More than 30 people were killed in an air strike that hit a house sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza’s centrally located refugee camp Nuseirat, a spokesman for the Hamas-ruled territory’s health ministry said on Saturday. Israel’s security cabinet is set to meet Sunday to discuss the “mandate” of a delegation due to travel to Doha for talks on a truce in Gaza, the prime minister’s office said.
Summary:
- The Spanish aid vessel Open Arms on Saturday finished unloading its cargo of 200 tonnes of desperately needed food for Gazans.
- A second cargo of food aid was ready to depart by sea from Cyprus to Gaza on Saturday, the island’s president said, after a first aid shipment landed in the besieged Palestinian enclave overnight.
- Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has approved the military's plan for an operation in Rafah, where most of war-battered Gaza's population has sought refuge. Rafah is the last major population centre yet to be subjected to a ground assault.
- At least 31,553 Palestinians have been killed and 73,546 wounded since Israel started its offensive on Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave. Around 1,140 people were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks and 250 people taken hostage, according to Israeli figures, with 132 still missing.
Yesterday's key developments:
- The Spanish aid vessel Open Arms reached Gaza's coast after leaving Cyprus on Tuesday. The ship carries a cargo containing about 200 tonnes of food.
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Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas appointed his longtime economic adviser to be the next prime minister in the face of US pressure to reform the Palestinian Authority as part of Washington's postwar vision for Gaza. Hamas and other Palestinian factions decried the decision.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office described the latest proposals for a hostage deal by the Islamist movement Hamas as "unrealistic" but said a delegation would leave for Qatar to discuss Israel’s position on a potential agreement.
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The Israeli army said “armed Palestinians” had opened fire on civilians awaiting humanitarian aid in northern Gaza, rejecting claims by the Hamas-ruled territory’s health ministry that Israeli soldiers were responsible for the shooting that left at least 20 people dead.
Gaza’s health ministry collects data from the enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent.
The health ministry does not report how Palestinians were killed, whether from Israeli airstrikes and artillery barrages or errant Palestinian rocket fire. It describes all casualties as victims of “Israeli aggression”.
The ministry also does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Throughout four wars and numerous skirmishes between Israel and Hamas, UN agencies have cited the Hamas-run health ministry’s death tolls in regular reports. The International Committee of the Red Cross and Palestinian Red Crescent also use the numbers.
In the aftermath of war, the UN humanitarian office has published final death tolls based on its own research into medical records. The UN's counts have largely been consistent with the Gaza health ministry’s, with small discrepancies.
For more on the Gaza health ministry’s tolls, click here.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
