RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — More than 90 Palestinians, including dozens from an extended family, were killed in Israeli air strikes on two homes in Gaza, rescuers and hospital officials said Saturday, a day after the U.N. Secretary-General warned that… There is no safe place in the Rafah, Gaza Strip (AP) – area and that the Israeli attack creates “enormous obstacles” to the distribution of humanitarian aid.
US President Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday, calling it a long and special conversation a day after the Biden administration once again protected Israel on the diplomatic stage. The UN Security Council adopted it on Friday Diluted decision It calls for the immediate acceleration of aid delivery to desperate civilians in Gaza, but not for a ceasefire.
“I did not ask for a ceasefire,” Biden said of the call. Netanyahu's office said the prime minister “made clear that Israel will continue the war until all its goals are achieved.”
The Israeli military also said on Saturday that its forces arrested hundreds of alleged activists in Gaza over the past week and transferred more than 200 to Israel for further questioning, providing rare details about the case. Controversial policy Mass arrests of Palestinian men. The army said that more than 700 people with alleged ties to Hamas and Islamic Jihad have so far been sent to Israeli prisons.
Israel declared war after Hamas militants stormed the border October 7As a result, about 1,200 people were killed and about 240 hostages were taken. more than 20 thousand Palestinians were killed in Israel A war to destroy Hamas More than 53,000 people have been infected, according to health officials in Gaza, a besieged territory that has been ruled by the Armed Islamic Group for 16 years.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza said on Saturday evening that 201 people were martyred during the past 24 hours.
Mahmoud Bassal, spokesman for the Gaza Civil Defense Department, said Friday's air strikes destroyed two homes, including one in Gaza City, where 76 people from the Mughrabi family were killed, making the attack one of the bloodiest of the war.
Palestinians carry the bodies of the Dhaheer family, who were martyred in the Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip, during their funeral in Rafah on Friday, December 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Hatim Ali)
Among the dead were Issam al-Mughrabi, a veteran UNDP employee, his wife and their five children.
“The United Nations and civilians in Gaza are not a target,” said Achim Steiner, head of the agency. “This war must end.”
A raid destroyed the home of Mohammed Khalifa, a local TV journalist, killing him and at least 14 others in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp, according to officials at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital where the bodies were taken.
Israel blames Hamas for the high number of civilian deaths, pointing to the militants' use of crowded residential areas and tunnels. Israel has launched thousands of air strikes since October 7, and has largely refrained from commenting on specific attacks.
The Israeli attack was one of these attacks The most destructive military campaigns in modern historyWhich led to the displacement of approximately 85% of Gaza's population of 2.3 million people and the leveling of large areas of the Strip to the ground. Small coastal enclave. According to the report, more than half a million people in Gaza – a quarter of the population – suffer from hunger To report This week from the United Nations and other agencies.
In the southern city of Khan Yunis, men walking through the rubble tried to ward off cats feeding on the unclaimed bodies. One of the men covered a body with a blanket. Another wanted to call an ambulance but had no phone signal.
Israeli army spokesman Admiral Daniel Hajari said that the forces are expanding their offensive in northern and southern Gaza, and that the forces are fighting in “complex areas” in Khan Yunis.
The army's statement on the arrests followed previous Palestinian reports of widespread arrests of teenagers and men from homes, shelters and hospitals in northern Gaza where forces have imposed tighter control. Some of the released detainees said they were stripped except for their underwear, beaten, and held for several days with minimal water.
Channel 13 in Israel showed new footage of Palestinian men stripped of their underwear and walking in a single row, with soldiers near them. It is not clear when the footage was taken. In response to widespread criticism, the army said that detainees were being stripped naked and examined for weapons. It denied allegations of abuse and said those with no links to militants would be released quickly.
Hamas called on the International Committee of the Red Cross and other organizations to put pressure on the Israeli authorities to reveal the location and conditions of the detainees.
Israel says it has killed thousands of Hamas activists, including about 2,000 in the past three weeks, but has not provided evidence. It says that 144 of its soldiers were killed in the ground attack.
Following the UN decision, it was not immediately clear how and when the aid delivery process would be accelerated. Trucks enter through two crossings – Rafah on the border with Egypt and Kerem Shalom on the border with Israel. The United Nations said fewer than 100 trucks entered on Friday, far below the daily average of 500 trucks before the war.
Israeli officials said that both crossings were closed on Saturday by mutual agreement between Israel, Egypt and the United Nations.
Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official, criticized the Security Council resolution that called for aid to Gaza without suspending hostilities, describing it as “weak” and “insufficient.”
Before the council vote, the United States negotiated the removal of language that would have given the United Nations authority to inspect aid going to Gaza, something Israel says it must continue to do itself to ensure the material does not reach Hamas.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday that it is wrong to measure the effectiveness of the humanitarian operation by the number of trucks.
He added: “The real problem is that the way Israel is managing this attack creates enormous obstacles to the distribution of humanitarian aid inside Gaza.”
Netanyahu and his government also faced pressure at home, with calls to release the remaining hostages. “Pepe, Pepe is retiring. “We don't want you anymore,” chanted a crowd of thousands in Tel Aviv.
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Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani in Washington and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
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