Israeli airstrikes hit two refugee camps in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday, killing scores of people, health officials have said.
The strikes, which wounding dozens more, come four days after an attack at another camp in northern Gaza, an area where Israel told people to leave for their safety. The bloody bombing's victims are mostly women and children, it is feared.
The latest attack was made as the U.S. keeps urging Israel to take a humanitarian pause from its relentless bombardment of Gaza and rising civilian deaths. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to Ramallah in the West Bank for a previously unannounced meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Around 40 people are feared dead with dozens injured (Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock)The Israel Defense Forcesâ Lt Col Peter Lerner says the south of Gaza remains unquestionably safer despite the blast killing dozens. He spoke following the news that 52 lives were lost in an explosion at al-Maghazi refugee camp in the south, where Israel has told civilians they should to move to for their own safety.
Asked by the BBC whether anywhere in Gaza is safe, he responded: "It is definitely safer in the south.â More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, most of them back on October 7 when a Hamas attack that started the fighting, and 242 hostages were taken from Israel into Gaza by the militant group.
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Approaching 10,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its campaign to eliminate Hamas. Blinken on Saturday met with Arab foreign ministers in Jordan, after holding talks in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who insists there could be no temporary cease-fire until all hostages held by Hamas are released. President Joe Biden suggested that progress was being made on the humanitarian pause.
The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war reached 9,700, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. In the occupied West Bank, more than 140 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids.
More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, most of them in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that started the fighting, and 242 hostages were taken from Israel into Gaza by the militant group.
Roughly 1,100 people have left the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing since Wednesday under an apparent agreement among the United States, Egypt, Israel and Qatar.
