<\/p>\n
Deadly Israeli airstrikes pounded the Gaza Strip on Tuesday and razed entire districts as the United Nations said<\/a> Israel\u2019s total siege of the Palestinian enclave is banned under international law.<\/p>\n Gaza\u2019s health ministry said the bombing had killed at least 830 people and wounded 4,250. The strikes intensified as night fell, shaking the ground and sending more columns of smoke and flames into the sky.<\/p>\n It comes after Israel imposed a total siege<\/a> on the Gaza Strip yesterday, cutting off food, water and electricity supplies, and sparking fears of an increasingly desperate humanitarian situation. Hamas has threatened to execute the hostages if Israeli air strikes continued targeting Gaza residents without warning.<\/p>\n Key developments<\/strong><\/p>\n Meanwhile, Volker Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, has said people\u2019s dignity and lives had to be respected as he called for all sides to defuse the \u201cexplosive powder-keg situation\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cInternational humanitarian law is clear: the obligation to take constant care to spare the civilian population and civilian objects remains applicable throughout the attacks,\u201d Turk said in a statement.<\/p>\n The siege risk seriously compounding the already dire human rights and humanitarian situation in Gaza, including the capacity of medical facilities to operate, especially in light of increasing numbers of injured, the statement said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe imposition of sieges that endanger the lives of civilians by depriving them of goods essential for their survival is prohibited under international humanitarian law,\u201d Turk said.<\/p>\n Any restrictions on the movement of people and goods to implement a siege must be justified by military necessity or may otherwise amount to collective punishment, the statement added.<\/p>\n At the morgue in Gaza\u2019s Khan Younis hospital, bodies were laid on the ground on stretchers with names written on their bellies. Medics called for relatives to pick up bodies quickly because there was no more space for the dead.<\/p>\n A municipal building was hit while being used as an emergency shelter. Survivors there spoke of many dead.<\/p>\n \u201cNo place is safe in Gaza, as you see they hit everywhere,\u201d said Ala Abu Tair, 35, who had sought shelter there with his family after fleeing Abassan Al-Kabira near the border.<\/p>\n Radwan Abu al-Kass, a boxing instructor and father of three, said he had been one of the last to evacuate his five-storey building in the Al Rimal district after the area came under attack. He finally left when a missile hit the building, which was destroyed by a bigger strike after he got out.<\/p>\n \u201cThe whole district was just erased,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Two members of Hamas\u2019 political office, Jawad Abu Shammala and Zakaria Abu Maamar, were killed in an air strike in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, a Hamas official said. The Israeli military said they had been struck overnight.<\/p>\n The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said Israeli strikes had since Saturday destroyed more than 22,600 residential units and 10 health facilities and damaged 48 schools.<\/p>\n Four Palestinian journalists were killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza City on Tuesday, media unions and officials have said.<\/p>\n The latest deaths bring the number of Palestinian journalists killed in the fighting since Saturday to eight, the Palestinian Press Union said in a statement.<\/p>\n Another union, the Gaza journalists\u2019 syndicate, announced earlier \u201cthe martyrdom of three journalists in the Gaza Strip in the ongoing Israeli aggression\u201d.<\/p>\n The chief of Gaza\u2019s Hamas-run government media office, Salameh Maarouf, identified the three as Said al-Taweel, director of Al-Khamisa<\/em> news agency; press photographer Mohammed Sobboh, and Hisham Nawajhah, a correspondent for a Gaza news agency<\/em>.<\/p>\n They were killed in a strike while covering the evacuation of a residential building near Gaza City\u2019s fishing port, Maarouf said, condemning Israel\u2019s \u201ccriminal behaviour against journalists\u201d.<\/p>\n Members of the press were standing several dozen metres (yards) from the building after a resident received a telephone call from the Israeli army warning of an imminent strike, an AFP<\/em> correspondent reported.<\/p>\n Witnesses said the Israeli strike hit a different building, closer to where the journalists had been.<\/p>\n Later in the day, the press union said the head of its committee of women journalists, Salam Khalil, was killed along with her husband and children when the family\u2019s home in the northern Gaza Strip was hit in a \u201ctreacherous\u201d Israeli bombing.<\/p>\n Journalist Asad Shamlakh was killed on Sunday, the media office statement said, adding two cameramen were missing and 10 journalists were wounded.