DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli airstrikes killed at least 15 people, including women and children, overnight Sunday into Monday in Gaza, according to hospital officials and a body count by an Associated Press journalist Sunday.
The latest strikes came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepared to leave Monday for the United States, where he is expected to meet with President Joe Biden and address Congress to make his case for ending the nine-month war against Hamas as ceasefire negotiations continue.
The already dire humanitarian situation in besieged Gaza has worsened with the discovery of the polio virus, while water and sanitation services have suffered for the territory’s 2.3 million people, most of whom are displaced. Traces of the virus have been found in sewage samples in Gaza. The World Health Organization said no one had been treated for symptoms caused by the infection.
The Israeli military said soldiers would be vaccinated and that it would work with organizations to deliver vaccines to Palestinians.
The latest Israeli airstrikes took place in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, where nine people, including two children, were killed, and in the southern city of Khan Younis, where at least six people were killed, including two girls. Men and women wept and hugged the small bodies in white shrouds.
“Unknown body of a five-month-old baby” was written on one of them.
Smoke also rose from the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, but there was no immediate word on the number of casualties.
The war in Gaza has killed more than 38,900 people, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The war began with an attack by Hamas militants on southern Israel on October 7 that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 hostages. About 120 people remain in custody, a third of whom are believed to be dead, according to Israeli authorities.
Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas’ military and government capabilities and secure the return of the remaining hostages. Families of the hostages and thousands of other Israelis have been gathering in weekly protests to urge the prime minister to reach a ceasefire deal that would allow their loved ones to return home.
Egyptian, Qatari and American mediators continue to push Israel and Hamas toward a gradual agreement that would end the fighting and free the hostages.
Fears of a broader regional conflict persist. On Saturday, Israel struck the port of Hodeida in Yemen, the first known Israeli strikes in the region since the start of the Gaza war. The strikes, in response to a deadly Houthi drone attack in Tel Aviv, threaten to open a new front as Israel battles Iranian proxies in the region, including Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon.
On Sunday, the Israeli military said it had intercepted a missile fired from Yemen as the Houthis promised “hard-hitting strikes.”
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Find more AP reporting at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
