— Health ministry in Gaza says Israeli bombardment death toll at 29,606
— ‘Children dying of hunger’, says displaced Palestinian woman in northern Gaza
GAZA STRIP: Israeli air strikes targeted homes in southern Gaza, witnesses have said, with the health ministry saying more than 100 people were killed over the previous day.
According to AFP, 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.
An Israeli air strike on Friday destroyed the home of well-known Palestinian comedian Mahmoud Zuaiter in Gaza, killing at least 23 people and injuring dozens more, according to the Gaza health ministry. Most of the victims were women and children, it added.
Health ministry in Gaza says Israeli bombardment death toll at 29,606
The health ministry in Gaza said that at least 29,606 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory during the Israeli bombardment.
The toll includes at least 92 fatalities in the past 24 hours, while 69,737 people have been injured since the conflict began on October 7, a statement read.
Israeli strike kills 23 at family home of Gaza comedian: ministry
Meanwhile, An Israeli air strike on Friday destroyed the home of a well-known Palestinian comedian in Gaza, killing at least 23 and injuring dozens more, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
Mahmoud Zuaiter’s family home in the Deir al-Balah area of central Gaza was flattened, with most of the victims women and children, it added.
Zuaiter, who was injured in the attack, has more than 1.2 million fans on Instagram while his videos have been seen widely on YouTube.
In a video posted online after Friday’s attack, Zuaiter, who is in his late 30s, is seen holding an injured child.
“I have spoken strongly against anyone leaving Gaza and I was praying to God, please don’t force me to leave Gaza… because I love Gaza and its people so much,” he is heard saying.
“But it seems they want us to leave Gaza.”
He then bursts into tears.
The strike came with no let-up in Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip, as it seeks to destroy Hamas after the October 7 attacks on Israeli communities near the border with the Palestinian territory.
Some 1,160 people were killed in Israel, mostly civilians, with about 250 others taken hostage.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 29,514 people across Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the territory.
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, AFP quotes the United Nations as saying.
“We have reached the point of extreme poverty and hunger,” 62-year-old Zarifa Hamad, a displaced woman living in a camp in northern Gaza, told AFP.
“Children are dying of hunger.”
Netanyahu’s plan for post-conflict Gaza draws US criticism
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has unveiled a plan for post-conflict Gaza that drew criticism from key ally the United States and was rejected by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, AFP reports.
The new plan came after airstrikes targeted homes in southern Gaza, and as an Israeli delegation arrived in Paris hoping to “unblock” truce discussions.
Netanyahu’s plan envisages civil affairs in a post-crisis Gaza being run by Palestinian officials without links to Hamas. It also lays out that, even after the conflict, the Israeli army would have “indefinite freedom” to operate throughout Gaza to prevent any resurgence of terror activity, according to the proposals.
The plan was swiftly rejected by the Palestinian Authority and drew criticism from the United States. US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Washington had been “consistently clear with our Israeli counterparts” about what was needed in post-conflict Gaza.
“The Palestinian people should have a voice and a vote… through a revitalised Palestinian Authority,” he said. “We don’t believe in a reduction of the size of Gaza… we don’t want to see any forcible displacement of Palestinians outside Gaza and, of course, we don’t want to see Gaza dominated or ruled or governed over by Hamas.”
Asked about the plan during a visit to Argentina, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he would “reserve judgement” until seeing all the details, but said Washington was against any “reoccupation” of Gaza after the Israeli offensive. Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan dismissed Netanyahu’s plan as unworkable.
Hamas says Netanyahu’s post-conflict Gaza plan ‘will never succeed’
A senior Hamas official has lambasted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan for post-conflict Gaza during a press conference in the Lebanese capital, AFP reports.
“When it comes to the day after in the Gaza Strip, Netanyahu is presenting ideas which he knows fully well will never succeed,” Osama Hamdan told reporters.
