Israel strikes south Gaza, raids a hospital within the north as struggle grinds on with renewed U.S. assist

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli forces raided one of many final functioning hospitals in Gaza‘s north and bombarded the south with airstrikes that killed at least 28 Palestinians, pressing ahead with their offensive Tuesday with renewed backing from the United States, despite rising international alarm.

The air and ground war, launched in response to Hamas‘ Oct. 7 attack into Israel, has killed nearly 20,000 Palestinians, displaced some 1.9 million, demolished much of northern Gaza and sparked attacks on U.S. and Israeli targets across the region.

Assaults on ships in the Red Sea by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have led main delivery corporations – in addition to the oil and fuel large BP – to droop commerce by means of the important waterway, prompting the U.S. and its allies to launch a brand new mission to counter the menace.

But after assembly with Israeli officers Monday, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin mentioned he was “not here to dictate timelines or terms.”

His remarks signaled that the U.S. would proceed shielding Israel from rising worldwide requires a cease-fire because the United Nations Security Council was set to carry one other vote Tuesday, and would hold offering important navy help for one of many twenty first century’s deadliest navy campaigns.

A strike on a house in Rafah the place displaced individuals have been sheltering killed a minimum of 25 individuals, together with a 2-year-old boy and his new child sister, and one other strike killed a minimum of three individuals, in response to Associated Press journalists who noticed the our bodies arrive at two native hospitals early Tuesday.

Rafah, which is within the southern a part of Gaza the place Israel has instructed Palestinians to hunt shelter, has been repeatedly bombarded in latest days, as Israel has struck what it says are militant targets throughout the territory, typically killing giant numbers of civilians.

The navy mentioned Tuesday that it had killed a outstanding Hamas financier in an airstrike on Rafah, with out specifying when it occurred or if others have been killed or wounded.

Meanwhile, fierce battles additionally raged in northern Gaza, the place Hamas continues to place up stiff resistance throughout what’s now a wasteland, seven weeks after Israeli tanks and troops stormed in following Hamas‘ attack on southern Israel.

Militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in that assault and abducted 240 others.

More than 19,400 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, which has said that most are women and minors and that thousands more are buried under rubble. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths.

Israel’s navy says 131 of its troopers have been killed within the Gaza floor offensive. It says it has killed 1000’s of militants, with out offering proof. Israel blames civilian deaths on Hamas, saying it makes use of them as human shields, however the navy hardly ever feedback on particular person strikes.

Israeli forces raided the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City in a single day, in response to the church that operates it, destroying a wall at its entrance entrance and detaining most of its workers.

The facility was the scene of an explosion early within the struggle that killed dozens of Palestinians, and which an Associated Press investigation later decided was doubtless attributable to a misfired Palestinian rocket.

Don Binder, a pastor at St. George’s Anglican Cathedral, which runs the hospital, mentioned the raid left simply two docs, 4 nurses and two janitors to are likely to over 100 critically wounded sufferers, with no working water or electrical energy.

“It has been a great mercy for the many wounded in Gaza City that we were able to keep our Ahli Anglican Hospital open for so long,” Binder wrote in a Facebook put up late Monday. “That ended today.”

He mentioned an Israeli tank was parked on the rubble on the hospital’s entrance, blocking anybody from getting into or leaving.

There was no rapid remark from the Israeli navy. Forces have raided different hospitals throughout Gaza, accusing Hamas of utilizing them for navy functions. Hospital workers have denied the allegations and accused Israel of endangering critically sick and wounded civilians.

The navy mentioned Tuesday that troops discovered an explosive gadget inside a clinic in Shijaiyah, a Gaza City neighborhood that has seen heavy combating in latest days. It didn’t say whether or not the clinic was operational, and in footage launched by the navy it appeared to have been deserted.

The U.N. Security Council delayed to Tuesday a vote on an Arab-sponsored decision calling for a halt to hostilities to permit unhindered entry to humanitarian help. Diplomats mentioned negotiations have been happening to get the U.S. to abstain or vote “yes” on the decision after it vetoed an earlier name for a cease-fire.

France, the United Kingdom and Germany — a few of Israel’s closest allies – joined international requires a cease-fire over the weekend. In Israel, protesters have referred to as for negotiations with Hamas to facilitate the discharge of scores of hostages nonetheless held by the group.

CIA Director William Burns met in Warsaw with the top of Israel’s Mossad intelligence company and the prime minister of Qatar on Monday, the primary identified assembly of the three because the cease-fire and the discharge of some 100 hostages in a deal they helped dealer.

But U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby mentioned the talks weren’t “at a point where another deal is imminent.”

Hamas and different militants are nonetheless holding an estimated 129 captives.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that Israel will hold combating till it ends Hamas rule in Gaza, crushes its navy capabilities and frees all of the hostages taken through the Oct. 7 assault. For now, a minimum of, he appears to have full U.S. assist for a marketing campaign that might final months or years.

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Magdy reported from Cairo.