GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: The UN Security Council was to hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday amid a diplomatic push to end the devastating conflict between Israel and Palestinians that has killed more than 220 people, most of them Palestinians.
Israel maintained its heaviest-ever daily rate of bombardment of the blockaded enclave overnight, sending a fireball and a black plume of smoke into the sky following one heavy strike, an AFP journalist reported.
Despite growing calls for an end to the violence, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late Monday that Israel would “continue striking at the terrorist targets”.
Israel launched its air campaign on the Gaza Strip on May 10 after the enclave’s rulers, Hamas, fired a barrage of rockets in response to unrest in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem. Israeli air strikes have killed 213 Palestinians, including 61 children, and wounded more than 1,400 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Hamas has fired around 3,350 rockets toward Israel that have killed 10 people, including a child, Israeli authorities said. Air raid sirens again wailed in southern Israel through the morning, sending families fleeing into bomb shelters.
The Security Council session, the fourth since the conflict escalated, was called after the United States, a key Israel ally, blocked adoption of a joint statement calling for a halt to the violence on Monday for the third time in a week.
US President Joe Biden, having resisted joining other world leaders and much of his own Democratic party in calling for an immediate end to hostilities, told Netanyahu Monday night he backs a ceasefire, but stopped short of demanding a truce.
Israel’s overnight barrage again set the night sky over the densely populated coastal enclave ablaze as multiple strikes crashed into buildings in Gaza City shortly after midnight. “They destroyed our house but I don’t know why they targeted us,” said Nazmi al-Dahdouh, 70, of western Gaza City, adding he was now homeless after “a terrifying, violent night”.
The Israeli army said on Tuesday it had struck dozens of “targets” inside Gaza since midnight, while Palestinian militants had fired 70 rockets, dozens of which were intercepted by air defences.
A strike late Monday knocked out Gaza’s only Covid-19 testing laboratory, the health ministry said. The Qatari Red Crescent said a strike damaged one of its offices in the enclave. Hospitals in the poverty-stricken territory, which has been under Israeli blockade for almost 15 years, have been overwhelmed by patients.
Israeli fire has cratered roads and battered crucial infrastructure, causing blackouts and prompting the electricity authority to warn Monday it only had enough fuel left to provide power for another two to three days.
The UN on Tuesday praised Israel’s decision to open the Kerem Shalom crossing so humanitarian goods could enter Gaza.
Palestinians across the West Bank and in east Jerusalem were Tuesday largely adhering to a general strike called in support of those under bombardment in Gaza.