News Desk :
Israeli fighter jets continued to pound the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing at least one Palestinian and wounding several more as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defied calls for a de-escalation.
At least 230 Palestinians, including 65 children, have been killed in 11 days of violence.
On the Israeli side, 12 people have been killed, report news agencies.
United States President Joe Biden on Wednesday discussed the events in Gaza with Netanyahu, telling the caretaker leader that he expected “a significant de-escalation today on the path to a ceasefire”.
But shortly after Biden’s phone call, Netanyahu said he was “determined” to continue bombarding Gaza until Israel’s “aim is met”.
The UN Security Council’s efforts for a truce between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers remain stalled, meanwhile, with the US continuing to veto action on the issue.
Gaza journalist Youmna Sayed reported that hospitals in the besieged territory were having a hard time coping as injuries mount and lack of resources.
“The ICU units are completely overcrowded. The Shifa hospital [main hospital in Gaza] has only 10 beds available and now they extended that 35 beds.” she said, adding that 26 people were brought to the hospital so far on Thursday.
However, with power and electricity shortage, the hospital was “having lots of difficulties in running equipment”, Sayed added.
The United Nations agency UNRWA appealed for help revealing it needed nearly US $40 mln in order to assist with humanitarian efforts in Gaza and the occupied territories.
The UN Human Rights Council will hold a special session on May 27 to address “the grave human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem”, the UN body said.
“The special session is being convened per an official request submitted late yesterday jointly by Pakistan, as Coordinator of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and the State of Palestine,” it added in a statement.
For more than 10 days, Palestinian doctors in the Gaza Strip’s main al-Shifa hospital have been working around the clock to save lives during the Israeli army’s relentless bombardment of the besieged enclave.
Al Jazeera spoke to doctors at the hospital about what it means, physically and emotionally, to work amid a raging conflict.
Gaza officials: Estimated costs of damage $322m
The Government Media Office in Gaza said the material losses the Gaza Strip has suffered during Israel’s current offensive amounts to more than $322m.
At least 184 residential towers, houses, and 33 media centers have been completely demolished, with a loss value of $92 million.
Additionally, more than 1,335 housing units were completely or severely demolished, and about 13,000 were partially damaged.
Gaza death toll rises to 230
The ministry of health in Gaza said 230 Palestinians have been killed by Israel over the past 11 days, including 65 children and 39 women.
At least 1,710 others have been wounded.
An Israeli air raid on a Gaza family home has killed a Palestinian man with disabilities, his pregnant wife and their three-year-old daughter, the Gaza health ministry.
Eyad Salha, 33, his pregnant wife of the same age Amani, and their daughter Nagham were getting ready to eat lunch on Wednesday when a missile tore through the seaside building’s facade and destroyed all three rooms in their Deir el-Balah flat, in the central
Four children wounded in missile attack in Gaza City
Seven civilians, including four children, were injured in a missile strike on a house belonging to the Isleem family in al-Sabra neighborhood in central Gaza City, local Palestinian agencies reported.
Israeli air attacks continued to target the Gaza Strip, destroying a house in al-Mashtal area northwest of Gaza City.
The Saftawi commercial thoroughfare north of the city has been targeted with a number of missiles. The entrance to the Nuseirat refugee camp was bombed, and a house in al-Bureij refugee camp was targeted.
Israel has also fired dozens of artillery shells towards homes and agricultural lands in the eastern and northern border areas of the Strip.
