Deir Al-Balah, Apr 24: Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip have killed at least 28 people, mostly women and children, the territory’s Health Ministry said on Thursday.
Israel ended its ceasefire with Hamas and renewed its air and ground war over a month ago. It has sealed off Gaza’s 2 million Palestinians from all food and other imports since the beginning of March to pressure Hamas to release hostages.
Hamas has said it will only release the remaining 59 captives, 24 of whom are believed to be alive, in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal. Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 hostages.
Most have since been released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Israel’s offensive has killed over 51,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were civilians or combatants.
Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.
Israel marks Holocaust Remembrance Day
A sombre siren wailed across the country for two minutes of silence at 10 am Thursday. Cars stopped along the highway and people paused in their daily errands as they stood in silence.
Yom Hashoah, the day Israel observes as a memorial for the 6 million Jews killed by Nazi Germany and its allies in the Holocaust, is one of the most solemn dates on the country’s calendar.
Official observances began after sundown on Wednesday with a ceremony at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. At the ceremony, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon as “the main lesson of the Holocaust”.
“On this Holocaust Day, I promise: The military pressure on Hamas will continue. We will destroy all its capabilities. We will return all our hostages. We will defeat Hamas, and we will prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said.
Israel’s president Isaac Herzog is in Poland for the annual March of the Living in the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. He was joined by some 80 Holocaust survivors and 10 survivors of Hamas captivity in Gaza.
Far-right Israeli minister booed at Yale
Protesters booed and threw water bottles at Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who was invited to speak at Yale University
The minister, who has been convicted eight times for offenses including racism and supporting a terrorist organisation, is in America on a week-long trip to meet with politicians, business leaders, and the Jewish community in the US.
According to the Yale student newspaper, Ben-Gvir was invited to speak with a Jewish group that is not formally affiliated with the university.
Ben-Gvir said he spoke to students and professors about the lessons of the Holocaust in honour of Holocaust Remembrance Day, which Israel marks from Wednesday evening to Thursday.
“The antisemitic rioters will not intimidate me. I am continuing my important journey in the United States,” he said.
Ben-Gvir oversees the country’s police force and has encouraged Netanyahu to press ahead with the war in Gaza and stop all humanitarian aid.
At least 28 dead as Israel pounds Gaza
Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip have killed at least 28 people, mostly women and children, according to the territory’s Health Ministry.
At least nine people were killed in a strike on a police station in the northern Jabaliya area, the ministry said. The Israeli military said it targeted a command and control centre for Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad militant group.
At least seven people were killed, including a mother and her two children, and another two children, in three strikes on the southern city of Khan Younis. Strikes in central Gaza killed six people, including two women and two children. An airstrike on a home in Gaza City killed four children and their parents, the Health Ministry said. (AP)
