Israeli strike on Gaza refugee camp kills 47, taking total deaths of Palestinians to 9,770

GAZA/RAMALLAH: Israeli military had struck the Maghazi refugee camp overnight, killing at least 47 people, taking the total deaths of Palestinians to 9,770 since October 7.

“At least 9,770 Palestinians, including 4,800 children, have been killed in Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip since October 7,” a spokesman for the Ministry of Health in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, Ashraf Al-Qudra, said on Sunday.

The spokesman for the health ministry in Gaza Strip said earlier on Sunday that Israeli military had struck the Maghazi refugee camp overnight, killing at least 47 people.

In a separate attack, 21 Palestinians from one family, including women and children, were killed in Israeli strikes targeting Gaza overnight, the health ministry said.

Reuters could not independently verify these accounts.

Meanwhile, US top diplomat Antony Blinken made an unannounced visit to the occupied West Bank on Sunday, where Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged him to persuade Israel to agree to a ceasefire as more died in a strike on a refugee camp overnight.

“We demand that you stop them from committing these crimes immediately,” Abbas told Blinken, demanding an “immediate ceasefire” from Israel.

“There are no words to describe the war of genocide and destruction to which our Palestinian people are being subjected in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli war machine, without regard to the rules of international law,” Palestinian news agency WAFA quoted Abbas as telling Blinken.

Foreign ministers from Qatar, Saudi, Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates met Blinken in Amman on Saturday and also pushed for Washington to convince Israel to agree to a ceasefire.

But Blinken has dismissed the idea, saying it would only benefit Hamas, allowing it to regroup and attack again. Instead, the United States are pushing for localised pauses in fighting to allow in humanitarian aid and for people to leave the densely populated Gaza Strip.

“The secretary reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to the delivery of life-saving humanitarian assistance and resumption of essential services in Gaza and made clear that Palestinians must not be forcibly displaced,” spokesperson Matthew Miller said.

Abbas has had little sway in Gaza since the Hamas takeover of the enclave in 2007.

Israel says it is targeting Hamas, not civilians, and that the Islamist Palestinian group is using residents as human shields.

Gaza health officials said on Sunday more than 9,770 Palestinians have been killed in the war, which began when Hamas fighters launched a surprise attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,400 people and taking more than 240 others hostage.

Evacuations of injured Gazans and foreign passport holders through the Rafah crossing to Egypt have been suspended since Saturday, two Egyptian security sources and a medical source told Reuters.

One of the security sources and the medical source said the evacuations were suspended after an Israeli strike on Friday on an ambulance in Gaza being used to transport injured people.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday disciplined a junior member of his cabinet who voiced openness to the idea of Israel carrying out a nuclear strike on Gaza.

SEARCHING THROUGH THE RUBBLE

Israel continued to strike the Gaza Strip by air, sea, and ground overnight.

Gaza health officials said Israeli air strikes destroyed a cluster of houses in the Maghazi refugee camp. Asked for comment, the Israeli military said they were waiting and gathering details.

Reuters footage showed people searching through rubble for victims or survivors at the refugee camp in central Gaza. One man, crying, was being embraced by others.