Despite mounting international pressure on Israel over it’s bombardment of Gaza, Israel military on Sunday carried out deadly bomb attacks in Gaza following the renewal of hostilities after the expiration of a seven day truce with Palestinian militant group Hamas
The Israeli army said it had conducted more than 400 strikes in Gaza since a ceasefire collapsed on Friday, with the Hamas government saying at least 240 people had been killed.
Hamas and Palestinian group Islamic Jihad announced “rocket barrages” against multiple Israeli cities and towns including Tel Aviv, and Israel said that two of its soldiers had died in combat, the first since the end of the truce.
At least seven people were killed in an Israeli bombing early Sunday near Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, the Hamas-run government said.
Israeli strikes also hit the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza late Saturday, killing at least 13 people.
US Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday sharply rebuked the rising civilian toll in Israel’s eight-week war, sparked by an unprecedented attack on October 7.
“Too many innocent Palestinians have been killed,” she told reporters at UN climate talks in Dubai.
“Frankly, the scale of civilian suffering and the images and videos coming from Gaza are devastating.”
An estimated 1.7 million people in Gaza — more than two-thirds of the population — have been displaced by war, according to the United Nations.
“I cannot find words strong enough to express our concern over what we’re witnessing,” the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on Sunday on X, formerly Twitter.
Gazans are short of food, water and other essentials, and many homes have been destroyed. UN agencies have declared a humanitarian catastrophe, although some aid trucks did arrive Saturday.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society said Israel had told NGOs not to bring aid convoys across the Rafah border crossing from Egypt after the truce expired.
But the charity said on Saturday its Egyptian colleagues had managed to send over a number of trucks.
Hamas fighters broke through Gaza’s militarised border into Israel on October 7, killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took around 240 Israelis and foreigners hostage, according to Israeli authorities.
Israel vowed to eliminate Hamas in response and unleashed an air and ground campaign that has killed more than 15,000 people, also mostly civilians, the Hamas authorities who run Gaza say.
A week-long truce, brokered with the help of Qatar and backed by Egypt and the United States, led to the release of 80 Israeli hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
But that truce collapsed with both sides blaming each other for violating its conditions.
Israel said that Hamas had tried to fire a rocket before the ceasefire ended, and that it had failed to produce a list of further hostages for release.
Israeli negotiators left Doha on Saturday after reaching a dead end in talks aimed at securing a fresh pause in hostilities.
The Israeli army said 137 hostages were still being held in Gaza.