<\/p>\n Three journalists were killed on Saturday, according to the Palestinian statement and the Committee to Protect Journalists.<\/p>\n The New York-based media rights group said on Monday that Ibrahim Mohammad Lafi, a photographer, Mohammad Jarghoun, a reporter, and Mohammad El-Salhi had been shot dead in different incidents.<\/p>\n \u201cWe call on all sides to remember that journalists are civilians and should not be targeted,\u201d Sherif Mansour of the Committee to Protect Journalists said in a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cAccurate reporting is critical during times of crisis and the media has a vital role to play in bringing news from Gaza and Israel to the world. \u201c<\/p>\n Separaterly, the ongoing UN investigation into alleged human rights violations in the Israeli-Palestinian war said there was \u201calready clear evidence that war crimes may have been committed\u201d since Saturday\u2019s surprise Hamas assault.<\/p>\n \u201cAll those who have violated international law and targeted civilians must be held accountable for their crimes,\u201d said the Commission of Inquiry.<\/p>\n The COI, the highest-level investigation that can be ordered by the UN Human Rights Council, was set up in May 2021 to investigate all alleged violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.<\/p>\n The independent commission said it had been \u201ccollecting and preserving evidence of war crimes committed by all sides\u201d in the current conflict.<\/p>\n \u201cTaking civilian hostages and using civilians as human shields are war crimes,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n It is also \u201cgravely concerned\u201d by Israel\u2019s total siege on the Gaza Strip, \u201cwhich will undoubtfully cost civilian lives and constitutes collective punishment\u201d.<\/p>\n The United Nations humanitarian office said that nearly 200,000 people or nearly a tenth of the population, have fled their homes in Gaza since the start of hostilities and is poised for shortages of water and electricity due to a blockade.<\/p>\n \u201cDisplacement has escalated dramatically across the Gaza strip, reaching more than 187,500 people since Saturday. Most are taking shelter in schools,\u201d Jens Laerke, OCHA spokesperson, told a Geneva briefing, saying further displacement was expected as clashes continue.<\/p>\n A World Health Organisation spokesperson said it had reported 13 attacks on health facilities in the Gaza strip since the weekend and said that its medical supplies stored there had already been used up.<\/p>\n The WHO, meanwhile, called for a humanitarian corridor to be established into and out of the Gaza Strip. \u201cWHO is calling for an end to the violence\u2026 A humanitarian corridor is needed to reach people with critical medical supplies,\u201d WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told a press briefing in Geneva.<\/p>\n Israeli air operations have struck residential buildings, including large tower blocks, as well as schools and UN buildings across Gaza, resulting in civilian casualties, the United Nations Human Rights chief said on Tuesday, citing information gathered by his office.<\/p>\n European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he has invited the top diplomats from Israel and the Palestinian Authority to address an emergency meeting today of the bloc\u2019s foreign ministers.<\/p>\n Borrell said Israel\u2019s Foreign Minister, Eli Cohen, and his Palestinian counterpart, Riyad al-Maliki, were asked to participate in the hybrid video and in-person talks after the surprise Hamas assault.<\/p>\n Brussels rowed back comments from neighbourhood commissioner Oliver Varhelyi on Monday that the 27-nation bloc was immediately suspending \u201call payments\u201d to the Palestinians.<\/p>\n The EU\u2019s executive arm said it was reviewing hundreds of millions of euros (dollars) of development aid from the EU, the biggest donor to the Palestinians, but that payments were not suspended.<\/p>\n The European Commission said it was checking if the funding was indirectly enabling \u201cany terrorist organisation to carry out attacks against Israel\u201d.<\/p>\n Emergency humanitarian aid continues to flow to the Palestinians, the bloc said.<\/p>\n Earlier in the day, Israel said it had re-established control over the Gaza border and was planting mines where Hamas fighters had toppled the barrier during their weekend offensive<\/a>, after another night of relentless Israeli air raids on the enclave.<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s latest round of air strikes came after the military called up an unprecedented 300,000 reservists and imposed a total blockade on the Gaza Strip, raising fears it planned a ground assault in response to the most audacious Hamas attack in decades.<\/p>\n The violence, which has claimed more than 1,500 lives, prompted international declarations of support for Israel, street protests in support of Palestinians, and appeals for an end to the fighting and protection of civilians.<\/p>\n Apartment blocks, a mosque and hospitals were among the sites attacked, and the strikes destroyed some roads and houses, according to media reports and eyewitnesses.