JERUSALEM

Israel intensified its strikes in Gaza‘s fundamental cities on Friday, greater than two months after Hamas’s lethal assault sparked a conflict that has claimed hundreds of lives and left the Palestinian territory in ruins.

The demise toll in Gaza has risen 17,000, largely girls and youngsters, the Hamas-run well being ministry mentioned, with huge areas decreased to a rubble-strewn wasteland of bombed-out and bullet-scarred buildings.

Early Friday, the well being ministry reported one other 40 useless in strikes close to Gaza City, and “dozens” extra in Jabalia and Khan Yunis.

The Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer, one of many leaders of a younger technology of authors in Gaza who selected to put in writing in English to inform their tales, was killed in an Israeli strike, his associates mentioned in a single day Thursday.

Israeli forces have encircled main city centres as they search to destroy Hamas over its unprecedented assault on October 7, when militants broke by way of Gaza’s militarised border to kill round 1,200 individuals and seize hostages, 138 of whom stay captive, in response to Israeli figures.

In a Thursday cellphone name with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Joe Biden “emphasised the critical need to protect civilians and to separate the civilian population from Hamas”, the White House mentioned in an announcement.

Biden additionally referred to as for “corridors that allow people to move safely from defined areas of hostilities”.

Backed by air energy, tanks and armoured bulldozers, Israeli troops are combating in Khan Yunis, the largest metropolis in southern Gaza, in addition to in Gaza City and Jabalia district within the north.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned Thursday troops had closed in on the Khan Yunis dwelling of Hamas’s Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar, 61, vowing “it is only a matter of time until we find him”.

Israeli tv stations aired footage Thursday of blindfolded Palestinian males carrying solely underwear, guarded by Israeli troopers in Gaza, setting off robust reactions on social media.

“We are investigating to see who is linked to Hamas and who is not,” Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari mentioned at a press convention.

 ‘We are useless already’ 

The combating has pushed Gazans south, turning Rafah close to the Egyptian border into an enormous camp for most of the 1.9 million displaced by the battle — 80 p.c of Gaza’s inhabitants.

“Two months on the road, moving from one place to another. These are the hardest two months we have experienced in our lives,” mentioned Abdallah Abu Daqqa, displaced from Khan Yunis to Rafah.

Air strikes have adopted them.

Eight extra hit Rafah in a single day. AFP journalists noticed round 20 corpses in white physique baggage, together with a baby, at its Nasser hospital, whereas males gathered close by to hope.

The mass civilian casualties within the battle have sparked international concern, heightened by dire shortages brought on by an Israeli siege that has seen solely restricted entry for meals, water, gasoline and medicines.

Israel has authorised a “minimal” enhance in gasoline provides to forestall a “humanitarian collapse and the outbreak of epidemics”.

UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths mentioned there have been “promising signs” Israel might open the southern Kerem Shalom crossing to help deliveries.

Hamas has declared a “state of famine” in northern Gaza, saying no assist has arrived there since December 1.

Israeli rights group B’Tselem mentioned the “minuscule amount of aid” allowed into the territory was “tantamount to deliberately starving the population”.

“We are dying here, without even the need for rockets and bomb strikes. We are dead already, dead from hunger, dead from displacement,” mentioned Abdelkader al-Haddad, a Gaza City resident now in Rafah.

 Intense combating 

The Netanyahu authorities has responded angrily to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres invoking the hardly ever used Article 99 of the world physique’s constitution, calling on the Security Council to push for a ceasefire.

The United Arab Emirates has ready a draft decision that will likely be put to a vote on the Security Council on Friday, mentioned the delegation from Ecuador, which chairs the council this month.