Israel kills dozens in Gaza after Blinken ends visit
Published: 05:08 PM,Aug 21,2024 | EDITED : 09:08 PM,Aug 21,2024
Palestinians react, after a school sheltering displaced people was hit by an Israeli strike, in Gaza City, on Wednesday. - Reuters
CAIRO: Israeli airstrikes across Gaza killed at least 50 Palestinians in the past 24 hours, Palestinian health officials said on Wednesday, after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken ended his latest visit to the region with a truce deal still elusive.
As last-ditch diplomacy continued to halt the 10-month-old war between Israel and Hamas, the Israeli military said jets hit around 30 targets throughout the Gaza Strip including tunnels, launch sites and an observation post.
Later in the day, the Israeli military struck a school and a nearby house in Gaza City, killing at least three people and wounding 15, the territory's Civil Emergency Service said.
In the town of Bani Suhaila near Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, an Israeli airstrike killed seven Palestinians at a tent encampment for displaced people, medics said.
The military issued new evacuation orders in the heavily overcrowded area of Deir Al Balah, in central Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by the fighting have sought shelter.
The conflict churned on as Blinken wound up his ninth troubleshooting visit to the Middle East since the Gaza war erupted last October with still no sign that deep differences between the sides over how to end the war could be reconciled.
Blinken's talks with leaders of ceasefire mediators Egypt and Qatar, as well as in Israel, focused on the fate of tiny, crowded Gaza, where Israel's military campaign has killed more than 40,000 people since October according to Palestinian health authorities.
For displaced people left exposed in Deir Al Balah, the lack of progress towards a ceasefire compounded the misery as they searched for space away from the fighting.
'Where will we go? Where will we go?' said Aburakan, 55, a displaced person from Gaza City in the territory's north who has had to change refuge five times since October.
'We feel they are closing in. I live a few hundred metres from the threatened areas, and I have been searching since the early morning in vain for a space in western Deir Al Balah, Khan Yunis, or Nuseirat,' he said via a chat app.
'Unfortunately, we may die before we see an end to this war. All ceasefire talk is a lie.' — Reuters
As last-ditch diplomacy continued to halt the 10-month-old war between Israel and Hamas, the Israeli military said jets hit around 30 targets throughout the Gaza Strip including tunnels, launch sites and an observation post.
Later in the day, the Israeli military struck a school and a nearby house in Gaza City, killing at least three people and wounding 15, the territory's Civil Emergency Service said.
In the town of Bani Suhaila near Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, an Israeli airstrike killed seven Palestinians at a tent encampment for displaced people, medics said.
The military issued new evacuation orders in the heavily overcrowded area of Deir Al Balah, in central Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by the fighting have sought shelter.
The conflict churned on as Blinken wound up his ninth troubleshooting visit to the Middle East since the Gaza war erupted last October with still no sign that deep differences between the sides over how to end the war could be reconciled.
Blinken's talks with leaders of ceasefire mediators Egypt and Qatar, as well as in Israel, focused on the fate of tiny, crowded Gaza, where Israel's military campaign has killed more than 40,000 people since October according to Palestinian health authorities.
For displaced people left exposed in Deir Al Balah, the lack of progress towards a ceasefire compounded the misery as they searched for space away from the fighting.
'Where will we go? Where will we go?' said Aburakan, 55, a displaced person from Gaza City in the territory's north who has had to change refuge five times since October.
'We feel they are closing in. I live a few hundred metres from the threatened areas, and I have been searching since the early morning in vain for a space in western Deir Al Balah, Khan Yunis, or Nuseirat,' he said via a chat app.
'Unfortunately, we may die before we see an end to this war. All ceasefire talk is a lie.' — Reuters