C T Online Desk: Israel struck Gaza on Sunday and troops battled militants in several areas of the Hamas-run territory, where the health ministry said the death toll in the war had exceeded 35,000 people.
More than seven months into the Israel-Hamas war, UN chief Antonio Guterres urged “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages and an immediate surge in humanitarian aid” into the besieged Gaza Strip.
“But a ceasefire will only be the start,” Guterres told a donor conference in Kuwait, where countries pledged over $2 billion to aid the devastated Palestinian territory.
As Egyptian, Qatari and American mediation efforts towards a truce appeared to stall, US President Joe Biden said Saturday a ceasefire could be achieved “tomorrow” if Hamas released the hostages held in Gaza since the October 7 attack that sparked the conflict.
The militant group on Sunday called Biden’s statement a “setback” to the negotiations, and said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had “rushed to overturn” the talks by launching the Rafah offensive.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday an all-out Israeli offensive on Rafah would provoke “anarchy” without eliminating Hamas.
“Israel’s on the trajectory, potentially, to inherit an insurgency with many armed Hamas left or, if it leaves, a vacuum filled by chaos, filled by anarchy and probably refilled by Hamas,” he told NBC.
He said he also agreed with a statement by Netanyahu that Israeli forces had killed more civilians than Hamas militants.
AFP correspondents, witnesses and medics said Israeli strikes pounded several areas of Gaza overnight.
