Gaza health ministry records at least 162 deaths in 24 hours; Blinken arrives in Turkey to discuss war with Erdogan
\nGAZA
\nIsrael bombed Gaza on Saturday as the United Nations warned the Palestinian territory has become \u201cuninhabitable\u201d after three months of fighting that threatens to engulf the wider region.
\nAFP correspondents reported Israeli strikes early Saturday on Gaza\u2019s southern city of Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of people have sought shelter from the fighting.
\nCivilians continue to bear the brunt of the conflict, with the UN warning of a deepening humanitarian crisis as famine looms and disease spreads.
\nAbu Mohammed, 60, who fled to Rafah from the central Bureij refugee camp, told AFP Gaza\u2019s future was \u201cdark and gloomy and very difficult\u201d.
\nWith much of the territory already reduced to rubble, UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said Friday that \u201cGaza has simply become uninhabitable\u201d.
\nThe UN\u2019s children\u2019s agency warned that clashes, malnutrition and a lack of health services had created \u201ca deadly cycle that threatens over 1.1 million children\u201d in Gaza.
\nIsraeli forces were continuing \u201cto fight in all parts of the Gaza Strip, in the north, centre and south\u201d, military spokesman Daniel Hagari said late Friday.
\nHagari said Israeli forces were maintaining a \u201cvery high state of readiness\u201d near the border with Lebanon following the killing of a top Hamas commander in a strike in Beirut. Israel has not claimed responsibility for the strike, but a US defence official told AFP that Israel carried it out.
\nThe war in Gaza was triggered by an unprecedented attack on Israel launched by Hamas on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of around 1,140 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
\nThe resistance fighters also took around 250 hostages, 132 of whom remain in captivity, according to Israel, including at least 24 believed to have been killed.
\nIn response, Israel has launched a relentless bombardment and ground invasion that have killed at least 22,600 people, most of them women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry.
\nAFP correspondents reported Friday that Israeli strikes had hit the southern cities of Khan Yunis and Rafah as well as parts of central Gaza. A hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah reported that 35 people had been killed there.
\nThe Israeli army said its forces had \u201cstruck over 100 targets\u201d across Gaza in the previous 24 hours, including military positions, rocket launch sites and weapons depots.
\nThe health ministry in Gaza said it had recorded 162 deaths over the same period.
\nA fighter jet bombed the central area of Bureij overnight, killing \u201can armed terrorist cell\u201d, the army said, after what it described as an attempted attack on an Israeli tank. The Israeli army also claimed to have \u201ckilled a number of Palestinian militants\u201d in clashes in Khan Yunis, a city that has become a major battleground.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gaza health ministry records at least 162 deaths in 24 hours; Blinken arrives in Turkey to discuss war with Erdogan GAZA Israel bombed Gaza on Saturday as the United Nations warned the Palestinian territory has become \u201cuninhabitable\u201d after three months of fighting that threatens to engulf the wider region. AFP correspondents reported Israeli strikes early […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379228,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-379202","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n