At least 23 Palestinians were killed and more were wounded in this morning’s Israeli airstrikes on two refugee camps in the blockaded Gaza Strip.
Early on Thursday, Israeli warplanes targeted two houses in the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, as well as a camp in the southern part of the enclave.
At least 17 Palestinians were killed and dozens were wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a building in the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in the interior of the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian WAFA agency reports that at least six Palestinians were killed and more wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a house in the Al-Shabora refugee camp in Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip.
-The US continues to oppose Israel’s reoccupation of Gaza-
The White House on Wednesday rejected the idea of Israel reoccupying the besieged Gaza Strip after the current war in the Palestinian enclave ends.
The Biden administration “does not support the reoccupation of Gaza,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters at the White House, a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his military must maintain indefinite security control over Gaza.
“We do not support any reduction of Gaza’s territorial borders. We do not support any permanent displacement of the population outside of Gaza. And as we have said many, many times, we believe there must be some critical questions for all of us, including our regional partners, about what the administration looks like in Gaza. I don’t have the answers to all those questions, but what we do know is that it has to be appropriate for the aspirations of the Palestinian people, it has to be representative of them,” he added.
Netanyahu said on Tuesday that the Israeli military would retain control of Gaza security after the war, ruling out handing over responsibility to international forces. He further said that Gaza “must be demilitarized” after the end of the war.
“For Gaza to be demilitarized, there is only one force that can take care of this demilitarization – and that is the IDF,” he said after a cabinet meeting, referring to the Israeli army.
US President Joe Biden said last month that he had “made clear” to the Israeli government his opposition to any reoccupation of Gaza, saying it was “a big mistake for them to think they are going to occupy Gaza and hold it”.
Kirby declined to answer a reporter’s question about whether Biden would pursue proposals to condition aid to Israel if Tel Aviv carries out any reoccupation of Gaza, calling it “hypothetical.”
“I will not speculate on that. We have expressed very clear opposition to any potential reoccupation of Gaza,” he added.
-In the night raids of the Israeli forces in the West Bank, 42 Palestinians were detained-
In night raids carried out by Israeli forces in many cities of the occupied West Bank, four people were injured and 42 detained.
In addition to attacks in Gaza, the Israeli army continues raids in the West Bank.
As reported by the Palestinian news agency WAFA, Israeli forces carried out overnight raids in Nablus, Hebron, Bethlehem and Tulkarem.
Israeli forces, accompanied by bulldozers, raided the old city area of Nablus and surrounded houses in the Al-Hila neighborhood. Many Palestinian vehicles were burned and rendered unusable during the raid. Four Palestinians were injured during the raid and five people were detained, including two workers from Gaza.
Ahmed Jibril, director of the Red Crescent Emergency Center in Nablus, said that two Palestinians were wounded in the legs by live bullets.
Also, 13 Palestinians were detained in the cities of Terkumya and Ez-Zahiriyye in Hebron. In the south of Tulkarem, 19 workers from Gaza were detained.
During raids carried out by Israeli forces on refugee camps in Bethlehem, five people were detained, including three workers from Gaza.
According to the latest figures from the Palestinian Prisoners’ Association, the number of Palestinians detained by Israel in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem (Al-Quds) since October 7 has exceeded 3,640.
-Israel allowed more fuel to enter Gaza to avoid “humanitarian collapse”-
Israel’s security cabinet on Wednesday approved a “minimal” increase in fuel stocks in the Gaza Strip to avert a humanitarian crisis, the Israel Broadcasting Authority said.
The decision was made before it was sent to the cabinet for final approval, under increasing pressure from the US, according to the Israeli daily “Yedioth Ahronoth”.
Israeli media did not specify how much of the fuel supplies will be delivered through the Rafah border crossing from Egypt.
However, the Israeli prime minister’s office said the decision allowed the minimum addition of fuel, necessary to prevent a humanitarian collapse and the outbreak of epidemics, to the southern Gaza Strip.
The minimum amount will be periodically determined according to the humanitarian situation, they added.
With the end of the “humanitarian pause” last week, the Israeli authorities decided to cut fuel for humanitarian aid in half.
This decision will cost even more lives, Thomas White, director of the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza, warned on Sunday.
Israel resumed its military offensive on the Gaza Strip on December 1 after ending a week-long humanitarian truce with the Palestinian group Hamas.
At least 16,248 Palestinians have been killed and more than 43,616 wounded in relentless air and ground attacks on the enclave since October 7 following a cross-border attack by Hamas, AA writes.
