AT LEAST 436 Palestinians, including 183 children, have been killed since Israel resumed the bombardment of Gaza in the early hours on Tuesday, Gaza’s Health Ministry reported yesterday.
The UN confirmed that one international employee had been killed and five others have been wounded in an explosion in Gaza.
Jorge Moreira da Silva, head of the UN Office for Project Services, said the cause of the blast remained unclear but that an explosive ordnance was ‘dropped or fired’.
Hamas issued a new statement about what it said was the Israeli targeting of a headquarters used by foreign workers at UN institutions that resulted in the death of an employee and the wounding of five others.
‘This crime not only constitutes a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, but also comes in the context of the occupation’s systematic policy of targeting civilians and humanitarian and relief workers, with the aim of terrorising them and discouraging them from performing their humanitarian duty towards our people, and deepening the humanitarian catastrophe that the Gaza Strip is experiencing.’
It added that since the start of the war, Israel has killed ‘hundreds of UNRWA staff and workers in international humanitarian and relief institutions, as part of its criminal war, through which it seeks to tighten the blockade and strangle the Gaza Strip and deprive our people of the most basic necessities of life, in blatant defiance of international laws and norms’.
- The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said she has relayed to Israel that the situation in Gaza is ‘unacceptable’.
- Thousands of Israelis protesting over the resumption of the war marched on PM Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem, with the country’s opposition leader, Yair Lapid, urging more of the public to take to the streets.
• Far-right Israeli MP Itamar Ben-Gvir has been reappointed as national security minister by the Netanyahu’s coalition government.
