Arrest for rape after attack in city park

AFP News

Israel bombs Gaza, minister is about to resign from government

Israel continued its bombardment of Gaza on Saturday as a war cabinet minister appeared to make good on his threat to quit the government under increasing pressure over its leadership of the military operation. The attacks rocked various parts of Gaza and appeared to be concentrated in central areas of the Palestinian territory, witnesses and AFP journalists said. The onslaught continued despite Israel being under surveillance after its warplanes carried out an attack on a UN-run school on Thursday that left 37 people dead, according to a Gaza hospital. The Israeli military acknowledged carrying out the attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp and said it targeted a base of the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas, killing 17 “terrorists.” Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, accused the army of spreading “false information.” The group said three of the people listed by Israel as dead were in fact still alive. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which runs the school, condemned Israel for attacking a facility that reportedly housed 6,000 displaced people. In a post on social media platform X, the agency said the “school-turned-shelter” was attacked “without prior warning.” “Attacking UN buildings or using them for military purposes must not become the new norm. This must stop and all those responsible must be held accountable,” it said. Israel accuses Hamas and its allies in Gaza of using civilian infrastructure, including UN-run facilities, as operations centers – allegations the militants deny. – ‘Defenseless’ – The war, now in its ninth month, has wreaked widespread devastation in Gaza. According to the Hamas-controlled territory’s Health Ministry, one in 20 people is dead or wounded. Most of Gaza’s 2.4 million residents are displaced. This grim reality was underscored by an attack, the aftermath of which can be seen in an AFP video. Men salvage what they can from a bombed-out building in Gaza City and carry a body wrapped in a shroud from a rubble-strewn alley. Maher al-Mughair, who lives nearby, described the attack on Friday: “We heard what sounded like a drone firing a missile, followed by another fired from an F-16 fighter jet.” So we went looking and found women and children in pieces. What did the children and women do wrong? They are defenceless people, just civilians,” he told AFPTV. In the same city, five people were killed and seven wounded on Saturday when an Israeli warplane bombed the Mhana family home in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, Gaza emergency services said. Elsewhere, medics at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said six people were killed and others wounded in an Israeli missile attack on the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, where witnesses said shootings had taken place. The Israeli army said it had attacked “dozens of terrorist cells and infrastructures” in Deir al-Balah and Bureij in recent days. Troops also carried out operations in Rafah. The war was sparked by the October 7 Hamas attack that left 1,194 people, mostly civilians, dead, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Militants from Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups also took 251 hostages,of whom 120 are still in Gaza, including 41 who are in custody, according to the army. dead.Israel’s military retaliation offensive has killed at least 36,731 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-controlled territory’s health ministry.- Political fallout -Israel has faced growing diplomatic isolation as it faces accusations of war crimes in international court cases and several European countries recognize a Palestinian state.Israel’s UN envoy Gilad Erdan said on Friday he was “disgusted” that the Israeli military would be on an upcoming United Nations list of countries and forces that fail to protect children in war.A diplomatic source later told AFP that both Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad would also be included in the annual UN report detailing human rights abuses against children in conflict zones, expected by the end of June.Both Hamas and Islamic Jihad are classified as terrorist organizations by several countries, including the United States and the European Union.Israel’s Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu, who is due to address the U.S. Congress next month, is also facing pressure from his right-wing government.The office of Israel’s war cabinet member Benny Gantz has announced a press conference for Saturday, the deadline he set for Netanyahu last month to approve a post-war plan for Gaza. Israeli media have speculated that Gantz, a centrist former military chief who was one of Netanyahu’s main rivals before joining the war cabinet, would likely make good on his threat to resign. But such a move is not expected to affect the stability of Netanyahu’s government, a coalition of his right-wing Likud with far-right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties. – U.S. diplomacy – Recent mediation efforts to broker the first ceasefire in the conflict since a week-long pause in November appear to have stalled a week after U.S. President Joe Biden laid out a new roadmap. Biden, under pressure to end the war before November’s presidential election, said the plan would involve halting fighting for six weeks while hostages are exchanged for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. The plan would also include increased aid deliveries to Gaza. The G7 group of world powers and Arab states have backed the proposal. Sixteen world leaders have joined Biden’s call for Hamas to accept the deal. Hamas has not yet responded to Biden’s proposal. Israel has shown itself willing to talk but remains committed to the destruction of the Islamist group. Key sticking points include Hamas insisting on a permanent ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal – demands Israel has rejected. In a new diplomatic push, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Israel and key regional partners Egypt, Jordan and Qatar starting Monday. This will be his eighth Middle East trip since the war began. The leading US diplomat would “stress the importance of Hamas accepting the proposal on the table,” which would “benefit both Israelis and Palestinians,” said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.burs-dv/it