The United States and its Arab allies appeared divided over Israel’s military offensive in Gaza to defeat Hamas, as Washington, alongside Israel, resisted pressure for an immediate ceasefire despite the rising death toll among Palestinian civilians.
In a rare display of a public split, Arab foreign ministers at a press conference pushed US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to persuade Israel to agree to a ceasefire. The top US diplomat, however, dismissed the idea, saying such a halt would only benefit Hamas, allowing the Palestinian group to regroup and attack again.
Blinken on Sunday resumes his Middle East trip, his second to the region since the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict reignited on Oct. 7 when fighters from Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, burst over the border into Israel, killing 1,400 people and taking more than 240 others hostage.
Israel has since struck Gaza from the air, imposed a siege and launched a ground assault, stirring global alarm at humanitarian conditions in the enclave and, Gaza health officials said on Saturday, killing near 10,000 Palestinians.
Meanwhile, Israel pressed its war to crush Hamas on Sunday nearly a month after the worst attack in its history, as the Palestinian fighters group said an Israeli bombing in Gaza killed dozens of people Fighting continues to rage in densely populated Gaza, despite calls for a ceasefire from Arab countries and desperate civilians after 30 days of war.
In the latest onslaught, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said an Israeli bombing on the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza late Saturday killed 30 people, with an eyewitness reporting children dead and homes smashed.
“More than 30 (dead) arrived at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah in the massacre committed by the occupation in Al-Maghazi camp in the central Gaza Strip,” health ministry spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qudra said in a statement.
“An Israeli air strike targeted my neighbours’ house in Al-Maghazi camp, my house next door partially collapsed,” said Mohammed Alaloul, 37, a journalist working for the Turkish Anadolu Agency.
Alaloul told his 13-year-old son, Ahmed, and his four-year-old son, Qais, were killed in the bombing, along with his brother. His wife, mother, and two other children were injured.
Israeli troops are battling inside Gaza, and a military spokesperson said they were looking into whether their forces had been operating in the area at the time of the bombing.
Since a shock Hamas attack on October 7, which Israeli officials say has killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians, Israel has bombarded the besieged Gaza Strip.
More than 240 Israeli and foreign hostages were also abducted by Hamas during the attack, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rebuffed proposals of a truce until the Islamist group releases them all.
Israel says it has struck 12,000 targets across the Palestinian territory since October 7, one of the fiercest bombing campaigns in recent memory.
The health ministry in Gaza, which is run by Hamas, says more than 9,480 Gazans, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israeli strikes and the intensifying ground campaign.—INP
