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White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby on Monday said Israel had a right to defend itself but added: “We expect them to do so in accordance with international law and to protect innocent people in hospitals, medical staff and patients as well, as much as possible.”
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Israel says Hamas fighters operate from in and around hospitals, which Hamas and medical staff deny.
“Hamas embeds its operation within and under hospitals and other medical facilities,” said Elad Goren of COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry branch that coordinates with the Palestinians. “A particular effort led by a dedicated team has been put on making sure that civilians have access to medical care.”
Residents said the bombardment from air, land and sea was the most intense in the southern sector of Gaza since the war began in October.
Video filmed from afar showed scattered civilians wandering around a ghost city, crowded with tents with abandoned laundry flapping on lines, as gunfire rattled and smoke rose into the sky.
Israel said on Tuesday that 24 soldiers had been killed in intensive fighting. The reservists were preparing explosives to demolish two buildings in central Gaza on Monday when a militant fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a tank nearby, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the chief military spokesperson, said. The blast triggered the explosives, causing both two-storey buildings to collapse on the soldiers inside.
Israel launched an offensive last week to capture Khan Younis, which it now says is the principal headquarters of the Hamas militants responsible for the October 7 attacks on southern Israel that killed 1200 people, according to Israeli tallies.
The newest phase of the war has brought fighting deep into the last corners of the enclave now packed with those who fled bombardment. At least 25,295 Gazans have been killed since October 7, Gaza health authorities said in an update on Monday.
The majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents are now penned into Rafah just south of Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah just north of it, crammed into public buildings and camps of tents made from plastic sheets lashed to wooden frames.
Lines of cars and donkey carts piled high with belongings pushed south as Gazans sought to flee the bombardments.
Buried in hospital grounds
At Nasser Hospital, the only major hospital still accessible in Khan Younis and the largest still functioning in Gaza, video showed the trauma ward overwhelmed with wounded being treated on a floor splashed with blood.
Ahmed Abu Mustafa, an emergency doctor, said he hadn’t slept for 30 hours and was treating 10-11 patients in an intensive care unit with four beds.
Outside, men dug graves within the hospital grounds because it was not safe to venture out to the cemetery. Authorities said 40 people were buried there.
In Brussels, Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki told reporters the situation in Gaza was out of control and asked the European Union to call for a ceasefire.
“The health system has collapsed. There is no way for injured Palestinians to be treated in the Gaza strip and they are not able to leave Gaza for treatment outside.”
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Israel says it will not stop fighting until it annihilates Hamas. But Palestinians and some Western military experts say that objective may be unachievable given the group’s diffuse structure and deep roots in Gaza, which it has ruled since 2007.
Though Israelis overwhelmingly support the war, a growing number led by relatives of the remaining hostages say the government should do more to reach a deal to free them, even if that means reining in its offensive.
About 20 relatives of hostages stormed a parliamentary committee session in Jerusalem on Monday, demanding MPs do more to help free their loved ones.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a group of relatives there was no truth to reports of a deal to free hostages in a ceasefire.
“I am saying this as clearly as I can because there are so many incorrect statements which are certainly agonising for you,” Netanyahu’s office quoted him as telling them.
Sami al-Zuhri, head of Hamas’ political unit in exile, said Hamas was open to “all initiatives and proposals, but any agreement must be based on ending the aggression and the occupation’s complete withdrawal” from Gaza.
New US-British strikes in Yemen
US and British forces have carried out a fresh round of strikes in Yemen, targeting a Houthi underground storage site as well as missile and surveillance capabilities used by the Iran-aligned group against Red Sea shipping, the Pentagon said.
The Houthis, who control the most populous parts of Yemen, have said their attacks are in solidarity with Palestinians as Israel strikes Gaza.
The Houthi attacks have disrupted global shipping and stoked fears of global inflation. They have also deepened concern that fallout from the Israel-Hamas war could destabilise the Middle East.
So far, multiple rounds of strikes over the past month have failed to stop Houthi attacks against shipping.
In the latest response, the countries carried out eight strikes, with support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada and the Netherlands, according to a joint statement signed by the six nations.
“These precision strikes are intended to disrupt and degrade the capabilities that the Houthis use to threaten global trade and the lives of innocent mariners,” the joint statement said.
British Defence Minister Grant Shapps said in a statement the strikes were carried out in self-defence.
“This action will deal another blow to their limited stockpiles and ability to threaten global trade,” Shapps said.
New Zealand announced on Tuesday it was sending six members of its Defence Force to the international coalition that is trying to uphold maritime security in the Red Sea. Their deployment will conclude no later than July 31, Bloomberg reported.
“Houthi attacks against commercial and naval shipping are illegal, unacceptable and profoundly destabilising,” Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said.
Reuters, AP
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