More than 400 Palestinians were killed on Sunday as a result of intensified Israeli attacks on Gaza. Most of those killed were women and children, medical sources told the Palestinian news agency WAFA.

The attacks were concentrated in Jabalya and Beit Lahiya in the north, the al Gusta and al Rimal neighbourhoods and al Shati refugee camp in the west and Khan Younis and Rafah in the south of Gaza.

The number of women, children and elderly killed Sunday accounted for 70 percent of the death toll, according to the sources.

They said 44 Palestinians were killed in Khan Younis governorate, 57 in Rafah, 168 in al Wusta, 66 in Gaza and 44 in the north.

Six were killed and 11 others injured in the bombing of a house in Rafah, it continued.

In the bombing of the house of the Abu Habis family in al Sarara, five were killed. Some were injured in a strike on a house of the al Zitani family in the al Amal neighbourhood.

The United States has vowed a continued flow of aid to Gaza, as a new convoy of 14 trucks entered the besieged and bombarded Palestinian enclave.

With the first of two convoys of humanitarian assistance now inside Gaza, the White House said Israel had agreed "there will now be continued flow of this critical assistance".

The United Nations estimates Gaza needs about 100 trucks a day to meet the needs of its 2.4 million residents, almost half of whom are believed to have been displaced by Israel's bombing campaign.

Hundreds of Israelis demonstrated in front of President Isaac Herzog’s West Jerusalem home on Sunday to demand the release of prisoners being held by the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza, according to Israeli media.

Herzog met with 80 representatives of the families of the prisoners, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation reported.

Thousands of Israelis have been demonstrating across the country daily, calling on the government to take steps for their release.

Hamas and other Palestinian groups have captured more than 200 Israelis, including high-ranking military personnel, hoping to reach a prisoner exchange deal to free some of the over 6,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons, including women and children.

Israel’s ongoing attacks against Gaza have killed over 1,000 women and forced the displacement of about half a million others from their homes since October 7, the media office of the Gaza government said.

The office said in a statement that as of Sunday, 1,023 women have been killed.

"The Israeli occupation's continued crim es against women, girls and children constitutes a war crime condemned by all international and humanitarian conventions,” it said.

The statement cited figures from Gaza’s Health Ministry which said that more than 1,900 children have been killed in the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza.

It also referred to a report issued by UN Women which said the number of widows who have become heads of their families after the deaths of their husbands has surpassed 1,000.

The number of Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank since Oct. 7 rose to 93, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Two more Palestinians lost their lives, including a child, in raids and attacks carried out by Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Hebron, the ministry said in a statement.

In a statement issued earlier, it said the General Authority for Civil Affairs, the Palestinian Authority's contact point with the Israeli side, informed it of the death of a citizen — the sixth on Sunday — whose identity is yet to be confirmed.

The deaths came after Israeli forces opened fire near the Al-Arroub camp, the ministry added.

The US, UK, France, Germany, Italy and Canada released a joint statement late Sunday reaffirming their support for Israel's “right to self-defence against terrorism.”

“The leaders reiterated their support for Israel and its right to defend itself against terrorism and called for adherence to international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians,” said the statement, which was posted on the British government’s website.

The statement came following discussions between US President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

Hezbollah announced that one of its members was killed in an Israeli attack in southern Lebanon.

The group announced that the member hailed from the village of Aynata, without providing further information, according to the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Manar TV,

Israeli warplanes conducted an airstrike on the outskirts of the village of Aitaroun in southern Lebanon, the local Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported earlier in the day.

At least 30 Palestinians have been killed and dozens wounded in Israeli shelling of homes across Gaza, Gaza’s Interior Ministry announced late Sunday.

“At least 30 Palestinians were killed by Israeli shelling of a number of inhabited homes in Jabaliya (refugee) camp, the town of Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza and in (the) Nuseirat and Bureij (camps) in the center of the Strip,” the ministry said in a statement.

It said most of the victims were women and children and the attacks came without warning.

Source: TRT World 

BDST: 1317 HRS, OCT 23, 2023
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