Israel Bombing of Gaza Continues Despite UN Warnings

Israel bombed Gaza on Saturday as the United Nations warned the Palestinian territory has become “uninhabitable” after three months of fighting that threatens to engulf the wider region.

AFP correspondents reported Israeli strikes early Saturday on Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of people have sought shelter from the fighting.

Civilians continue to bear the brunt of the conflict, with the UN warning of a deepening humanitarian crisis as famine looms and disease spreads. With much of the territory already reduced to rubble, UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said on Friday that “Gaza has simply become uninhabitable”. 

The UN’s children’s agency warned that clashes, malnutrition and a lack of health services had created “a deadly cycle that threatens over 1.1 million children” in Gaza. Israeli forces were continuing “to fight in all parts of the Gaza Strip, in the north, centre and south”, military spokesman Daniel Hagari said late Friday.

AFP correspondents reported Friday that Israeli strikes had hit the southern cities of Khan Yunis and Rafah as well as parts of central Gaza. The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said it had recorded 162 deaths over the past 24 hours .

The Palestinian Red Crescent reported renewed shelling and drone fire in the area around Al-Amal hospital in Khan Yunis after seven displaced people, including a five-day-old baby, were killed while sheltering in the compound.