Hamas will ‘pay heavy price’ after alleged attack, Israeli minister says
Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz says Hamas fighters attacked its troops despite an ongoing ceasefire in Gaza and vowed the group will be targeted.
“Hamas will pay a heavy price for attacking soldiers in Gaza and for violating the agreement to return the bodies of the hostages,” Katz said in a statement released by his office.
He said Hamas’s alleged attack “is a crossing of a bright red line, to which the [military] will respond with great force”.
In the central Gaza city of Deir el-Balah, tanks could be heard firing from an area controlled by the Israeli army. Earlier, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to carry out intense strikes on Gaza.
Genocide won’t end ‘as long as Israel keeps boots on the ground’
A UN special rapporteur says it is unsurprising that Israel is again attacking Gaza despite the US-brokered ceasefire.
Francesca Albanese blamed UN member states for ignoring Israel’s genocide for the past two years despite efforts by international courts to rein in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s far-right government.
The International Court of Justice has called on Israel to allow aid into Gaza, announced its occupation of the Palestinian territory is unlawful, demanded the removal of troops and the dismantling of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, she noted.
“These are the red lines, and in the face of these member states are continuing playing this theatre of the absurd,” said Albanese.
“I am ashamed – not even as a lawyer but as a human being – because I know for the Palestinians in Gaza the genocide will not end, and for the Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem the violence by soldiers and settlers will not end as long as Israel is allowed to keep its boots on the ground, and control and determine the fate of the Palestinians.”
At least two Palestinians killed in Israel’s Gaza strikes
The Palestinian Civil Defence agency says two people have been confirmed killed and four others wounded in Israeli attacks on a neighourhood south of Gaza City.
An air strike targeted a home in the Sabra neighbourhood inside the “yellow line” from which Israeli forces previously withdrew under the ceasefire deal.
A missile also hit the Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City. Strikes also occurred around the al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza’s main urban centre. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Artillery fire also targeted areas east of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.
