GAZA: Israeli strikes pounded southern Gaza on Sunday, the 100th day of the war which has claimed a surging civilian death toll and ravaged the besieged Palestinian territory.
The conflict has created a dire humanitarian crisis for the 2.4 million people in Gaza, the United Nations and aid groups warn, and reduced much of the coastal strip to rubble.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose government has faced growing international pressure over civilian casualties in Gaza, vowed that "no one will stop us" from destroying Palestinian groups.
The government media office said on Sunday that "more than 100 people were martyred in the attacks last night until 6:00 am in all areas of the Gaza Strip".
In Rafah, a thick column of smoke was seen after strikes on the city where many displaced Palestinians have sought shelter in makeshift tents.
Fears that the conflict could spread across the wider region grew when new strikes hit areas in Yemen on Saturday, after Yemenis warned of more attacks in solidarity with Gaza on what they deem Israeli-linked Red Sea shipping.
On the Israel-Lebanon border, which has seen regular exchanges of fire with Lebanese ally, the Israeli army said it killed four gunmen who had crossed the frontier and "fired at the forces".
Troops patrolling the Shebaa Farms district near the annexed Golan Heights "engaged and responded with live fire", a statement said.
Israel launched a relentless military campaign that has killed almost 24,000 people in the Palestinian territory, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry.
After the International Court of Justice in The Hague heard arguments that accused Israel of breaching the UN Genocide Convention, Netanyahu insisted that Israel will "continue until victory".
"No one will stop us — not The Hague, not the Axis of Evil and no one else," he said at a televised news conference on Saturday, referring to "axis of resistance" groups in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
At Rafah's Al-Najjar hospital, mourners prayed near the bodies of slain relatives.
The Gaza Strip's people suffer acute shortages of food, water, medicine and fuel, and the health system is collapsing.
"The massive death, destruction, displacement, hunger, loss and grief of the last 100 days are staining our shared humanity," said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA, during a visit to Gaza on Saturday.
He warned an entire generation of children in Gaza were being "traumatised", diseases were spreading and the clock was "ticking fast towards famine".
Winter rains have exacerbated the dire conditions for 1.9 million Palestinian displaced by the violence, according to UN estimates. — AFP
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