• UN-run school, petrol station among targets
• Number of journalists killed in last 10 months rises to 160
• Netanyahu vows to ramp up pressure until ‘all war objectives’ are achieved

GAZA STRIP: Despite renewed US criticism of the high civilian toll, Israeli forces continued to bomb separate areas in Gaza, including a fuel station and a UN-run school in Nuseirat refugee camp, leaving 57 more Palestinians, including a journalist, dead on Tuesday.

The Gaza health ministry said an Israeli strike on a fuel station in Al-Mawasi in southern Gaza killed 17 people and wounded at least 26. The Palestinian Red Crescent initially gave a toll of eight dead in a separate strike at almost the same time on the UN-run Al-Razi School in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. In Rafah, a southern border city where Israeli forces have been operating since May, five Palestinians were killed in an airstrike on a house, Gaza health officials said. In nearby Khan Younis, a man, his wife, and two children were killed, they said.

One of the air strikes hit near a tented area housing displaced fam­ilies in Attar Street in the humanitarian-designated area of Al-Mawasi, the health ministry said.

Hours earlier, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told two senior Israeli officials of Washington’s “serious concern” following the deadly Israeli strikes in Gaza, his spokesman said.

“We have seen civilian casualties come down from the high points of the conflict... but they still remain unacceptably high,” spokesman Matthew Miller said after Blinken met Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi.

On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vo­wed to ramp up pressure on Hamas. “This is exactly the time to increase the pressure even more,” to bring home all the Israeli prisoners and to “achieve all the war objectives”, he said.

Mass displacement

Indirect talks on ending the devastating war have been brokered by Qatar and Egypt, with US support, but months of negotiations have failed to bring a breakthrough with Netanyahu adamant to achieve “the war objectives”.

At the end of May, US President Joe Biden outlined a ceasefire roadmap he said had been drawn up by Israel that triggered an intensification of the talks. But despite meetings in both Cairo and Doha, there has been no sign of progress on how this might be implemented.

Critics in Israel, including tens of thousands of demonstrators seeking a deal to bring home the Israeli prisoners, have accused Netanyahu of prolonging the conflict.

The Israeli strikes have forced 90 per cent of Gaza’s 2.4 million people to flee homes. Many have sought refuge in UN-run schools, seven of which have been hit by Israeli strikes since July 6.

“Why do they target us when we are innocent people?” asked Umm Mohammed al-Hasanat, sheltering with her family at a UN-run school in Nuseirat, which was among those hit.

Among those killed was local journalist Mohammad Meshmesh, taking the number of journalists killed in the conflict to 160, the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said.

Palestinian Red Crescent medics said they recovered four bodies from a house outside the southern city of Khan Yunis and another from Nuseirat camp.

Since October 2023, he Israeli air and ground strikes have clai­med at least 38,713 lives, mostly women and children, according to figures from the Gaza health ministry.

Prisoners complain of torture

Israel’s military also detained scores of Gazans, who complained of torture, rape and other abuses in custody that Israeli authorities have denied.

After visiting the detained Palestinian journalists, Advocate Khaled Mahajna said prisoners had recounted guards using “electric prods” on inmates’ bodies.

Five Israeli human rights groups have moved court over conditions at the Sde Teiman desert camp where Gazans are being held, though Israeli officials insist they act within the bounds of international law.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2024