Israeli strikes kill 20 Palestinians in Gaza

FE Team | Published: October 30, 2024 20:31:21

CAIRO, Oct 30 (Reuters/AFP): A series of Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed at least 20 people on Wednesday, medics said.
Eight people were killed in a strike in the Salateen area of Beit Lahiya in the north, close to where the Gaza health ministry said at least 93 were killed or missing in an Israeli airstrike that struck a multi-floor house on Tuesday.
The United States called that attack "horrifying".
There was no immediate Israeli comment on either strike.
Gaza's emergency service said its operations had come to a halt because of the more than three-week Israeli assault into northern Gaza. Israel says its campaign is to destroy Palestinian militant group Hamas, whose fighters had regrouped to the area in the year-long war.
The Israeli army sent tanks into Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and Jabalia, the largest of Gaza's eight historic camps and the focus of the new military offensive.
Meanwhile, Israeli strikes in southern and central Gaza killed at least seven Palestinians earlier on Wednesday, medics said. In Gaza City's Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, an Israeli strike killed five people and wounded others near a clinic, medics and residents said.
Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel killed 1,200 people and more than 250 hostages were captured and taken into Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
The death toll from Israel's retaliatory air and ground onslaught in Gaza has exceeded 43,000, the Gaza health ministry says.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces carried out new deadly bombings targeting Hamas in Gaza on Wednesday, as international mediators prepared to propose a short-term truce to free hostages and avert a humanitarian catastrophe.
News of the potential breakthrough in truce talks came a day after an Israeli strike on a single Gaza residential block killed nearly 100 people and triggered international revulsion.
US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators have for months been trying to negotiate a truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza to allow a prisoner swap, humanitarian access and talks on a longer-term peace.
Jordan condemns Israeli attack
on civilians in Beit Lahia
Jordan has condemned the latest Israeli attack on civilians, targeting a residential building in Beit Lahia, north of the Gaza Strip, describing it as a "new massacre committed by the Israeli occupation forces."
Two Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday killed at least 88 people, more than half of whom were women and children, according to officials.
"This attack resulted in the deaths and injuries of hundreds, with many still missing under the rubble, constituting a blatant violation of international law and a systematic disregard for the lives of Palestinians amid a complete absence of international accountability for the war crimes committed against them," state news agency Petra reported, quoting Jordan's foreign affairs ministry.
In a statement, ministry Sufian Al-Qudah said Israel's ongoing violations against Palestinians and its breaches of international law and international humanitarian law reflected a global failure to strictly enforce legal standards.