The war has driven around 80 per cent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people from their homes and pushed hundreds of thousands to the brink of famine.
Palestinians began fasting for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan with cease-fire talks at a standstill, hunger worsening across the Gaza Strip and no end in sight to the 5-month-old war between Israel and Hamas.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said the bodies of 67 people killed by Israeli strikes were brought to hospitals over the past 24 hours, bringing the Palestinian death toll to more than 31,112 since the war began. A Palestinian boy plays with fireworks as he celebrates the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan next to a mosque destroyed by the Israeli airstrikes in Rafah, Gaza Strip.The United States, Qatar and Egypt had hoped to broker a cease-fire ahead of the normally joyous holiday that would include the release of dozens of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and the entry of a large amount of humanitarian aid, but the talks have stalled.
“The eyes of the world are watching. The eyes of history are watching. We cannot look away,” he said. “We must act to avoid more preventable deaths. … Desperate civilians need action — immediate action.”The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 hostages. Hamas is still believed to be holding around 100 captives and the remains of 30 others following an exchange last year.
Israel has vowed to expand its offensive to the southern city of Rafah, where half of Gaza’s population has sought refuge, without saying where civilians would go to escape the onslaught. President Joe Biden has said an attack on Rafah would be a “red line” for him, but that the United States would continue to provide military aid to Israel.
The United States and other countries have begun airdropping aid, but humanitarian groups say such efforts are costly and insufficient. The US military has also begun transporting equipment to build a sea bridge to deliver aid, but it will likely be several weeks before it is operational.
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