Despair in Gaza as fighting intensifies

Israeli strikes in southern and central Gaza intensified yesterday despite a pledge by Israel that it would pull out some troops and shift to a more targeted campaign, and pleading from its ally Washington to kill fewer civilians.

Israel has said this week it is planning to begin drawing down troops, at least from the northern part of Gaza, after weeks of US pressure to scale down its operations and shift to what Washington says should be a more targeted campaign.

But the fighting appears to be as intense as ever, especially in the southern and central areas where Israeli forces launched ground advances last month.

In Rafah, on the southern edge of the enclave, relatives wept by the bodies of 15 members of the Nofal family laid out at a hospital morgue yesterday morning after their home was obliterated by an Israeli air strike overnight.

Most of the white shrouds were tiny, with children inside. A man partly opened one and caressed the face of a small boy with his hand. Relatives gently restrained another man who was wailing at the feet of the bodies.

At the site of the strike, where a huge crater had been blasted in the floor of a building, neighbours clambered through the ruins, strewn with blood-soaked mattresses and broken toys.

Israel has killed at least 23,357 Palestinians in Gaza since launching its campaign to eradicate the Hamas group that runs the enclave. Some 147 Palestinians were killed in the 24 hours, the Gaza health ministry said yesterday.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on his fourth trip to the region since the offensive began, went to Ramallah yesterday and met Palestinian leaders, including Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, reports Reuters.

Blinken has also met Israeli leaders and visited nearby Arab states, in search of a future settlement for the Gaza Strip, which has been laid to waste by Israeli bombardment creating a humanitarian crisis for its 2.3 million residents.

Washington wants Israel to give the Ramallah-based PA a future role in governing Gaza; Israel, which says it wants control of Gaza's security indefinitely, is reluctant. Blinken said on Tuesday Israel had to make "hard choices" and must keep alive hopes of an independent Palestinian state if it wants to normalise relations with Arab neighbours.

"Israel must be a partner to Palestinian leaders who are willing to lead their people living side by side in peace with Israel and as neighbours," he said in Tel Aviv.

Even as Blinken spoke with Abbas yesterday, intense fighting gripped south and central parts of Gaza. Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters also exchanged fire on the Lebanon-Israel border.

Sean Casey, the World Health Organization Emergency Medical Teams coordinator in Gaza, said the health system in the enclave was collapsing fast. He accused Israel of denying access to more of Gaza for relief trucks.

• Blinken meets Israeli, Palestinian leaders to push for ceasefire
• Israeli forces, Hezbollah fighters exchange fire on Lebanon-Israel border