Battles, bombardment in Gaza as Israel reschedules talks with US

GAZA
Battles and bombardment pounded Gaza on Thursday, after Washington said Israel agreed to reschedule cancelled talks with tensions worsening between the allies.
The United States’ criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has mounted over Gaza’s civilian death toll, dire food shortages, and Israeli plans to push its ground offensive against Hamas militants into the far-southern city of Rafah, which is packed with displaced civilians.
World leaders have warned against a Rafah offensive which they fear would worsen an already catastrophic humanitarian situation for the Palestinian territory’s 2.4 million residents.
The United Nations reported late Wednesday that famine “is ever closer to becoming a reality in northern Gaza”, and said the territory’s health system is collapsing “due to ongoing hostilities and access constraints”.
Bombardment and fighting have continued despite a binding United Nations Security Council resolution passed three days earlier demanding an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza and the release of hostages held by militants.
Netanyahu scrapped an Israeli visit to Washington to discuss the Rafah plan, in protest of the UN ceasefire resolution from which the United States abstained, allowing it to pass.
Netanyahu’s government has since backtracked and agreed “to reschedule the meeting dedicated to Rafah”, according to White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre.
She added that they were working to find a “convenient date”.
US officials say they plan to present Israel with an alternative for Rafah, focused on striking Hamas targets while limiting the civilian toll.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel’s horrifying military assault on Gaza has killed at least 32,490 people, most of them women and children. Thousands have been injured while thousands more remain missing, believed to be buried under the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israel’s incessant airstrikes.
The health ministry, in a preliminary toll issued early on Thursday, said 66 more people were killed overnight.
On October 7 last year Hamas launched an unprecedented raid that resulted in about 1,160 deaths of Israeli settlers, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
The fighters also took about 250 settlers captive. Israel says that, after an earlier truce and hostage release deal, about 130 remain in Gaza, including 34 presumed dead.
Fighting continued around three of Gaza’s hospitals, raising fears for patients, medical staff and displaced people inside them.
The Al-Amal hospital in Khan Yunis, near Rafah, “has ceased to function completely”, the Palestine Red Crescent said earlier this week, following the evacuation of civilians from the medical centre.
Israel’s military accuses Hamas fighters of hiding in medical facilities and using civilians as shields. An allegation that the Palestinian resistance group has continuously denied.