Palestinian health officials say Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip overnight and into Wednesday killed at least 17 people, including five children and their parents. The strikes came on the eve of new talks aimed at reaching a cease-fire in the 10-month war. The United States, Qatar and Egypt are hoping to broker an agreement, but the sides remain far apart on several issues after months of indirect negotiations. The overall Palestinian death toll in the war has almost reached 40,000, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Quick Read
- Israeli strikes across Gaza overnight and into Wednesday killed at least 17 people, including five children and their parents, according to Palestinian health officials.
- The strikes came on the eve of new cease-fire talks, with the U.S., Qatar, and Egypt attempting to broker an agreement in the 10-month war.
- The overall Palestinian death toll in the war is nearing 40,000, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
- A strike on a family home in the Nuseirat refugee camp killed five children, aged 2 to 11, along with their parents, with the bodies dismembered by the blast.
- In the Maghazi refugee camp, a strike early Wednesday killed four people, while four men were killed in a strike on a residential tower in Khan Younis.
- Two more people were killed in a strike on a house in Beit Lahiya, as reported by Gaza’s emergency services.
- Health authorities in Gaza do not specify whether those killed are militants or civilians, while Israel claims to target militants and attributes civilian deaths to Hamas operating in residential areas.
- The Israeli military rarely comments on individual strikes.
The Associated Press has the story:
Israeli strikes kill at least 17 in Gaza overnight, Palestinians say
Newslooks- (AP)
Palestinian health officials say Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip overnight and into Wednesday killed at least 17 people, including five children and their parents. The strikes came on the eve of new talks aimed at reaching a cease-fire in the 10-month war. The United States, Qatar and Egypt are hoping to broker an agreement, but the sides remain far apart on several issues after months of indirect negotiations. The overall Palestinian death toll in the war has almost reached 40,000, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
One strike hit a family home late Tuesday in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, which dates back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation. It killed five children, ranging in age from 2 to 11, and their parents, according to the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. An Associated Press reporter who saw the bodies said they had been dismembered by the blast and the 2-year-old had been decapitated.
In the nearby Maghazi refugee camp, a strike on a home early Wednesday killed four people, the hospital said. In the southern city of Khan Younis, the Health Ministry’s emergency service said first responders recovered the bodies of four men killed in a strike on a residential tower late Tuesday. Two more people were killed in a strike on a house in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, according to the emergency service.
Health authorities in Gaza do not say whether those killed in Israeli strikes are militants or civilians. Israel says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas because the militants operate in residential areas. The army rarely comments on individual strikes.
Here’s the latest:
Palestinian death toll in Gaza is almost at 40,000, Health Ministry says
The overall Palestinian death toll in the 10-month Israel-Hamas war has almost reached 40,000. That’s according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
The ministry says the toll has reached at least 39,965. It says another 92,294 people have been wounded. The ministry in its daily update also says the bodies of 36 people killed by Israeli strikes have been brought to local hospitals over the past 24 hours. It doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.
Israeli military bulldozers demolish 6 more homes in occupied West Bank, residents say
JERUSALEM — Residents of a beleaguered Bedouin hamlet in the southern reaches of the occupied West Bank say Israeli military bulldozers demolished six more homes in the community on Wednesday, leaving 28 people homeless. The demolitions in Umm Al-Khair come after military bulldozers last month knocked down several homes in the village, leaving a quarter of the village’s 200 people without shelter.
Videos sent by residents of the village to The Associated Press showed bulldozers rolling into the community on Wednesday morning, escorted by at least one military vehicle. Soldiers could be seen pushing protesters and Palestinians away from the demolition zone, and bulldozers crashed into small tent-like structures, knocking them to the ground.
COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of civilian matters in the West Bank, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In the past, it has alleged that many of the structures in the village were built without permits. Palestinians in these areas have long said it is virtually impossible to get construction permits from Israeli authorities.
Umm Al-Khair has also been the subject of ramped-up settler attacks over the last few months, attacks which residents say have harmed the village water supply and gone unpunished by military authorities. Small Bedouin hamlets in the West Bank are some of the most vulnerable communities to displacement caused by demolitions and settler violence, rights groups say.
