Gaza:

Nearly 200 Palestinians were killed in 24 hours in a brutal Israeli campaign of retaliation after massive Israeli tank fire and aerial bombardment hit Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip on Friday night, residents said.

Gaza health officials said 187 Palestinians were confirmed killed in Israeli strikes in a 24-hour period, bringing the total death toll to 21,507 – about 1% of Gaza’s population. Thousands more bodies are feared buried in the neighboring ruins.

According to medics and Palestinian journalists, Israeli aircraft also carried out airstrikes on the Nusrat camp in central Gaza.

Israeli forces are attacking Khan Yunis in preparation for an anticipated advance on the main southern city. The attacking forces have not made any significant progress in the past few weeks.

Defense Minister Yoav Galant claimed that troops were reaching Hamas command centers and weapons depots. The Israeli military also claimed to have destroyed a tunnel complex in the basement of one of the homes of Gaza’s Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza City.

Nearly all of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have fled their homes at least once and many are fleeing again, often seeking refuge in makeshift tents or hiding under tarpaulins and plastic sheets in open fields. Become helpless.

The narrow coastal strip is only 40 km (25 mi) long, making it one of the most densely populated areas in the world.

Palestinian journalist murdered

A Palestinian journalist working for al-Quds TV was killed along with some of his family members in an airstrike on their home in the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, health officials and fellow journalists said.

Gaza’s government media office says 106 Palestinian journalists have been killed in the Israeli attack.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said last week that the first 10 weeks of the Israel-Gaza war deadliest recorded For journalists, it was the highest number of journalists killed in a single location in a single year.

Most of the journalists and media workers killed in the war were Palestinians. US-based CPJ reported that it was “particularly concerned about an apparent pattern of targeting of journalists and their families by the Israeli military.”

Earlier this month, a Reuters investigation found that an Israeli tank crew killed a Reuters journalist, Issam Abdullah, and wounded six others in Lebanon on October 13 by firing two consecutive shells as the journalists crossed the border. Was making a video of the shelling.

Israel has previously claimed that it has never and would never intentionally target journalists and is doing what it can to avoid civilian casualties, but the high death toll has raised concern even among its staunchest allies. Has created.

The US has called on Israel to de-escalate the fighting in the coming weeks and move towards targeted operations against Hamas leaders, although it has so far shown no signs of doing so.

South Africa on Friday asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to issue an immediate order declaring that Israel is violating its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention in its brutal war against the people of Gaza.

It called on the court to issue short-term measures ordering Israel to halt its military campaign “to protect the rights of the Palestinian people from further, serious and irreparable harm.”

No date has been set for the hearing.