Israel tells NGOs not to bring aid convoys across Rafah border crossing
\nGAZA
\nIsrael carried out deadly bombardments in Gaza on Sunday as international calls mounted for greater protection of civilians and the renewal of an expired truce with Palestinian resistance group Hamas.
\nThe Israeli army said it had conducted more than 400 strikes in Gaza since a ceasefire collapsed on Friday, with the Palestinian government saying at least 240 people had been killed.
\nHamas and Palestinian group Islamic Jihad announced \u201crocket barrages\u201d against multiple Israeli cities and towns including Tel Aviv, and Israel said that two of its soldiers had died in combat, the first since the end of the truce.
\nAt least seven people were killed in an Israeli bombing early Sunday near Gaza\u2019s southern border with Egypt, the government said.
\nIsraeli strikes also hit the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza late Saturday, killing at least 13 people, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.
\nUS Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday sharply rebuked the rising civilian toll in Israel\u2019s eight-week war. \u201cToo many innocent Palestinians have been killed,\u201d she told reporters at UN climate talks in Dubai.
\n\u201cFrankly, the scale of civilian suffering and the images and videos coming from Gaza are devastating.\u201d
\nAn estimated 1.7 million people in Gaza — more than two-thirds of the population — have been displaced by war, according to the United Nations.
\n\u201cI cannot find words strong enough to express our concern over what we\u2019re witnessing,\u201d the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on Sunday on X, formerly Twitter.
\nFadel Naim, chief doctor at the Al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza City, said his morgue had received 30 bodies on Saturday, including seven children.
\n\u201cThe planes bombed our houses: three bombs, three houses destroyed,\u201d Nemr al-Bel, 43, told AFP, adding he had counted 10 dead in his family and \u201c13 more still under the rubble\u201d.
\nGazans are short of food, water and other essentials, and many homes have been destroyed. UN agencies have declared a humanitarian catastrophe, although some aid trucks did arrive Saturday.
\nThe Palestine Red Crescent Society said Israel had told NGOs not to bring aid convoys across the Rafah border crossing from Egypt after the truce expired.
\nBut the charity said on Saturday its Egyptian colleagues had managed to send over a number of trucks.
\nHamas fighters broke through Gaza\u2019s militarised border into Israel on October 7. Israel vowed to eliminate Hamas in response and unleashed a brutal air and ground campaign that has killed more than 15,000 people, mostly civilians, the Palestinian authorities who run Gaza say.
\nA week-long truce, brokered with the help of Qatar and backed by Egypt and the United States, led to the release of 80 Israeli hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
\nBut that truce collapsed with both sides blaming each other for violating its conditions.
\nIsrael claimed that Hamas had tried to fire a rocket before the ceasefire ended, and that it had failed to produce a list of further hostages for release.
\nIsraeli negotiators left Doha on Saturday after reaching a dead end in talks aimed at securing a fresh pause in hostilities.
\nThe Israeli army said 137 captives were still being held in Gaza.
\nIsrael\u2019s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told reporters on Saturday that fresh military action was needed to \u201ccreate the conditions that push (Hamas) to pay a heavy price, and that is in the release of hostages\u201d.
\nIsraeli captives released from Gaza spoke publicly on Saturday for the first time, urging their government to secure the release of the remaining captives.
\n\u201cThe moral obligation of this government is to bring them home immediately, without hesitation,\u201d said Yocheved Lifschitz, 85, who was released by Hamas in October, before the truce deal.
\nFrench President Emmanuel Macron appealed for \u201cstepped-up efforts to reach a lasting ceasefire\u201d to free all captives, allow in more aid and to assure Israel of its security. He took issue with Israel\u2019s stated war aims, warning that if the \u201ctotal destruction of Hamas\u201d in Gaza was the goal, \u201cthe war will last 10 years\u201d.
\nBut Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war would continue \u201cuntil we achieve all its aims\u201d including eliminating the resistance movement.
\n\u201cOur soldiers prepared during the days of truce for total victory against Hamas,\u201d he said in Tel Aviv on Saturday, at his first press conference since fighting resumed.
\n\u201cThere is no way to win except by continuing the ground campaign,\u201d Netanyahu told reporters, underscoring that this would be done while \u201cobserving international law\u201d.
\nIsrael\u2019s air, naval and ground forces have attacked more than 400 targets in Gaza since the ceasefire ended, the army said on Saturday.
\nThe figure is roughly in line with the daily average number of strikes prior to the pause, according to military figures released previously.
\nWarplanes hit \u201cmore than 50 targets in an extensive attack in the Khan Yunis area\u201d of southern Gaza, according to the Israeli military.
\nSeparately, members of an Israeli armoured brigade \u201celiminated terrorist squads and directed fire against terrorist targets in the north of the Gaza Strip\u201d, the military claimed.
\nIn the occupied West Bank, the Israeli army said troops shot dead a Palestinian at a checkpoint near the city of Nablus after he \u201cdrew a knife and started to advance towards them.\u201d
\nSyria said Israel carried out air strikes near Damascus on Saturday.
\nIran\u2019s Revolutionary Guard accused Israel of killing two of its members in Syria who it said had been on an \u201cadvisory mission\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Israel tells NGOs not to bring aid convoys across Rafah border crossing GAZA Israel carried out deadly bombardments in Gaza on Sunday as international calls mounted for greater protection of civilians and the renewal of an expired truce with Palestinian resistance group Hamas. The Israeli army said it had conducted more than 400 strikes in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372101,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-372079","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n