BENJAMIN Netanyahu has claimed Israel has “no choice” but to continue fighting the war in Gaza and continuing its bombardment.
The Israel Prime Minister is under growing pressure to end the conflict, from families of hostages and their supporters, as well as reservist and retired Israeli soldiers. They have quested the validity of the war after Israel broke a ceasefire last month.
The Israeli PM’s comments come shortly after strikes in Gaza killed more than 90 people in 48 hours, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
The dead include 15 people who were killed overnight, among them women and children, some of who were sheltering in a designated humanitarian zone, according to hospital staff.
At least 11 people were killed in the southern city of Khan Younis, several of them sheltering in a tent in the Mwasi area where hundreds of thousands of displaced people are living, hospital workers said.
Israel has designated it as a humanitarian zone.
In his statement, Netanyahu said Hamas has rejected Israel’s latest proposal to free half the hostages in return for another temporary truce.
Hamas has said it will only free the remaining hostages in return for an Israeli withdrawal and a lasting ceasefire, as called for in the agreement that Israel ended.
Four other people were killed in strikes in Rafah city, including a mother and her daughter, according to the European Hospital, where the bodies were taken.
Later on Saturday, an Israeli airstrike on a group of civilians west of Nuseirat in central Gaza killed one person, according to Al-Awda Hospital.
Israel’s military in a statement said it killed more than 40 militants over the weekend.
Separately, the military said a soldier was killed on Saturday in northern Gaza and confirmed it was the first soldier death since Israel resumed the war on March 18.
Hamas’ armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, said it ambushed Israeli forces operating east of Gaza City’s al-Tuffah neighbourhood.
Israel has vowed to intensify attacks across Gaza and occupy indefinitely large “security zones” inside the small coastal strip of more than two million people.
Israel also has blockaded Gaza for the past six weeks, again barring the entry of food and other goods.
This week, aid groups raised the alarm, saying thousands of children have become malnourished and most people are barely eating one meal a day as stocks dwindle, according to the United Nations.
The head of the World Health Organisation’s eastern Mediterranean office, Dr. Hanan Balkhy, on Friday urged the new US ambassador in Israel, Mike Huckabee, to push the country to lift Gaza’s blockade so medicines and other aid can enter.
“I would wish for him to go in and see the situation first hand,” she said.
The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on October 7 2023, killing about 1200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251.
Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Hamas currently holds 59 hostages, 24 of them believed to be alive.
Israel’s offensive has since killed more than 51,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
