Israeli warplanes bombed two refugee camps in the central Gaza Strip amid an expanding ground offensive against the Hamas militant group, according to media reports.
Residents in Nuseirat and Bureij — two of eight urban camps set up by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to house Palestinians who fled their homes following Israel’s creation in 1948 — told the Associated Press that airstrikes had hit the areas Friday night and into Saturday.
At the same time, Israeli tanks are moving deeper into central and southern Gaza, part of a military offensive in response to the October 7 Hamas attacks in which more than 1,000 Israelis were killed and more than 200 taken hostage.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said Saturday that 165 Palestinians were killed in the past 24 hours, pushing the death toll since October 7 past 21,600. The vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million inhabitants have been displaced by the fighting, according to UNRWA, with many fleeing south from the advancing Israeli troops.
The U.S. on Friday approved a new weapons sale to Israel despite a growing international campaign for a cease-fire. It was the second time this month the Biden administration has bypassed the U.S. Congress to approve an emergency arms sale to Israel.
South Africa, meanwhile, has asked the International Court of Justice to declare that Israel was in breach of its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention in its retaliation against Hamas in Gaza. It is the first such challenge made at the court over the current conflict. Israel’s foreign ministry called the request “baseless.”
The U.N. human rights office earlier this week expressed grave concerns about the ongoing bombardment of central Gaza.
“All roads” connecting Nuseirat, Bureij and the adjacent Maghazi camp “have been destroyed, obstructing relief aid from reaching those in need, and shelters and hospitals still minimally operating are critically overcrowded and under-resourced,” spokesman Seif Magango warned on Tuesday.