An Israeli airstrike killed five Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and at least 25 people, including 16 women and children, in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military said it targeted a group of militants in the city of Tubas in the occupied West Bank, as the Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed the death toll of five people but did not specify if the victims were militants or civilians.
Israel has stepped up military raids in the occupied West Bank in recent weeks, with the city of Jenin seeing the longest Israeli operation in the area for 20 years, causing widespread destruction.
On Tuesday, Gaza’s Health Ministry said a strike on a tent camp in a designated humanitarian zone, Muwasi, killed at least 19 people and wounded 60 others. Israel said the strike was targeting senior Hamas militants.
The Health Ministry says over 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war between Israel and Hamas began in October last year, and around 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million population have been displaced.
Dozens of Palestinian patients are expected to leave the Gaza Strip through an Israeli crossing to travel to the United Arab Emirates for medical care on Wednesday, according to an Israeli official speaking on anonymity pending a formal announcement.
In the most significant departure of medical patients through Israel since the war erupted, over 200 people, mostly children and their relatives, are expected to leave.
Gaza’s borders have been sealed off since May, when IDF captured its border with Egypt, including the key Rafah crossing, which was previously the only entry and exit point for Palestinians since the start of the war.
The official says the patients are leaving through the Kerem Shalom crossing and heading to the Ramon airport in southern Israel, where they will board a flight to the UAE.
Israel declared war after Hamas gunmen stormed across the border on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking some 240 hostages. More than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s war to destroy Hamas and more than 53,000 have been wounded, according to health officials in Gaza, a besieged territory ruled by the Islamic militant group for the past 16 years.
President Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday, calling it a long and private conversation a day after the Biden administration again shielded Israel in the diplomatic arena. On Friday, the U.N. Security Council adopted a watered-down resolution that calls for immediately speeding up aid deliveries to desperate civilians in Gaza, but not for a cease-fire.
“I did not ask for a cease-fire,” Biden said of the call. Netanyahu’s office said the prime minister “made clear that Israel would continue the war until achieving all its goals.”
Despite mounting international calls for a cease-fire, Israel has vowed to keep up the fight until Hamas is destroyed and removed from power in Gaza and all the hostages are freed.
On Friday, airstrikes flattened two homes, one in Gaza City and the other in the urban refugee camp of Nuseirat in the center of the territory.
The Health Ministry in Gaza on Saturday evening said 201 people had been killed over the past 24 hours.
The Gaza City strikes Friday killed 76 people from the al-Mughrabi family, making it one of the deadliest of the war, said Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for Palestinian Civil Defense. He provided the names of 16 heads of households within the family, and said the dead included women and children.
Among those killed were Issam al-Mughrabi, a veteran employee of U.N. Development Program, his wife, and their five children.
“The loss of Issam and his family has deeply affected us all. The U.N. and civilians in Gaza are not a target,” said Achim Steiner, the head of the agency. “This war must end.”
Later Friday, a strike pulverized the Nuseirat home of Mohammed Khalifa, a local TV journalist, killing him and at least 14 others, according to officials at the nearby Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital where the bodies were taken. Mourners held funeral prayers Saturday in the hospital’s courtyard while rescue teams continued to search for survivors. The legs of at least two bodies were seen under what appeared to be a collapsed roof.
Israel blames Hamas for the high civilian death toll, citing the militants’ use of crowded residential areas and tunnels. Israel has launched thousands of airstrikes since Oct. 7, and has largely refrained from commenting on specific attacks, including discussing the intended target.
