Israeli strikes pounded the Gaza Strip early on Monday, killing dozens, including people sleeping in a school-turned-shelter, local health officials said. The Israeli military said it targeted militants operating from the school.
Israel has vowed to seize control of Gaza and keep fighting until Hamas is destroyed or disarmed and exiled, and until the militant group returns the remaining 58 hostages, a third of them believed to be alive, from the Oct. 7, 2023 attack that ignited the war.
Israel had blocked all food, medicine and fuel from entering Gaza for 2 1/2 months before letting a trickle of aid enter last week, after experts’ warnings of famine and pressure from some of Israel’s top allies.
A new aid system, with a group called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation that's supported by Israel and the United States but rejected by U.N. agencies and aid groups, is expected to begin operations as early as Monday, despite the resignation of the American leading the effort, who said it would not be able to operate independently.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people in the October 2023 attack. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed around 54,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.
Here's the latest:
The Israeli military says 3 projectiles have been fired from Gaza
The military says the projectiles were fired toward southern Israel. Two landed inside Gaza and one was intercepted by Israel’s missile defense system.
Militants in Gaza still occasionally fire rockets toward Israel, a sign of their tenacity even after more than 19 months of grueling war in the territory and an intensifying Israeli offensive.
A US-backed group still plans to begin aid distribution in Gaza after its director resigns
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation says it's still going ahead with its launch on Monday despite the unexpected resignation of its American executive director over the weekend. Jake Wood said he was resigning because the organization would not be allowed to operate independently.
The foundation — made up of former humanitarian, government and military officials — is the linchpin of a new aid system for Gaza that would wrest aid distribution away from aid groups who have traditionally carried out the task.
“We will not be deterred. Our trucks are loaded and ready to go,” GHF said in a statement. The group said it planned to reach more than 1 million Palestinians by the end of the week.
The U.N. has rejected the new aid mechanism, saying it allows Israel to use food as a weapon, violates human humanitarian principles and won’t be effective.
Australia's prime minister calls Israel's blockade of Gaza aid ‘outrageous’
It was the strongest language to date from Anthony Albanese on the Gaza humanitarian crisis.
“It is outrageous that there be a blockade of food and supplies to people who are in need in Gaza,” Albanese told reporters in the Australian capital Canberra on Monday.
Israel has blocked all food, medicine and fuel from entering Gaza for 2 1/2 months before letting a trickle of aid enter last week. It says the militant Hamas group has been siphoning off aid. U.N. aid groups say there is no significant divergence of aid.
Albanese said he had recently told Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Rome that Australia finds “Israel’s excuses and explanations completely untenable and without credibility.”
"People are starving, and the idea that a democratic state withholds supply is an outrage,” he added.
More on a Gaza tragedy: A mother and doctor loses 9 of her 10 children
Pediatrician Alaa al-Najjar lost nine of her 10 children in an Israeli strike on Friday at their home near the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, according to her colleagues and the enclave's Health Ministry.
Only one child, an 11-year-old, and al-Najjar’s husband, also a doctor, survived but were badly hurt.
Al-Najjar, a pediatrician at Nasser Hospital, was on duty at the time and ran home to find her family’s house on fire, said Ahmad al-Farra, head of the hospital’s pediatric department.
The dead children ranged in age from 7 months to 12 years old.
Israel has said “the claim regarding harm to uninvolved civilians is under review.” It blames Hamas for civilian deaths because it operates in densely populated areas.
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