Israeli attacks kill 31 Palestinians in Gaza

At least 31 people were killed during Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip yesterday, Palestinian medics said, with nearly half of the deaths in northern areas where the army has waged a month-long campaign it says aims to prevent Hamas regrouping.

Palestinians said the new aerial and ground offensives and forced evacuations were “ethnic cleansing” aimed at emptying two northern Gaza towns and a camp of their population in order to create buffer zones. Israel denies this, saying it is fighting Hamas who launch attacks from there.

Medics said at least 13 Palestinians were killed in separate attacks on houses in Beit Lahiya town and Jabalia, the largest of the enclave’s eight historic refugee camps and the focus of the army’s new offensive.

The rest were killed in separate Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City and in southern areas, including one in Khan Younis, which health officials said had killed eight people, including four children.

Israel has not commented on its military actions in Gaza yesterday.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) said four children were among six people wounded Saturday in a strike on a polio vaccination centre in northern Gaza.

Unicef also condemned Israel’s “indiscriminate strikes on the Gaza Strip”, noting that more than 50 children have been killed in the attacks on Jabalia in the north in the past 48 hours, reports Al Jazeera online.

The overall death toll in Gaza rose to 43,341 since the Israeli offensive began in the enclave last October, the health ministry in the enclave said.

The talks in Egypt are part of Egypt’s broader mediation efforts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and to expand humanitarian access to the enclave.

Leaders from Hamas and the Fatah faction of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met in Cairo last month to discuss forming the committee based on a proposal put forward by Egypt, but talks were adjourned for later discussion, sources close to the talks told Reuters.

The sources said the committee would be made up of independent Palestinian figures not aligned to a particular movement, addressing the question of who would run Gaza after the year-long offensive is over.

Israel rejects any role by Hamas in Gaza after the offensive is ended and has said it does not trust the rival Palestinian Authority of Abbas to run the enclave.

Hamas wants an agreement to end the offensive permanently, refusing recent offers for temporary truces, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the offensive can only end when Hamas is eradicated.

LondonGBDESK//