humanitarian agency OCHA warned that “the elevated risk of famine in Gaza is projected to increase” without enough food and water, as well as health services.
