The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza has said that more than 8,000 had been killed in the blockaded territory since the start of the war with Israel on October 7.

"The death toll linked to the Israeli aggression is past 8,000, half of whom are children," the ministry told the AFP news agency.

The last toll, issued early on Saturday, was of 7,703 dead.

Israeli military has targeted several areas of the occupied West Bank, sparking clashes, killing three Palestinians and wounding around 36 others.

Palestinian Red Crescent Society stated in a press release that "two young men were martyred, one in the town of Tamoun near Tubas, and the other in the Askar refugee camp near Nablus."

It said a young man Ramaheh Qatishat was killed by Israeli army in the town of Tamoun near Tubas. Another young man was killed in the Askar refugee camp whose identity is being ascertained.

Israeli forces raided the town of Tamoun in the early hours of Sunday and spread in several neighbourhoods, arresting several of its residents, according to local sources.

Earlier on Sunday, the Palestinian news agency WAFA announced the killing of a Palestinian young man by Israeli army after the Israeli military invaded the town of Beit Rima, northwest of Ramallah.

Violence has risen sharply in the occupied West Bank since October 7, with 112 Palestinians killed by Israeli troops or illegal settlers, including 33 children, according to the UN and local sources.

On Saturday, a Palestinian man was killed by an illegal Israeli settler in the occupied West Bank, with a settler leader identifying the shooter as an off-duty soldier.

Bilal Abu Salah, 40, was "shot in the chest by a settler" in the village of Sawiya near Nablus in the northern West Bank, a Palestinian Health Ministry statement said.

Telephone and internet communications are returning gradually to Gaza, several Palestinian media outlets said on Sunday.

Gaza's connectivity is "being restored," said Internet monitor Netblocks.

"Real-time network data show that internet connectivity is being restored in the #Gaza Strip," the company wrote on X, formerly Twitter, while an AFP employee in Gaza City said shortly after 4am [0200 GMT] that he could use the internet and phone network and had contacted.

Türkiye has rejected the slander and baseless allegations by some Israeli officials against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Foreign Ministry said.

"The efforts of some Israeli officials, who cannot tolerate even the expression of the truth and facts, to change the agenda accompanied by distortions and slanders in the hope of covering up the brutal massacre targeting Palestinian civilians in Gaza, will not yield results," the ministry stressed in a statement.

"The targeting of the UN, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and our President Recep Tayyip Erdogan by these authorities, who have committed a crime against humanity in front of the whole world but cannot even tolerate criticism and condemnation, is a clear indication of the weakness they have fallen into," it said.

"We are returning the accusation of anti-Semitism, slander and insults [against Erdogan and Türkiye itself] to the interlocutors in the same way," it said. "Unlike many countries that support Israel unconditionally today, it is known to everyone that Türkiye's record on this issue is spotless and immaculate."

"It is a truth that all historians have delivered that Türkiye has been a safe haven for everyone who has been persecuted throughout history, including Jews," it noted.

The ministry demanded that Israeli authorities "urgently heed the calls for a ceasefire and peace made to them to put an end to this barbarism aimed at the total destruction of the residents of Gaza."

The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross [ICRC] appealed for the world to act to halt the "intolerable level of human suffering" in Gaza.

"This is a catastrophic failing that the world must not tolerate," said Mirjana Spoljaric, as Israel declared its war on Hamas had "entered a new phase" with its massive bombardment of Gaza.

No international aid entered Gaza on Saturday, as the communications blackout created by Israel continued.

Nebal Farsakh, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent, told The Associated Press that no aid trucks entered Gaza because communication was impossible and teams inside Gaza couldn't connect with Egyptian Red Crescent or United Nations personnel.

Before Saturday, a total of 84 aid trucks were let into Gaza, a tiny amount for a population of 2.3 million people in need of power, food, medical supplies and clean drinking water.

The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier and its strike group has moved through the Strait of Gibraltar, putting two American carriers in the Mediterranean Sea, a rare sight in recent years.

The USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group is already in the eastern Mediterranean, part of a buildup of forces as the US supports Israel in its war against Gaza.

The Eisenhower sailed into the Mediterranean on Saturday and is slated to move through the Suez Canal to the US Central Command region as the American forces expand their presence in the Middle East.

Now that Israeli bombs have cut off cellular and internet service for most of the 2.3 million people in Gaza, it has fallen to a rare few Palestinians with international SIM cards or powered-up satellite phones to get the news out.

They described scenes of panic and confusion as Israel's military attacks from the air, land and sea in the most intense bombing yet in the three week war.

Without social media to share their plight with the world, many seem consumed with fear and hopelessness.

Reached by WhatsApp, freelance photojournalist Ashraf Abu Amra in northern Gaza said the international community must intervene to save the people of Gaza from immediate death.

Palestinian journalist Hind al-Khoudary reported that some 50,000 people have converged on Gaza's largest hospital, where doctors are exhausted from operating on patient after patient using dwindling fuel and medical supplies.

Republican presidential candidates have professed unbridled support for Israel in speeches to an influential GOP Jewish group in Las Vegas. The campaign stop came as Israel entered a new phase of its war on Gaza.

Former vice president Mike Pence suspended his campaign and used his last speech as a candidate to called on Democratic President Joe Biden to unconditionally support Israel.

Candidates Tim Scott and Vivek Ramaswamy also said Israel's "right to defend itself" is unequivocal.

Nikki Haley noted that former president Donald Trump had lashed out at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the Hamas attack and referred to the militant group Hezbollah as "very smart."

Trump, the frontrunner, called himself "the best friend Israel ever had."

Source: TRT World

BDST: 1057 HRS, OCT 29, 2023
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