<\/p>\n Israel also bombed the headquarters of the private Palestinian Telecommunication Co., which could affect landline telephone, internet and mobile phone services.<\/p>\n The strikes continued into the night on Monday. The Israeli military said it hit targets in the Gaza Strip from the sea and air, including a weapons depot it claimed belonged to Islamic Jihad and Hamas targets along Gaza\u2019s coastline.<\/p>\n Israeli TV channels said the death toll from the Hamas attack had climbed to 900 Israelis, with at least 2,600 injured, and dozens taken captive. Among the Israeli dead were 260 mostly young people gunned down at a desert music festival, where some of the hostages were abducted.<\/p>\n In remarks aired by Israel\u2019s Army Radio, chief military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said there had been no new infiltrations from Gaza since Monday. In an apparent response to rumours that fighters used cross-border tunnels, he said the military had no such findings.<\/p>\n Iranian Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei denied any Iranian involvement in Hamas\u2019s shock weekend attack.<\/p>\n \u201cThe supporters of the Zionist regime (Israel) and some people in the usurping regime have been spreading rumours over the past two or three days, including that Islamic Iran was behind this action. They are wrong,\u201d Khamenei said in a speech at a military academy.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course, we defend Palestine, we defend the struggles,\u201d he added, urging \u201cthe whole Islamic world\u201d to \u201csupport the Palestinians.\u201d Khamenei said Israel has suffered an \u201cirreparable failure\u201d on both \u201cmilitary and intelligence\u201d fronts.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone has spoken of the failure, I put the emphasise on its irreparability,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Palestinians reported receiving calls and mobile phone audio messages from Israeli security officers telling them to leave areas mainly in the northern and eastern territories of Gaza, and warning that the army would operate there.<\/p>\n Dozens of people in Gaza City\u2019s Remal neighbourhood fled their homes.<\/p>\n \u201cWe took ourselves, children and grandchildren and daughters-in-law and we ran away. I can say that we became refugees. We don\u2019t have safety or security. What\u2019s this life? This is not a life,\u201d resident Salah Hanouneh, 73, said.<\/p>\n In Israel\u2019s south, scene of the Hamas attack, Israel\u2019s chief military spokesperson said troops had re-established control of communities inside Israel that had been overrun, but isolated clashes continued as some gunmen remained active.<\/p>\n The announcement that 300,000 reservists had been activated in just two days added to speculation that Israel could be contemplating a ground assault on Gaza, a territory it abandoned nearly two decades ago.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have never drafted so many reservists on such a scale,\u201d Hagari said. \u201cWe are going on the offensive.\u201d<\/p>\n Washington \u2014 which provides Israel with $3.8 billion in military assistance each year \u2014 said it was sending in fresh supplies of air defences, munitions and other security assistance to Israel.<\/p>\n The United States\u2019 top general warned Iran not to get involved in the crisis and said he did not want the conflict to broaden. Iran applauded the weekend attack but denied any involvement.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to send a pretty strong message. We do not want this to broaden and the idea is for Iran to get that message loud and clear,\u201d General Charles Q. Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters travelling with him to Brussels.<\/p>\n US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed US support for Israel in a call with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, the State Department said in a statement early Tuesday.<\/p>\n Blinken \u201creaffirmed our efforts to secure the immediate release of all hostages,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n Governments including Italy, Thailand and Ukraine reported that their citizens had perished in the Hamas attacks. In Washington, President Joe Biden announced that at least 11 Americans had been killed and it was likely US citizens were among those held hostage.<\/p>\n As Israel conducted intense retaliatory strikes on Gaza, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant drew international condemnation by announcing a tightened blockade to prevent food and fuel from reaching the strip, home to 2.3 million people.<\/p>\n\n
\u2018No place is safe in Gaza\u2019<\/h2>\n
Palestinian journalists killed<\/h2>\n
\u2018Clear evidence\u2019 on war crimes<\/h2>\n
200,000 flee homes in Gaza<\/h2>\n
Israeli, Palestinian FMs set to address EU meeting<\/h2>\n
Israel takes back control<\/h2>\n
Iran denies involvement<\/h2>\n
Forced from home<\/h2>\n