Gaza civil defence says 32 killed in Israeli operations

GAZA CITY: Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli military operations killed 32 people across the war-battered territory on Saturday, the latest deaths in nearly 21 months of war.

Israel has recently expanded its military operations in the Gaza Strip, where the war has created dire humanitarian conditions for the Palestinian territory’s population of more than two million.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency.

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Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said Saturday’s dead included eight people killed in two strikes on schools in Gaza City.

Many Gazans have sought shelter in schools and other public buildings since Palestine Israel war began.

Bassal also reported that eight people were killed by Israeli fire near an aid distribution centre in southern Gaza.

Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it could not comment on specific attacks without precise coordinates.

The latest strikes came hours after Hamas said it was ready to start talks “immediately” on a US-sponsored proposal for a Gaza ceasefire.

An Israeli official told AFP that “no decision has been made yet” when asked about Hamas’s positive response to the latest ceasefire proposal.

It came ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s departure for talks on Monday in Washington, where US President Donald Trump has intensified calls for an end to the war.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed more than 57,000 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The United Nations considers its figures reliable.

Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he asked US President Donald Trump to intervene to stop shootings at Gaza aid centres, which the UN says have killed more than 500 people.

Erdogan said when he met Trump at a NATO summit in late June, he asked him to step in and halt the bloodshed.

“I asked him to intervene in the Gaza process telling him, ‘You are the one who will best manage this process with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’. There are people who are being killed in food queues in particular.

“You need to intervene here so that these people are not killed’,” he said, his remarks reported Saturday by Anadolu state news agency.

Israel blocked supplies going into Gaza in early March, deepening a humanitarian crisis in the war-torn territory, but on May 26, a group called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is backed by Israel and the US, started delivering supplies.

However its operations have since been marred by chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Israeli forces firing on people waiting to collect rations from its distribution sites in Gaza, where the Israeli military says it is seeking to destroy Hamas militants.

The UN Human Rights Office said Friday more than 500 people had been killed in the vicinity of the GHF sites.

Israel’s army has blamed Hamas for the incidents and this week, GHF’s chairman Johnnie Moore denied any Palestinians have been killed in or near its four distribution sites.

Erdogan said ending the 12-day Iran-Israel war had created a new opportunity to end the fighting in Gaza.

“The ceasefire between Iran and Israel has also opened a door for Gaza. Hamas has repeatedly demonstrated its good will in this regard,” he said just days after his spy chief and foreign minister met separately with senior Hamas officials.

US pressure on Israel would be “decisive” in securing the success of the latest proposal for a 60-day truce in Gaza, he remarked, saying the issue of guarantees was “especially important”.

“In the event of a ceasefire, the international community needs to invest rapidly in reconstruction projects. If a permanent ceasefire can be achieved, a path to permanent peace in the region can be opened.”