Fifty-one killed in Israeli attack on Gaza’s Maghazi refugee camp, says Palestinian media; 30 more aid trucks enter Gaza via Rafah crossing
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The Palestinian news agency Wafa said 51 Palestinians, mostly women and children, were killed and scores wounded in an Israeli bombardment of Gaza’s Maghazi refugee camp on Saturday night. Reuters could not independently verify the Wafa report. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to the reports.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society received 30 aid trucks that entered Gaza through the Rafah border crossing on Saturday. Three were handed to the Red Cross and 19 to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. Eight trucks from the Egyptian Red Crescent were delivered to the Palestine Red Crescent.
US president Joe Biden signalled there were small signs of progress being made towards a humanitarian pause in the war between Israel and Hamas on Saturday. US officials have been pushing for a pause but so far with little impact.
Hamas’s armed wing said more than 60 hostages were missing due to Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. Abu Ubaida, the spokesperson for the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam brigades, also said on Hamas’s Telegram account that 23 bodies of Israeli hostages were trapped under the rubble. Reuters could not immediately verify the statement.
Protesters gathered outside the residence of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid growing anger at the government’s failures that led to Hamas’s deadly attacks against Israel on 7 October. Protesters also gathered in Tel Aviv, with many holding signs that said “Ceasefire” and others that read “Release the hostages now at all costs”.
Agence France-Presse has called on Israel ot provide “an in-depth and transparent investigation” into the exact involvement of its army after a strike severely damaged its office in Gaza City, which has been shelled for weeks. “A strike on the offices of an international news agency sends a deeply troubling message to all the journalists working in such difficult conditions in Gaza,” the news agency’s chairman and CEO Fabrice Fries said.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken has reaffirmed US support for “humanitarian pauses” in the ongoing fight between Israel and Hamas. In an address in Amman, Jordan, about sparing civilians and speeding up aid deliveries entering into Gaza, Blinken said: “The United States believes that all of these efforts will be facilitated by humanitarian pauses.”
Turkey has announced it is recalling its ambassador to Israel and cutting contact with Netanyahu. Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson Lior Haiat called Saturday’s move “another step by the Turkish president that sides with the Hamas terrorist organisation.”
Israel will locate and kill Hamas’s Gaza chief, Yahya Sinwar, Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant said. “We will find Sinwar and will eliminate him,” Gallant said on Saturday as Israeli forces fought street battles with Hamas in the Palestinian territory.
Thousands of protesters gathered in Washington DC’s Freedom Plaza in a show of solidarity with Palestinians. The rally was expected to be the US’s largest pro-Palestinian protest since the Israel-Hamas war began on 7 October.
Thousands of protesters took to the streets in London for the fourth consecutive week of demonstrations in support of Palestinians. The Metropolitan police said there would be a “sharper focus” on using social media and face recognition to detect criminal behaviour at protests this weekend.
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