Israel strikes kill 40 more in Gaza ahead of UNSC moot

GAZA CITY: Israeli strikes killed 40 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, the worst reported daily death toll yet in the almost week-long clashes, as the UN Security Council prepared to meet amid global alarm at the escalating conflict.

The heaviest fighting since 2014, sparked by unrest in Jerusalem, saw the rivals again trade heavy fire, with the death toll rising to 188 in the crowded coastal enclave of Gaza since Monday and at 10 in Israel, according to authorities on either side.

Israel said on Sunday morning its “continuing wave of strikes” had in the past 24 hours struck over 90 targets across Gaza, where the destruction of a building housing news media organisations sparked an international outcry.

In Gaza, emergency teams worked to pull out bodies from vast piles of smoking rubble and toppled buildings, as relatives wailed in horror and grief.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “dismayed” by civilian casualties in Gaza and “deeply disturbed” by Israel’s strike on Saturday on the tower housing the Associated Press and Al Jazeera bureaus, a spokesperson said.

Israel’s army said on Sunday that about 3,000 rockets had been fired from the coastal strip towards Israel, the highest rate ever recorded, of which about 450 failed launches fell in the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system had intercepted over a thousand rockets, the army said, in almost a week during which Israeli residential buildings have been hit, with over 500 people wounded. “The intensity of the conflict is something we have not seen before, with non-stop airstrikes in densely populated Gaza and rockets reaching big cities in Israel,” said the International Committee of the Red Cross. “As a result, children are dying on both sides.”

Pope Francis said the violence risked degenerating further “into a spiral of death and destruction” and said: “Where will hatred and revenge lead? Do we really think we will build peace by destroying the other?”

The bloodiest military conflict in seven years has also sparked a wave of inter-communal violence and mob attacks between Jews and Arab-Israelis, as well as deadly clashes in the occupied West Bank, where 19 Palestinians have been killed since last Monday.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it had targeted the infrastructure of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, including by pounding a vast tunnel system with some 100 strikes, and by targeting weapon factories and storage sites.

Israeli air strikes also hit the home of Yahya Sinwar, head of Hamas’ political wing in the Gaza Strip, the army said, releasing a video showing plumes of smoke and intense damage, but without saying if he was killed.

At least 52 children have lost their lives in Gaza, more than 1,200 people have been reported wounded and entire buildings and city blocks reduced to rubble.

The IDF says it takes all possible precautions to avoid harming civilians and has blamed Hamas for deliberately placing military targets in densely populated areas.

One strike on Gaza killed 10 members of an extended family.

Some 10,000 Gazans have fled their homes near the Israeli border for fear of a ground offensive, the UN said.

Balls of flame and a cloud of debris shot into the sky Saturday afternoon as Israel’s air force flattened the 13-floor Gaza building housing Qatar-based Al Jazeera and the Associated Press news agency, after giving a warning to evacuate.

Israeli defence officials said the building housed not only news bureaus but offices of Hamas militants.

The UN Security Council was due to meet at 1400 GMT Sunday. Israel ally Washington, which had blocked a UNSC meeting scheduled for Friday, has been criticised for not doing enough to stem the bloodshed.

US President Joe Biden again underscored Israel’s right to defend itself in a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but also expressed his “grave concern” over the violence as well as for the safety of journalists.

US Secretary for Israel-Palestinian Affairs Hady Amr was to hold talks on Sunday with Israeli leaders before meeting Palestinian officials to seek a “sustainable calm”, the State Department said.