Gaza residents lose entire families, fear more destruction

GAZA, Oct 15 (Agencies): As Israel prepared on Sunday for a ground assault on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, Palestinians who have lost family members in air strikes were bracing for more destruction.
Um Mohammad Al-Laham's 4-year-old granddaughter Fulla Al-Laham lay in a Gaza hospital, which like others is operating on low supplies of medicine and fuel. She said an Israeli air strike hit the family home, killing 14 people including Fulla's parents, siblings and members of her extended family.
"All of a sudden and without warning, they bombed the house on top of the residents inside. No-one survived except my grandchild Fulla," said the grandmother, who has witnessed many wars between Hamas and the Israeli army over the years.
Meanwhile, some 300 Palestinians were killed, mostly children and women, while 800 others were injured in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, according to the health ministry in the coastal enclave.
Gaza authorities said more than 2,200 people have been killed - a quarter of them children - and nearly 10,000 wounded from Israeli air strikes and shelling. Rescue workers searched desperately for survivors of nighttime air raids.
An AFP report adds: The United States is sending a second aircraft carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean "to deter hostile actions against Israel or any efforts toward widening this war following Hamas's attack," Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin said Saturday.
The USS Eisenhower and its affiliated warships will join another carrier group already deployed to the region in the wake of the attack on Israel a week ago and Israel's ongoing response.
An Arab News adds: Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met with the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in Riyadh on Sunday to discuss the current military escalation in Gaza.
During the meeting, the crown prince stressed the need to discuss ways to stop the military operations that claimed the lives of innocent people.
He affirmed that the Kingdom endeavors to calm tensions, stop the current escalation, respect international humanitarian law, lift the siege on Gaza, and work to create conditions for the return of stability.
The crown prince said that Saudi Arabia is calling for a peaceful resolution to ensure that the Palestinian people obtain their legitimate rights and achieve a just and lasting peace.
Earlier, tens of thousands of people rallied Saturday in London and other UK cities at pro-Palestinian demonstrations, amid police warnings that anyone showing support for the militant group Hamas could face arrest.
Protesters marching through the heart of the British capital were shadowed by a heavy police presence of more than 1,000 officers.