Photo: Collected
Israel kept up its air strikes on Gaza Wednesday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to ramp up the pressure on Hamas as hopes faded for a US-announced ceasefire plan. Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh accused Israel of deliberately undermining negotiations for a truce and hostage release deal because it did not want to end the war.
The Israeli military said it had carried out 25 strikes in 24 hours, targeting "military structures, terrorist infrastructure, terrorist cells and rigged structures". Netanyahu, who has repeatedly vowed to eradicate Hamas, insisted Tuesday that despite mounting pressure, there would be no let-up in Israel's campaign against the militants.
"This is exactly the time to increase the pressure even more, to bring home all the hostages -- the living and the dead -- and to achieve all the war objectives," he said.
He rammed home the point in a speech to parliament, saying: "We have got them by the throat; we are on the road to absolute victory."
The health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said 52 people, most of them women and children, had been killed in Israeli strikes over the previous 24 hours.
The territory's civil defence agency said 30 people had been killed in three strikes in Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza -- one on a UN-run school, another on a house and a third on a mosque.
Later on Wednesday it reported 15 deaths across central and northern Gaza from Israeli action, while the health ministry reported three children and a woman killed near Khan Yunis.
In southern Gaza, two people were killed in Israeli bombardment of the Shakush area, northwest of Rafah, a medical source at Nasser Hospital said.
Messenger/Disha
