Air strikes kill dozens in Gaza as criticism of Israel grows
GAZA CITY: Israeli air strikes killed at least 55 Palestinians in Gaza on Tuesday, local medics said, as Israel continued its bombardment of the strip despite mounting international pressure to stop military operations and allow unimpeded deliveries of aid.
Britain's government announced it was suspending trade talks with Israel and summoning the ambassador over "egregious policies" in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, while France signalled possible European action affecting trade ties.
The war, now in its 20th month, has left Gaza in ruins and its population facing worsening hunger. It has strained Israel's relations with much of the international community and those with its closest ally, the United States, now appear to be wavering.
On Tuesday Israel conducted strikes across the densely populated coastal territory and medics said the sites hit included two homes where women and children were among the 18 dead and a school housing displaced families.
Israel's military, which on Monday warned those in the southern Gazan city of Khan Yunis to evacuate to the coast as it prepared for an "unprecedented attack", had no comment.
In Gaza City, a footage showed men, women and children sifting through the rubble of the Daraj neighbourhood school where they had been sheltering and where charred pieces of clothing and a red teddy bear lay among scattered belongings.
At the nearby Al Ahli Hospital men performed prayers over bodies wrapped in white shrouds, before carrying them to their graves. "What is our fault? What is the fault of children? What is the fault of the women we found on the stairs with their hair and clothes torn and burned?" said Omar Ahel, who had been sheltering at the school. "By God, this is injustice."
Outside a Khan Yunis hospital, Younis Abu Sahloul said his brother, sister-in-law and their four children were killed in an air strike that hit a nearby camp sheltering displaced Palestinians without warning.
Israeli strikes have killed more than 500 people in the past eight days as the military campaign has intensified, medics in Gaza say.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told parliament he, along with the leaders of France and Canada, was "horrified" by Israel's military escalation, repeating calls for a ceasefire.
The three nations had warned on Monday of "concrete actions" against Israel if it did not stop military operations in Gaza and lift restrictions on aid. In addition to suspending trade talks, Britain announced sanctions against a number of individuals and groups in the West Bank over alleged violence against Palestinians.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein said Britain had failed to advance free trade negotiations and called the sanctions "unjustified and regrettable."
Israel's ground and air offensive has displaced nearly all Gaza's 2.3 million residents and killed more than 53,000, according to Gaza health authorities.
The hunger crisis in Gaza deepened after Israel imposed a blockade on supplies from March 2. The territory is facing a critical risk of famine, a UN-backed hunger monitor said earlier this month.
On Monday, Israel cleared nine trucks for entry into Gaza and on Tuesday the United Nations said it had received permission from Israel for about 100 aid trucks to enter.
The UN says Gaza needs at least 500 trucks of aid and commercial goods every day. Throughout the war, trucks with aid have waited weeks and months at Gaza's border to enter.
Louise Wateridge, a spokesperson for the UN. Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, said on Tuesday there was little food left. "Everything's empty. The warehouses, the distribution centres, they've been empty for weeks," she said, speaking from a warehouse in Jordan that she said had food for 200,000 people, which could be driven to Gaza in just a few hours. — AFP
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