TEL AVIV
\nIsrael heavily bombarded Gaza City on Tuesday, witnesses told media, after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio backed Israel\u2019s offensive in the devastated Palestinian territory. \u201cThere is heavy, relentless bombing on Gaza City, and the danger keeps increasing,\u201d witness Ahmed Ghazal said, adding that homes had been destroyed and residents were trapped under the rubble.
\nGaza civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told media that \u201cbombing is still ongoing heavily across Gaza City, and the number of deaths and injuries continues to rise\u201d. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday backed Israel\u2019s new offensive on Gaza City and its goal of eradicating Hamas, casting doubt on whether diplomacy would work to end nearly two years of war.
\nRubio showed no daylight between himself and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on a visit to Jerusalem, despite President Donald Trump chiding Israel a week earlier for carrying out air strikes on Hamas leaders in US partner Qatar. \u201cThe people of Gaza deserve a better future, but that better future cannot begin until Hamas is eliminated,\u201d Rubio told reporters at a joint press conference with Netanyahu.
\n\u201cYou can count on our unwavering support,\u201d he said. Meanwhile, United Nations investigators on Tuesday accused Israel of committing \u201cgenocide\u201d in Gaza in a bid to \u201cdestroy the Palestinians\u201d there, and blamed Israel\u00b4s prime minister and other top officials for incitement.
\nThe UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI), which does not speak on behalf of the world body and has faced harsh Israeli criticism, found that \u201cgenocide is occurring in Gaza and is continuing to occur\u201d, commission chief Navi Pillay told media. \u201cThe responsibility lies with the State of Israel.\u201dThe COI concluded that Israeli authorities and forces had since October 2023 committed \u201cfour of the five genocidal acts\u201d listed in the 1948 Genocide Convention.
\nThese are \u201ckilling members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group\u201d. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TEL AVIV Israel heavily bombarded Gaza City on Tuesday, witnesses told media, after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio backed Israel\u2019s offensive in the devastated Palestinian territory. \u201cThere is heavy, relentless bombing on Gaza City, and the danger keeps increasing,\u201d witness Ahmed Ghazal said, adding that homes had been destroyed and residents were trapped under […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503281,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-503252","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n