Israel kills 34 people in Gaza, say health officials, ahead of UN meeting
CAIRO – Israeli strikes killed at least 34 people in Gaza City overnight, including children, said that health officials on Sunday, while Israel continued with its offensive in the inflated city of famine and several countries are preparing to recognize a Palestinian state.
Health officials at Shifa Hospital, where most of the bodies were brought, said the dead included 14 people killed in a strike at the end of the evening on Saturday, who hit a residential block in the south side of the city. Health staff said that a nurse who worked in the hospital was one of the dead, with his wife and three children.
Israel did not comment on the strikes.
The last Israeli operation, which started this week, degenerates a conflict that has turned the Middle East more and probably pushes any more out of reach. The Israeli army, which told the Palestinians to leave, did not give a calendar for the offensive, but there were indications that it could take months. Israel says that the operation is intended to put pressure on Hamas to release hostages and go.
The strikes on Saturday evening came while some Western countries of eminent prepare to recognize the Palestinian state at the meeting of the world leaders of the United Nations General Assembly on Monday. They include the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Australia, Malta, Belgium and Luxembourg. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Portugal said that it would recognize a Palestinian state on Sunday.
Before the United Nations Assembly, peace activists in Israel welcomed the planned recognition of a Palestinian state. On Sunday, a group of more than 60 Jewish and Arab organizations representing around 1,000 activists, including certain veterans organizations promoting peace and coexistence, known as Time Coalition, called at the end of the war, the release of hostages and the recognition of a Palestinian state.
“We refuse to live forever by the sword. The United Nations decision offers a historic opportunity to move from a death trap to life, from an endless messianic war to a future of security and freedom for the two peoples,” the coalition said in a video press release.
On Saturday evening, tens of thousands of people in Israel protested, calling for the end of the war and a hostage agreement.
However, a ceasefire remains elusive. The Israeli bombardment in the last 23 months has killed more than 65,000 people in Gaza, destroyed large areas of the strip, moved around 90% of the population and caused a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, with experts saying that Gaza City is experiencing famine.
In a statement on Sunday, the army said it killed Majed Abu Selmiya, who, according to him, was a sniper for the Hamas military wing and was preparing to carry out more attacks in the Gaza region, without providing proofs.
Majed was the brother of the director of Shifa hospital, Dr. Mohamed Abu Selmiya, who described the allegations to lie and said that Israel was trying to justify the murder of civilians. Dr. Selmiya told the Associated Press that his brother, 57, suffered from hypertension, diabetes and had vision problems.
As the attacks continue, Israel has ordered hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to shelter Gaza City to move south in what he calls a humanitarian area and opened another corridor to the south of the city for two days this week to allow more people to evacuate.
The Palestinians have spread out of Gaza City by car and on foot, although many are not willing to be uprooted, too low to leave or unable to afford the cost of moving.
Along the Wadi Gaza coastal road, those who are too exhausted to continue to stop to catch their breath and give their children a very necessary break in the difficult trip.
Aid groups have warned that forcing thousands of people to evacuate will exacerbate the casualness of the humanitarian crisis. They use a ceasefire so that help can reach those who need it.
