Israel has said it is intensifying attacks on north Gaza, and warned that anyone who stayed risked being considered a terrorist sympathiser, as airstrikes continued on Sunday in the south, where civilians had fled hoping to survive the war.
Israel’s military said the number of people held captive had risen to 212. The release of two Americans on Friday raised hopes that others might be able to return home.
Palestinian media reported that at least 11 people were killed in an Israeli strike in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, and that Israel was bombing the southern city of Rafah. The attacks came hours after the Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari called on Gaza’s residents to move south “for your own safety”.
The Palestinian health ministry said Israeli strikes have killed 4,741 Palestinians, with 15,898 hurt. Authorities in Gaza said that 40% of those killed in the Gaza Strip were children. Israel has been launching the attacks since 7 October, when a surprise Hamas attack inside Israel killed over 1,400 Israelis, mostly civilians.
UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) has confirmed that 29 of its workers have been killed in Gaza since 7 October.
Israel said it had returned fire into Lebanon after a drone and anti-aircraft missiles were fired into northern Israel. The country has said it plans to evacuate 14 additional communities in the area.
Israel also struck the West Bank, hitting a compound beneath a mosque early on Sunday that the Israeli military claimed was being used by Hamas.
Benjamin Netanyahu warned Hezbollah on Sunday against opening a second war front with Israel “If Hezbollah decides to enter the war, it will long for the second Lebanon war. It will be making the mistake of its life. We will strike it with strength that it cannot even imagine and the significance to it and to the country of Lebanon will be devastating.”
Speaking to soldiers near the blue line UN-drawn boundary that separates Israel and Lebanon, Netanyahu said “I know that you lost friends, and it’s a very difficult thing, but we are in the fight of our life, a fight for our home. That’s not an exaggeration, it’s not an overstatement, that’s this war. It is kill or be killed, and they need to be killed.”
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said on Sunday that Washington saw potential for escalation in the ongoing war in the Middle East due to the actions of Iran and its proxies in the region.
Hezbollah is “in the heart of the battle”, the deputy leader of the Iran-backed militant group in Lebanon said. Sheikh Naim Kassem vowed that Israel would pay a high price whenever it started its ground offensive in Gaza.
Gaza’s healthcare system is “facing collapse”, Médecins Sans Frontières has said. The international medical organisation said on Saturday that Gaza’s hospitals were “overwhelmed and lacking resources”.
Doctors in Gaza have warned that 130 premature babies are in “imminent danger due to a lack of fuel”. “The world cannot simply look on as these babies are killed by the siege in Gaza,” said Melanie Ward, the chief executive of Medical Aid for Palestinians.
The Iraqi prime minister said at peace talks in Cairo that Palestinian people were “facing genocide” and being targeted in hospitals. “It’s a war crime on full scale,” Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said. Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said: “We won’t leave, we will remain on our land.”
