Gaza:
Scores of Palestinians were killed in central Gaza on Sunday after Israel stepped up attacks on the war-torn territory, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a meeting of his top generals and his war cabinet to assess the escalating conflict.
Gaza’s health ministry confirmed that more than 4,600 Palestinians, mainly civilians, have been killed in Israeli attacks, with officials saying the central city of Deir al-Balah was particularly badly hit overnight.
Palestinian media reported that Israel’s attacks were focused on the center and north of the Gaza Strip.
As violence spiraled out of control, Iran said the region could get “out of control” and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a stern warning to Lebanon’s Hezbollah, saying getting involved would be “the mistake of its life.”
Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli attack on a house in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Reuters
The health ministry in Gaza said at least 80 people had been killed in overnight raids on central Gaza, with more than 30 homes destroyed.
In the hospital morgue, an AFP journalist saw the bodies of several children on the blood-soaked floor, where distraught families began crying as they identified the victims.
Among them was a man holding his dead child in his arms and a young boy who had pulled a blanket over his younger sister’s body.
“My cousin was sleeping in his house with his daughter in his arms. He was a man with no record, he had nothing to do with the resistance,” said Wael Wafi, holding his cousin’s body. Looking at him, his arms were still wrapped around all three of his limbs. -year-old daughter Misk.
Also on Sunday, the United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said in a statement on Twitter that 29 of its staff had been killed since the beginning of the war, half of them teachers. It had given a toll of 17 on Saturday.
The scale of the bombardment has left basic systems unable to function, the United Nations said, adding that dozens of unidentified bodies were buried in a mass grave in Gaza City because cold storage ran out.
Meanwhile, an Israeli soldier was killed by an anti-tank missile fired by Palestinian fighters near the Gaza border, the army said.
French labor unions and organizations called for peace and an immediate ceasefire in Gaza during a demonstration in the Place de la Republique in Paris. Photo: Reuters
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant warned that a war with Hamas could take several months.
“It will take a month, two months, three months, and in the end there will be no more Hamas,” Gallant said.
A second convoy of 17 trucks of aid entered Gaza from Egypt on Sunday, following an initial delivery of 20 trucks on Saturday following intense negotiations and US pressure.
The UN humanitarian office said the amount of aid arriving so far was only 4% of the daily average before the hostilities and a fraction of what was needed due to stocks of food, water, medicines and fuel running out.
Separately, an AFP journalist saw six trucks leaving Rafah after filling from dwindling fuel reserves at the crossing, as the enclave faces catastrophic shortages after Israel cut off supplies of food, water, fuel and electricity. Is.
It later resumed water supply to the south on 15 October.
Although Egyptian media said another 40 trucks would enter Gaza on Monday, the United Nations says the enclave needs 100 trucks per day to meet the needs of Gaza’s 2.4 million residents.
And so far, there have been no deliveries of fuel, with UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini warning on Sunday that supplies would run out “in three days.”
“Without fuel, there will be no water, hospitals will not function and … aid will not be able to reach many citizens in need,” he said.
Meanwhile the Hamas government said that 165,000 housing units – half of the entire Gaza Strip – were destroyed in the raid.
As fears of an outbreak of conflict grow, Israel on Sunday acknowledged accidentally attacking an Egyptian border post, and apologized for the incident, which Cairo said left an unspecified number of border guards with “minor injuries.” “Come.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said on Monday that two Palestinians died in the Jalazon refugee camp near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Meanwhile, fresh gunfire broke out along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon as fears grew that Hamas and Iran’s close ally Hezbollah could get involved in the conflict, prompting Israel’s Netanyahu to warn it would be “the mistake of his life.” .
The Israeli flag was raised from a self-propelled howitzer near Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip. Photo: Reuters
He said, “We will attack him with a force that he cannot even imagine, and the significance of which will be devastating for the state of Lebanon.”
Iran also warned on Sunday about the conflict spreading, with top diplomat Hossein Amir-Abdollahian warning that if Washington and Israel do not “immediately stop crimes against humanity and genocide in Gaza… the territory could spiral out of control.” Will go”.
But Washington also fired a shot across the bow of any actor trying to provoke conflict, saying it would not hesitate to take action in the event of any “escalation.”
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on ABC News, “If any group or any country is trying to escalate this conflict and take advantage of this very unfortunate situation that we’re seeing, our advice is: Don’t do it.” “
On Sunday, Pope Francis used his weekly Angelus prayer in Rome to call for an end to the bloodshed.
“War is always defeat, it is the destruction of human brotherhood. Brothers, stop!” He said.
He later spoke for 20 minutes with US President Joe Biden about “conflict situations in the world and the need to identify paths to peace”, the Vatican said.
The White House said Biden later discussed the war with the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany and Italy.
Meanwhile, protesters took to the streets of several European capitals on Sunday and at least 10,000 people rallied in support of Israel in Berlin, as Chancellor Olaf Scholz sought to prevent a resurgence of anti-Semitic incidents linked to the Israel-Hamas conflict. Had sworn.
And thousands of people rallied in Paris to demand an end to Israel’s operation in Gaza in the first pro-Palestinian rally in the French capital that was not banned on security grounds.
