Nowhere to go as Israeli airstrikes shake Gaza including 'safe zones'

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip, Oct 19 (Agencies): Israeli airstrikes pounded locations across the Gaza Strip early Thursday, including parts of the south that Israel had declared safe zones, heightening fears among more than 2 million Palestinians trapped in the territory that nowhere was safe.
In the nearly two weeks since Israel began attacking in response to a devastating Hamas rampage in towns across southern Israel, airstrikes have relentlessly hit the densely populated territory. Even after Israel told Palestinians to evacuate the north and head to what it called "safe zones" in the south, strikes continued across the entire territory.
Report from Cairo adds: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordan's King Abdullah II condemned the "collective punishment" of Palestinians in Gaza as they met in Cairo for talks on the Israel-Hamas war.
Ahead of the meeting, the Jordanian royal court said Sisi and King Abdullah would "discuss means to stop the Israeli aggression on Gaza".
In separate statements issued later, the Egyptian presidency and the royal court said the two leaders "affirmed their unified position rejecting the policy of collective punishment in the siege, starvation or displacement" of Palestinians.
Meanwhile, UK PM Rishi Sunak meets Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem and tells him: "We want you to win"
As the world waits for an expected Israeli ground offensive into Gaza, Sunak says the UK backs Israel's right to "go after Hamas.
But he says the Palestinian people are Hamas's victims too and welcomes a plan to get some aid into Gaza from Egypt.
The Israeli bombardments came after Israel agreed Wednesday to allow Egypt to deliver limited humanitarian aid to Gaza, the first crack in a punishing 11-day siege.
Many among Gaza's 2.3 million residents have cut down to one meal a day and have been left to drink dirty water amid dwindling supplies.
Another report adds: Twenty truckloads of aid due to be transported over the Egyptian border are unlikely to raise spirits in the beleaguered Gaza Strip, where Palestinians are squarely focused on surviving Israeli air strikes and acute food and medicine shortages.
After intensive diplomacy, Egypt agreed to reopen its border crossing with Gaza to allow aid to reach Palestinians, the U.S. said, as the humanitarian crisis worsened for the 2.3 million people trapped there and anti-Israel protests flared across the Middle East.
"About the aid, this is something frivolous, we want nothing from Arab and foreign countries except to stop the violent bombardment on our houses," said El-Awad El-Dali, 65, speaking near the rubble of ruined homes.
Like many Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere he feels Arab states have not done enough to support the Palestinian cause, especially those who have normalised ties with Israel.
More than 1 million Palestinians have fled their homes, roughly half of Gaza's population. Many who fled Gaza City and other places in the north after Israel told them to evacuate, have crowded into U.N. schools or the homes of relatives.
Violence between Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon has also flared in recent days amid fears the fighting could spread across the region. In the West Bank, where scores of Palestinians have been killed since the war started, Israeli forces killed dozens of Palestinians in the past two days, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
The Gaza Health Ministry said 3,478 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, and more than 12,000 wounded, mostly women, children and the elderly. Another 1,300 people are believed buried under the rubble, health authorities said.
Meanwhile, the Executive Committee of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has stressed the importance of preserving the lives of all civilians, and not targeting them in any way being inconsistent with international law and international humanitarian law, as well as divine laws.
In its final communique of extraordinary open-ended meeting held at the level of foreign ministers in Jeddah, the OIC called on member states to apply all feasible and effective diplomatic, legal and deterrent measures, to stop the occupying power Israel's crimes against humanity.
The meeting was held on October 18, upon the joint invitation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Chair of the current session of the Islamic Summit and Chair of the Executive Committee, and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to discuss the ongoing Israeli military aggression against the Palestinian people.