[ad_1]
Israel resumed its bombardment of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, following renewed criticism from its key military supporter, the U.S., over significant civilian casualties in the ongoing conflict.
According to residents speaking to Agence France-Presse (AFP), Israeli warplanes targeted central Gaza, and artillery struck the southern part of the territory.
Meanwhile, medical personnel reported recovering multiple bodies from the debris left by the latest bombardment.
Earlier, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken conveyed to Israeli officials that the number of civilian casualties among Palestinians “remains unacceptably high.”
“We continue to see far too many civilians killed in this conflict,” spokesperson Matthew Miller said after Blinken met with Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi.
Washington has been pushing for a truce between Israel and Hamas.
But Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh said Sunday that the group was pulling out of indirect talks for a deal in protest of recent Israeli “massacres,” including a massive strike on Sunday that the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said killed at least 92 people.
Haniyeh said Hamas stood ready to return to the indirect talks once Israel “demonstrates seriousness in reaching a cease-fire agreement and a prisoner exchange deal.”
After the latest deadly strikes, medics from the Palestinian Red Crescent said they recovered four bodies from a house outside the southern city of Khan Younis and another from the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza.
The Israeli military said that over the previous 24 hours, its air force struck “approximately 40 terror targets” in Gaza.
These included “sniping posts, observation posts, Hamas structures, terror infrastructure and buildings rigged with explosives.”
It said its troops were also continuing targeted raids in the far-southern city of Rafah and the central Gaza Strip.
Prisoner abuse allegations
The latest conflict began with Hamas’ unprecedented Oct. 7 incursion on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people.
The group also seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom are still in Gaza.
Israel responded with a military offensive that has killed at least 38,664 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the Gazan Health Ministry.
The Israeli military has also rounded up scores of Gazans, who have made allegations of torture, rape and other abuses in custody that Israeli authorities have denied.
Palestinian lawyer Khaled Mahajna said Monday that prisoners had recounted guards using “electric prods” on inmates’ bodies.
In one case, a prisoner had a “fire extinguisher tube inserted into his buttocks, and the fire extinguisher was turned on,” Mahajna said after visiting detained Palestinian journalists.
The lawyer said prisoners were handcuffed when they ate the meager meals provided, while detainees reported widespread disease and untreated wounds.
Five Israeli human rights groups have gone to court over conditions at the Sde Teiman desert camp where Gazans are being held.
Israeli officials insist they act within international law.
Mass displacement
Indirect talks on ending the devastating war have been brokered by Qatar and Egypt, with U.S. support, but months of negotiations have failed to bring a breakthrough.
At the end of May, U.S. President Joe Biden outlined a cease-fire road map he said had been drawn up by Israel, triggering an intensification of the talks.
But despite meetings in both Cairo and Doha, there has been no sign of progress on how the road map might be implemented.
Critics in Israel, including tens of thousands of demonstrators who have marched to demand a deal to bring home the hostages, have accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of prolonging the war.
The conflict has forced 90% of Gaza’s 2.4 million people to flee their homes.
Many have sought refuge in U.N.-run schools, six of which have been hit by Israeli strikes since July 6.
There have also been near-daily exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, a Hamas ally.
On Monday, a Hezbollah member and his sister were killed in an Israeli strike on the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil, Hezbollah and the state-run National News Agency said.
Israel said its strike hit a Hezbollah arms depot.
[ad_2]
Source link
