11 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, shelling

Gaza's civil defence agency said yesterday that 11 people were killed in nighttime Israeli air strikes and artillery shelling across the Palestinian territory.

In the northern city of Jabalia, seven people were killed and several others wounded in an air strike on a residential building, civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

Another person was killed in a strike on a house in nearby Beit Lahia, which along with Jabalia has been the site of an intensive Israeli military operation since October 6.

Two people were killed by artillery shelling on Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, Bassal said. In the southern city of Rafah, an air strike killed one and wounded several, he added.

Israel's campaign has killed 44,249 people in Gaza, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.

Meanwhile, Gaza's civil defence agency warned yesterday that its vehicles had stopped working in the Palestinian territory's north due to a lack of fuel, warning it could not respond to emergencies.

"All our fire, rescue, and ambulance vehicles have stopped working in Gaza governorate due to the Israeli occupation's continued refusal to provide the necessary diesel to operate them," the rescue agency said in a statement.

"Our crews will not be able to respond to citizens' calls until the Israeli occupation allows humanitarian organisations to bring in the necessary quantities of diesel," it added.

The UN rights chief is gravely concerned over the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon and wants a "permanent ceasefire" there and in war-ravaged Gaza, his spokesman said yesterday.

"The high commissioner reiterates his call for an immediate ceasefire to put an end to the killings and the destruction," Jeremy Laurence, a spokesman for Volker Turk, told reporters in Geneva.