GAZA STRIP: Efforts mounted on Thursday to get more aid into the war-devastated Gaza Strip, where the UN warns of famine and desperate residents have stormed relief convoys.
After mediators failed to reach a truce between Israel and Hamas for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which started Monday, fighting continued with at least 69 deaths over the previous 24 hours, the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry said.
Hamas authorities reported more than 40 air strikes across Gaza, from Beit Hanoun in the north to Rafah in the south, where most of Gaza’s population has sought refuge and Israel is threatening a ground assault.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday doubled down on pledges to invade Rafah, saying: “There is international pressure to prevent us from entering Rafah and completing the job.
“I will continue to repel the pressures and we will enter Rafah... and bring complete victory to the people of Israel,” he added during a visit to a field intelligence base.
Around 1.5 million Palestinians have sought refuge along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt in Rafah.
Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said late Wednesday that a “significant” number of them would need to be moved “to a humanitarian island that we will create with the international community”.
The Israeli military said on Thursday it was “raiding Hamas’s hideouts and military strongholds” in southern Gaza’s main city of Khan Yunis.
“During a search in the area, the forces located several weapons in a bedroom under a bed, including missiles and explosives. Following the searches in the area, the forces located a rocket launcher and missiles near a school and destroyed it.”
Gaza’s health ministry said seven people were killed when Israeli troops opened fire at an aid distribution point near Gaza City. The army had no immediate comment.
In central Israel, police said a Gaza-raised Palestinian had stabbed and seriously wounded a soldier in a shopping centre, who had then shot him dead.
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