Israel ignores demands for a ceasefire
\nOn Friday, Netanyahu told the UN General Assembly that Israel \u201cmust finish the job\u201d against Hamas
\nnews agency
\nDEIR AL-BALAH
\nIsraeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 38 people across Gaza, health officials said, as international pressure grows for a ceasefire but Israel\u2019s leader remains defiant about continuing the war.
\nStrikes in central and northern Gaza killed people in their homes in the early hours of Saturday morning, including nine from the same family in a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp, according to health staff at the Al-Awda hospital where the bodies were brought.
\nThe attacks came hours after a defiant Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told fellow world leaders at the UN General Assembly Friday that his nation \u201cmust finish the job\u201d against Hamas in Gaza.
\nNetanyahu\u2019s words, aimed as much at his increasingly divided domestic audience as the global one, began after dozens of delegates from multiple nations walked out of the UN General Assembly hall en masse Friday morning as he began speaking.
\nInternational pressure on Israel to end the war is increasing, as is Israel\u2019s isolation, with a growing list of countries deciding recently to recognize Palestinian statehood \u2014 something Israel rejects.
\nCountries have been lobbying US President Donald Trump to press Israel for a ceasefire. On Friday, Trump told reporters on the White House lawn that he believes the US is close to achieving a deal on easing fighting in Gaza that \u201cwill get the hostages back\u201d and \u201cend the war.\u201d
\nTrump and Netanyahu are scheduled to meet Monday, and Trump said on social media Friday that \u201cvery inspired and productive discussions\u201d and \u201cintense negotiations\u201d about Gaza are ongoing with countries in the region.
\nYet, Israel is pressing ahead with another major ground operation in Gaza City, which experts say is experiencing famine. More than 300,000 people have fled, but up to 700,000 are still there, many because they can\u2019t afford to relocate.
\nThe strikes Saturday morning demolished a house in Gaza City\u2019s Tufah neighborhood, killing at least 11 people, more than half of them women and children, according to the Al-Ahly Hospital where the bodies were brought. Four other people were killed when an airstrike hit their homes in the Shati refugee camp, according to Shifa hospital.
\nSix other Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire while seeking aid in southern and central Gaza, according to Nasser and Al Awda hospitals where the bodies were brought.
\nIsrael\u2019s army did not immediately respond about the airstrikes or the gunfire.
\nHospitals and health clinics in Gaza City are on the brink of collapse. Nearly two weeks into the offensive, two clinics have been destroyed by airstrikes, two hospitals shut down after being damaged and others are barely functioning, with medicine, equipment, food and fuel in short supply.
\nMany patients and staff have been forced to flee hospitals, leaving behind only a few doctors and nurses to tend to children in incubators or other patients too ill to move.
\nOn Friday, aid group Doctors Without Borders said it was forced to suspend activities in Gaza City amid an intensified Israeli offensive. The group said Israeli tanks were less than half a mile from its health care facilities and the escalating attacks have created an \u201cunacceptable level of risk\u201d for its staff.
\nMeanwhile, the food situation in the north has also worsened, as Israel has halted aid deliveries through its crossing into northern Gaza since Sept. 12 and has increasingly rejected UN requests to bring supplies from southern Gaza into the north, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
\nIsrael\u2019s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 65,000 people and wounded more than 167,000 others, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. It doesn\u2019t distinguish between civilians and combatants, but says women and children make up around half the fatalities. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government, but UN agencies and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Israel ignores demands for a ceasefire On Friday, Netanyahu told the UN General Assembly that Israel \u201cmust finish the job\u201d against Hamas news agency DEIR AL-BALAH Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 38 people across Gaza, health officials said, as international pressure grows for a ceasefire but Israel\u2019s leader remains defiant about continuing the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505519,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-505446","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n