RAFAH: Israel escalated its bombardment of targets in the Gaza Strip, the military said, ahead of an expected ground invasion against Hamas militants that the US fears could spark a wider conflict in the region, including attacks on American troops.
The stepped-up attacks, and the rapidly rising death toll killed in Gaza, came as Hamas released two elderly Israeli women who were among the hundreds of hostages it captured during its devastating October 7 attack on towns in southern Israel.
Amid a flurry of diplomatic activity in Israel since the war started, French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Tel Aviv, meeting with the families of French citizens who were killed or held hostage before heading to talks with top Israeli officials.
700 killed; WHO facilities paralysed in Gaza
Rapidly expanding Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip killed more than 700 people in the past day as medical facilities across the territory were forced to close because of bombing damage and a lack of power, health officials said Tuesday.
Israel said it had launched 400 airstrikes over the past day, killing Hamas commanders, hitting militants as they were preparing to launch rockets into Israel and striking command centres and a Hamas tunnel shaft.
The previous day, Israel reported 320 strikes. Witnesses and health officials said many of the airstrikes hit residential buildings, some of them in southern Gaza where Israel had told civilians to take shelter.
An overnight strike hit a four-story residential building in the southern city of Khan Younis, killing at least 32 people and wounding scores of others, according to survivors.
The fatalities included 13 from the Saqallah family, said Ammar al-Butta, a relative who survived the airstrike. He said there were about 100 people, including many who had come from Gaza City, which Israel has ordered civilians to evacuate. Another airstrike hit a bustling marketplace in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing several shoppers and wounding dozens, witnesses said.
Two-thirds of Gaza’s health facilities ceased functioning: UN
Nearly two-thirds of Gaza’s health facilities have ceased functioning amid a massive and deadly increase in Israeli airstrikes in the territory, the World Health Organization said. A total of 46 out of 72 health care facilities — including 12 out of 35 hospitals — have stopped functioning across Gaza, the WHO said. Palestinian health officials said the lack of electricity and fuel to power generators from an Israeli blockade, as well as damage from airstrikes, has forced many of the facilities to close.