by Nidal al-Mughrabi and Fadi Shana
CAIRO/GAZA (Reuters) – Dozens of Palestinians were killed in Gaza on Saturday in Israeli airstrikes, Palestinian media said, after the United States urged Israel to curb its military campaign and further target leaders of the Hamas.
At least 14 people died in strikes that hit two houses in Jabalia and dozens were killed in the bombing of another house in the town, according to the official WAFA news agency.
The Palestinian agency said a large number of civilians were trapped under the rubble.
The Israeli military said its planes targeted a building in Jabalia after firing on its forces and detecting Hamas militants.
Israel also said its forces killed militants holed up in two schools in Gaza City and searched apartments in Khan Younis where weapons were found. The army also announced the discovery of what it described as underground infrastructure used by Hamas.
Reuters was unable to independently verify this information.
As intense ground fighting unfolds in the narrow Gaza Strip and aid organizations warn of a humanitarian catastrophe, the United States has warned that Israel risks losing international support due to its “indiscriminate” airstrikes that kill Palestinian civilians.
President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, visiting Israel on Thursday and Friday, delivered the message that Israel must scale back its military campaign and shift to more targeted operations against Hamas leaders, officials said. American officials.
During the visit, Israeli officials publicly stressed that they would continue the war until they achieved their goal of eradicating Hamas, which could take months.
INTENSIFICATION OF FIGHTING
Washington suggested Friday that there was disagreement with Israel over scaling back the military campaign, with Jake Sullivan saying the timetable was the subject of “intensive discussions” between the allies.
On October 7, Hamas militants carried out a surprise attack on Israeli towns, killing 1,200 people and taking 240 hostages. The Israeli counterattack has left nearly 19,000 dead, according to Gaza health authorities, and thousands more are feared buried under the rubble.
The Israeli military said Friday it had killed three hostages held by Hamas in Gaza after wrongly identifying them as a threat. She offered her condolences to the families of the killed hostages and said the investigation into the incident would be “completely transparent.”
The army said it had found the bodies of three other hostages killed by Hamas. Israel estimates that around twenty hostages out of the 130 still held in the coastal strip are dead.
Fighting has intensified over the past two weeks, after the end of a week-long truce.
Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy said Israel was winning the war and weakening Hamas, citing the reduction in the number of rockets fired at Israel.
ROCKET FIRING AT JERUSALEM
But hours later, and for the first time in weeks, sirens sounded in Jerusalem and explosions rang out in the sky following at least three interceptions by Israeli air defenses. Hamas’ military wing claimed responsibility for the rocket attack, calling it a response to “Zionist massacres against civilians.”
The vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been driven from their homes over the past two months, often repeatedly.
After Jake Sullivan’s departure, Israel said it would open the Kerem Shalom crossing, the main access route to Gaza, to aid shipments for the first time since the start of the war, allowing entry of 200 trucks per day, double the capacity of the Rafah crossing point.
Aid organizations, which warn of famine and disease, have long called on Israel to speed up deliveries by letting aid enter directly into Kerem Shalom, on the border of Egypt, Israel and the Gaza strip.
Gazans reported another night of intense fighting and shelling across the enclave on Friday, including in Sheijaia, Sheikh Radwan, Zeitoun, Tuffah and Beit Hanoun in the north, as well as in the center and the northern outskirts of the main southern city, Khan Younis.
“The Gaza Strip turned into a ball of fire overnight, we could hear explosions and gunshots coming from all directions,” Ahmed, 45, an electrician and father of six, told Reuters , from a shelter located in the center of the Gaza Strip.
“They can destroy homes and roads and kill civilians from the air or through indiscriminate tank fire, but when they come face to face with the resistance, they lose.”
(Reporting Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo, Shani and Fadi Shana in Gaza, Henriette Chacar, Ari Rabinovitch and Frank Jack Daniel in Jerusalem, Andrea Shalal, Jeff Mason and Eric Beech in Washington; written by Michael Perry, French version Benjamin Mallet)
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