Israel pounds Gaza killing 123 in last 24 hours

Israel’s military pounded Gaza City on Wednesday prior to a planned takeover, with another 123 people killed in the last day according to the Gaza health ministry, while Hamas held further talks with Egyptian mediators.

The 24-hour death toll was the worst in a week and added to the massive fatalities from the nearly two-year war that has shattered the enclave housing more than 2 million Palestinians.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated an idea - also floated by US President Donald Trump - that Palestinians should simply leave.

“They’re not being pushed out, they’ll be allowed to exit,” he told Israeli television channel i24NEWS. “All those who are concerned for the Palestinians and say they want to help the Palestinians should open their gates and stop lecturing us.”

Arabs and many world leaders are aghast at the idea of displacing the Gaza population, which Palestinians say would be like another “Nakba” (catastrophe) when hundreds of thousands fled or were forced out during the 1948 war.

Israel’s planned re-seizure of Gaza City — which it took in the early days of the war before withdrawing — is probably weeks away, officials say. That means a ceasefire is still possible though talks have been floundering and conflict still rages.

Israeli planes and tanks bombed eastern areas of Gaza City heavily, residents said, with many homes destroyed in the Zeitoun and Shejaia neighbourhoods overnight. Al Ahli hospital said 12 people were killed in an air strike on a home in Zeitoun. Tanks also destroyed several houses in the east of Khan Yunis in south Gaza, while in the centre, Israeli gunfire killed nine aid-seekers in two separate incidents, Palestinian medics said. Israel’s military did not comment.

Eight more people, including three children, have died of starvation and malnutrition in Gaza in the past 24 hours.

Hamas chief negotiator Khalil al Hayya’s meetings with Egyptian officials in Cairo on Wednesday were to focus on stopping the war, delivering aid and “ending the suffering of our people in Gaza,” Hamas official Taher al Nono said in a statement.

Egyptian security sources said the talks would also discuss the possibility of a comprehensive ceasefire that would see Hamas relinquish governance in Gaza and concede its weapons.