Israeli strikes kill at least 17 Palestinians in Gaza as leaders ramp up pressure for a ceasefire
Israeli strikes kill at least 17 Palestinians in Gaza as leaders ramp up pressure for a ceasefire
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel struck houses and tents in central and southern Gaza on Thursday, crushing families inside and killing at least 17 Palestinians, including 10 children and three women, local health officials said, as international pressure for a ceasefire continued to grow.
On the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, French President Emmanuel Macron told France 24 that his country had recognized a Palestinian state on the conviction it “is the only way to isolate Hamas,” which has proved itself able to regenerate even after many of its leaders have been killed.
“Total war in Gaza is causing civilian casualties but can’t bring about the end of Hamas,” he said in the interview Wednesday. “Factually, it’s a failure.”
He said he had been lobbying U.S. President Donald Trump to press Israel again for a ceasefire. “You cannot stop the war if there is no path to peace,” Macron added.
Some Israeli ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government have pushed for annexing the occupied West Bank in response to international recognition of Palestinian statehood — a move that could effectively strip the Palestinian Authority of all civil and security powers in the territory.
Macron said such a move would be a red line for France, and “I think it’s also a red line for the United States of America.”
Neither the White House nor the State Department responded to requests for comment on Macron’s statement.
Netanyahu has said he won’t make any decisions until he returns from the United States, where he is to address the U.N. General Assembly on Friday and then meet with Trump in Washington.
Deadly strikes hit central and southern Gaza
In the early hours Thursday, an Israeli strike hit a tent and a house in the central town of Zawaida, killing at least 12 people, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby city of Deir al-Balah.
Among the dead were a couple and their five of their children, along with three other children. AP footage showed the building collapsed into a pile of rubble — the dust-covered arm of a child sticking out from under a slab of concrete. Relatives said another child was still missing under the wreckage.
Another strike hit a tent in Deir al-Balah, killing a girl and wounding seven people, the hospital said.
In the southern city of Khan Younis, an Israeli attack hit an apartment building, killing a man, his pregnant wife and their 10-year-old child as well as a female relative, according to Nasser Hospital, where the bodies were taken.
Netanyahu denounces leaders who have recognized a Palestinian state
On Monday, France, Andorra, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta, and Monaco announced or confirmed their recognition of a Palestinian state in the hopes of galvanizing support for a two-state solution to the Mideast conflict.
Their announcements came a day after the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Portugal did the same, in defiance of Israel and the U.S.
Netanyahu lashed out at the idea early Thursday before heading to New York.
“At the U.N, General Assembly I will speak our truth,” he told reporters. “I will denounce those leaders who, instead of denouncing the murderers, the rapists, the child burners, want to give them a state in the heart of the land of Israel. It will not happen.”
At separate events in New York on Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s lead negotiator Steve Witkoff both offered optimistic views about what Witkoff called a “Trump 21-point plan for peace” that was presented to Arab leaders on Tuesday.
The U.S. has not released details of the plan or said whether Israel or Hamas accepts it.
Netanyahu suggested Israel’s position had not changed. He said that during his trip to the U.S., he would discuss “our need to complete the goals of the war: to return all our hostages, to defeat Hamas and to expand the circle of peace that is open to us.”
The U.S., along with Egypt and Qatar, have spent months trying to broker a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release. Those efforts suffered a major setback earlier this month when Israel carried out an airstrike targeting Hamas leaders in Qatar.
Border crossing closure threatens aid effort, U.N. warns
Israel launched another major ground operation earlier this month in Gaza City, which experts say is experiencing famine. More than 300,000 people have fled, but up to 700,000 are still there, many because they can’t afford to relocate.
The U.N. humanitarian office, known as OCHA, warned that Israel’s closure this week of the border crossing between the occupied West Bank and Jordan threatens to “severely undermine” its ability to deliver aid to Gaza.
It said that last month a quarter of the aid destined for Gaza through the U.N. humanitarian effort came through the Allenby Bridge Crossing over the Jordan River, also known as the King Hussein Bridge.
Israel announced the closure on Tuesday after an attack last week that killed two Israelis.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 65,000 people and wounded more than 167,000 others, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. It doesn’t say how many were civilians or combatants, but says women and children make up around half the fatalities. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government. U.N. agencies and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties.
Israel’s campaign was triggered when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage. Forty-eight captives remain in Gaza, around 20 of them believed by Israel to be alive, after most of the rest were freed in ceasefires or other deals.
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Associated Press writer John Leicester in Le Pecq, France, contributed reporting.
By WAFAA SHURAFA, DAVID RISING and KAREEM CHEHAYEB
Associated Press
