Defying UNSC, Israel steps up assault on Gaza

Israeli forces yesterday stepped up assault on Gaza defying a ceasefire demand by UN Security Council.

The forces also fought Hamas fighters around several hospitals in the besieged Palestinian territory as US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin called on Israel to protect civilians.

At least three homes in Rafah were bombed overnight, raising new fear among the more than a million people sheltering in the last refuge on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip that a long-threatened ground assault could be coming.

Talks in Qatar towards a truce and hostage release deal, involving US and Egyptian mediators, have brought no result so far, with Israel and the Palestinian group blaming each other.

The soaring civilian death toll has also strained the relationship between Israel and its top ally the United States.

Israeli plans to push its ground offensive into the far-southern city of Rafah, which is packed with displaced civilians, have only added to the tensions.

Gaza has endured almost six months of offensive and a siege that has cut off most food, water, fuel and other supplies, and the UN has warned that its 2.4 million people are on the brink of a "man-made famine".

In yesterday's heavy bombardment, Israel hit Gaza City in the north and Rafah, where a fireball lit up the sky over the city crowded with up to 1.5 million people, most of them displaced by the offensive.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said 66 people were killed in the bombardment and combat in the last 24 hours till yesterday morning.

Israel's offensive has so far killed at least 32,490 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the health ministry.

Israeli forces also intensified their assault in and around three Gaza hospitals, raising fears for patients, medical staff and displaced people inside them.

Fighting has raged for nine days around Gaza City's Al-Shifa Hospital, the territory's largest, and more recently near two hospitals in the main southern city of Khan Yunis -- Al-Amal and Nasser.

The Israeli army and Shin Bet security service said they were "continuing to conduct precise operational activities" in both cities "while preventing harm to civilians, patients, medical teams and medical equipment".

Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles have also massed around the Nasser Hospital, the Gaza health ministry said, adding that shots were fired but no raid had yet been launched.

The Palestinian Red Crescent warned that thousands were trapped inside and "their lives are in danger".

In Rafah, one of the airstrikes killed 11 people from a family, health officials said.

Mussa Dhaheer, looking on from below as neighbours helped an emergency worker lower a victim in a black body bag from an upper storey, said he had awakened to the blast, kissed his terrified daughter, and rushed outside to find the destruction. His father, 75, and mother, 62, were among the dead.

"I don't know what to do. I don't know what to say. I can't make sense of what happened. My parents. My father was with his displaced friends who came from Gaza City," he told Reuters. "They were all together when suddenly they were all gone like dust."

At another bomb site, one Jamil Abu Houri said the intensification of air strikes was Israel's way of showing its disdain for a UN Security Council resolution last week demanding an immediate ceasefire.

Next up, he fears a ground assault on Rafah, which Israel has threatened to carry out despite pleas from its closest ally Washington that this would cause too much harm to civilians.

"The bombing has increased, and they have threatened us with an incursion, and they say that they have been given the green light for the Rafah incursion. Where is the Security Council?" Abu Houri said.

However, in a sign that the incursion might not be imminent, Israel has asked to reschedule a meeting with US officials to discuss its military plans in Rafah, a US official said yesterday, days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu abruptly scrapped the planned talks.

Netanyahu called off a planned visit to Washington by a senior Israeli delegation after the US allowed passage of a Gaza ceasefire resolution at the United Nations on Monday.

Separately, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which has seen worsening bloodshed in parallel with the Gaza war, three Palestinians were killed and four others wounded by Israeli fire during a raid in Jenin overnight, the Palestinian health ministry said yesterday.

Meanwhile, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin, during a meeting with Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, said it was a moral and strategic imperative to protect Palestinian civilians.

"In Gaza today, the number of civilian casualties is far too high and the amount of humanitarian aid is far too low," Austin said, sitting across from Gallant.

"Gaza is suffering a humanitarian catastrophe and the situation is getting even worse," Austin said, using some of his most forceful language so far.

The Israeli defence minister also met for a second day with US national security adviser Jake Sullivan, who told Gallant that Israel needs to increase the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said.

Gallant later held talks with CIA Director William Burns, who recently returned from talks in Qatar seeking an elusive deal for Hamas' release of more than 130 hostages still held in Gaza.

• Protecting Palestinians a moral imperative, US tells Israel
• Battles rage on in and around three Gaza hospitals 
• Death toll in enclave rises to 32,490