The blockaded Gaza Strip has been hit by one of the deadliest nights of Israeli bombing so far in the new war with the Palestinian militant group Hamas .
At least 400 Palestinians were killed in Gaza in the last 24 hours, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, and 70 were killed overnight on Sunday in bombardments of the densely populated Jabalia refugee camp and streets close to two hospitals in Gaza City.
Early on Monday, the Israeli military said it had hit more than 320 “military targets” in the last 24 hours, and that ground forces had conducted “limited raids” to kill gunmen and search for hostages. Hamas said the day before that it destroyed an Israeli tank and two armoured bulldozers inside the territory, which it has ruled since 2007.
Mahmoud Basal, a spokesperson for the strip’s civil defence unit, told the independent Palestinian media organisation Wattan that rescue operations were becoming more difficult because of the scale of destruction and impeded access. “Our crews are recovering victims in the form of body parts, and the chances of recovering survivors are diminishing,” he said.
Gaza’s health authority has said at least 4,600 people have been killed in Israel’s two-week bombardment – many of them women and children. The conflict broke out after Hamas militants attacked southern Israeli communities on 7 October, killing 1,400 people and taking 222 into Gaza as hostages.
The intensified airstrikes come amid reports that on Sunday the US had pressed Israel to delay its expected ground assault on Gaza to allow time for the release of more hostages believed to be held in the exclave, and the delivery of more aid to Palestinians.
A second aid convoy, of 14 trucks, entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing with Egypt late on Sunday – a welcome development for the 2.3 million people who are trapped and running out of food and clean water.
The UN has said the volume of aid that has entered Gaza so far is just 4% of the daily average before the hostilities, and a fraction of what is needed, as medicines and fuel run out and the healthcare system verges on collapse.
The EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, on Monday urged faster aid deliveries to Gaza, and said the bloc was debating calling for a “humanitarian pause” in the conflict.
The release of two US-Israeli citizens, Judith and Natalie Raanan, on Friday, has raised the hopes of families of those people still missing, including several foreign and dual nationals, that more of them can be rescued before the window for negotiations closes and the ground offensive begins.
Pressure on Israeli officials increased after Abu Obeida, a spokesperson from Hamas’s military wing, the Al Qassam brigades, said on Saturday that the group had also offered to free two Israeli citizens, “for humanitarian reasons and without expecting anything in return. However, the Israeli occupation government refused to accept them.”
The office of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, denied Hamas’s claim, describing it as “mendacious propaganda”.
The White House has promised a “continued flow” of aid into Gaza after talks with Netanyahu.
Cogat, the Israeli defence body responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs, said Sunday’s second batch of aid included water, food and medical supplies and that everything was inspected by Israel before it was taken into Gaza. Israel has not allowed any fuel to enter.
In a statement released on Sunday, the leaders of the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Britain urged Israel to adhere to international humanitarian law and protect civilians, while underscoring their support for Israel and its right to defend itself – calls that come amid growing fears that the war could balloon into a wider Middle East conflict.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said the US expected the conflict to escalate through the involvement of proxies of Iran. Washington has dispatched a significant amount of naval power to the Middle East, including two aircraft carriers, support ships and about 2,000 marines, to help deter attacks by Iran-affiliated forces.
The Palestinian Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, and the Iranian foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, talked by phone on Sunday about how to stop Israel’s “brutal crimes” in Gaza, Hamas said in a statement.
Israeli aircraft struck two cells of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in Lebanon early on Monday, the Israel Defence Forces said. With violence around its heavily guarded borders increasing, Israel on Sunday added 14 communities close to Lebanon and Syria to its evacuation contingency plan in the north of the country.
On a visit to troops in northern Israel, Netanyahu said that if Hezbollah launched a war, “it will make the mistake of its life. We will cripple it with a force it cannot even imagine, and the consequences for it and the Lebanese state will be devastating.”
Israel’s government has also warned that anyone who stays in northern Gaza risks being considered as “an accomplice in a terrorist organisation”.
The World Health Organization has said seven hospitals in northern Gaza have been forced to shut down due to damage from strikes, lack of power and supplies, or Israeli evacuation orders.
Medical staff have said hospitals are running low on supplies and fuel for generators, forcing doctors to perform surgeries using sewing needles, resorting to vinegar as disinfectant and operating without anaesthesia.
Despite the second convoy of aid entering on Sunday, Cindy McCain, the executive director of the US World Food Program, said the situation in Gaza remained “catastrophic”.
Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report
