Brian McDonald
An Israeli airstrike on a house in a refugee camp in central Gaza killed at least 27 people, most of them women and children, according to a hospital in the area, the Associated Press reported. Civil Defense suggested that the death toll was higher.
Sunday’s attack came as fighting raged in northern Gaza and Israel’s leaders expressed divisions over who should govern the Palestinian territory after the war. now in its eighth month. It also came as a US envoy visited the region and met with several leaders mid-week.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan was scheduled to meet with top Israeli leaders on Sunday to discuss a ambitious US plan for Saudi Arabia recognize Israel and help the Palestinian Authority govern Gaza in exchange for a path to eventual statehood.
On Monday, Roger Carstens, US special envoy for hostage affairs, will travel to Doha, Qatar, to participate in a panel at the Global Security Forum called “The Impacts of Hostage Taking by State and Non-State Actors.” according to the State Department. Officials said Carstens’ visit would last until Wednesday, and while there he would also “meet with Qatari government representatives and other government representatives and civil society groups present to discuss unjust detention and hostage issues.” .
Ismael Abu Dayyah/AP
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced criticism from his own war cabinetwith his main political rival, Benny Gantz, threatening to leave the government if a plan is not formulated by June 8 that includes an international administration for post-war Gaza.
Netanyahu, who opposes the creation of a Palestinian state, has rejected those proposals, saying Israel will maintain open security control over Gaza and will partner with local Palestinians not affiliated with Hamas or the Western-backed Palestinian Authority.
Gantz’s withdrawal would not topple Netanyahu’s coalition government, but it would leave him more dependent on far-right allies who support the “voluntary emigration” of Palestinians from Gaza, full military occupation and the reconstruction of Jewish settlements there.
Even as discussions about post-war planning take on new weight, the war continues to rage on with no end in sight. In recent weeks, Hamas has regrouped in parts of northern Gaza that were heavily bombed in the early days of the war and where Israeli ground troops had previously operated.
The airstrike on Nuseirat, a Palestinian refugee camp built in central Gaza that dates back to the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, killed at least 27 people, including 10 women and seven children, according to records from the Al-Martyr’s Hospital. Aqsa, nearby. city of Deir al-Balah, which received the bodies. The hospital said in an initial statement to AFP that it “received 20 deaths and several injuries after an Israeli airstrike targeted a house belonging to the Hasan family in the Al-Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.” Civil Defense in Gaza later said that 31 bodies had been recovered following an early morning shelling of the Nuseirat camp.
Another attack on a street in Nuseirat killed another five people, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent emergency service. In Deir al-Balah, an attack killed Zahed al-Houli, a senior officer in the Hamas-run police, and another man, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital.
Abdel Kareem Hana/AP
Palestinians have reported more airstrikes and heavy fighting in northern Gaza, which has been largely isolated by Israeli troops for months and where the World Food Program says there is famine.
Civil Defense says the attacks hit several houses near Kamal Adwan Hospital in the city of Beit Lahiya, killing at least 10 people. Footage released by rescuers showed them trying to pull a woman’s body from the rubble as explosions echoed in the background and smoke billowed.
In the nearby Jabliya urban refugee camp, residents reported a heavy wave of artillery and airstrikes.
“The situation is very difficult,” said Abdel-Kareem Radwan, a 48-year-old man from Jabaliya. He said the entire eastern side has become a battle zone where Israeli fighters “attack anything that moves.”
Mahmoud Bassal, a Civil Defense spokesman, said rescue teams had recovered at least 150 bodies, more than half of them women and children, since Israel launched the operation in Jabaliya last week. He said around 300 homes were “completely destroyed”.
Israel launched its offensive following the Hamas attack on October 7, in which Palestinian militants invaded southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and kidnapping around 250.
The war has killed at least 35,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. Around 80% of the 2.3 million Palestinian population has been displaced within the territory, often multiple times.
Israel says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames the high death toll and destruction on Hamas, which positions fighters, tunnels and rocket launchers in dense residential areas.
Netanyahu’s critics, including thousands of protesters who returned to the streets on Saturday, accused him of prolonging the war and rejecting a ceasefire agreement that would have freed hostages so he could avoid a reckoning for the security failures that led to the attack.
Polls show that Gantz, a centrist politician, would likely succeed Netanyahu if early elections were held. This would expose Netanyahu to legal proceedings over long-standing corruption allegations.
Netanyahu denies any political motives and says the offensive must continue until Hamas is dismantled and the estimated 100 hostages held in Gaza, and the remains of more than 30 others, are returned. He said it was pointless to discuss post-war agreements while Hamas was still fighting, because the militants had threatened anyone who cooperated with Israel.
Netanyahu also faces pressure from Israel’s closest ally, the United States, which has provided crucial military aid and diplomatic cover for the offensive, even as it expresses growing frustration with Israel’s handling of the war.
President Joe Biden’s administration recently detained a shipment of 3,500 bombs weighing up to 2,000 pounds each and said the U.S. would not supply offensive weapons for a full-scale invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, citing fears of a humanitarian catastrophe.
But last week, after Israel launched what it says was a limited operation in Rafah, the administration told lawmakers it would move forward with selling $1 billion worth of weapons, tank ammunition, tactical vehicles and mortars, according to senior advisers. Congress.
Sullivan is expected in Israel after meeting Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Saturday. The administration has been working on an ambitious plan in which Saudi Arabia would recognize Israel and join other Arab states in helping administer and rebuild Gaza, in exchange for a U.S. defense pact and help building a civilian nuclear program. .
But U.S. and Saudi officials say the deal requires Israel to agree to a credible path toward eventual creation of a Palestinian state, something Netanyahu has repeatedly ruled out.
In Gantz’s ultimatum, he expressed support for normalizing ties with Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries. But he also said that “we will not allow any external power, friendly or hostile, to impose a Palestinian state on us.”
