Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 57 people across Gaza, health officials said Saturday, as international pressure grows for a ceasefire but Israel’s leader remains defiant about continuing the war.
Among the dead were those hit by two strikes in the Nuseirat refugee camp – nine from the same family in a house and, later, 13 in the same camp, including women and children, according to staff at al-Awda Hospital, where the bodies were brought. Five others were killed when a strike hit a tent for the displaced, according to Nasser Hospital, which received the dead.
Israel’s army said they were not aware of anyone being killed by gunfire Saturday in southern Gaza, and didn’t provide immediate comment about the airstrikes.
The director of Shifa Hospital in Gaza City told The Associated Press that medical teams there were concerned about Israeli “tanks approaching the vicinity of the hospital,” restricting access to the facility where 159 patients are being treated.
“The bombardment has not stopped for a single moment,” Dr. Mohamed Abu Selmiya said.
He added that 14 premature babies were treated in incubators in Helou Hospital, though the head of neonatal intensive care there, Dr. Nasser Bulbul, has said that facility’s main gate was closed because of drones flying over the building.
The attacks came hours after a defiant Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told fellow world leaders at the UN General Assembly on Friday that his nation “must finish the job” against Hamas in Gaza.
Netanyahu’s words began after dozens of delegates from multiple nations walked out of the UN General Assembly hall en masse Friday morning as he began speaking.
“You were like the last of the lepers. Netanyahu, we promise you that if you don’t bring a comprehensive agreement and end the war, you will forever be a leper,” said Itzik Horn, the father of Eitan Horn, one of the hostages held in Gaza since the Hamas attack that started the war. He was referencing the UN speech and Israel’s isolation.
“My son Eitan sleeps sick and starving on the floor of a tunnel in Gaza or, worse, is used as a human shield against IDF fighters. What will you save him with?” Horn added Saturday evening.