Israel pounds Gaza as fears grow of widening war

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories — Israel pummelled southern Gaza on Tuesday, killing dozens, even as authorities announced the winding down of the intense phase of the war that has inflamed tensions across the Middle East.

The government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come under mounting international pressure to end its offensive in Gaza launched in response to Hamas' sudden October 7 attacks.

But fears are mounting the war could be widening, with Iran and its proxies stepping up attacks across the region in solidarity with Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules the Palestinian territory.

Overnight, a wave of Israeli strikes killed at least 78 people in the Gaza Strip, Hamas' press office said. An AFP correspondent said the southern city of Khan Yunis was hit hard.

On Tuesday morning, the army said a barrage of 50 rockets was fired towards Netivot in southern Israel, without causing any casualties. Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine Al Qassam Brigades, claimed responsibility for the attack.

More than 24,000 Palestinians, around 70 per cent of them women, young children and adolescents, have been killed in Gaza in Israeli bombardments and ground operations since October 7, according to the Hamas government's health ministry.

'Tamp down flames' 

AFPTV live footage showed trails of smoke and explosions ring out as Israel's air defences intercepted rockets near the Gaza border.

Khan Yunis has been the focus of Israeli operations since January 6.

The health ministry said on Tuesday that the war had claimed the lives of at least 24,285 people in the Palestinian territory.

The Israeli forces also announced Tuesday the death of two more soldiers in Gaza, bringing the total number killed since its ground invasion began to 190.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday reiterated calls for a stop to the fighting.

"We need an immediate humanitarian ceasefire to ensure sufficient aid gets to where it is needed, to facilitate the release of the hostages, to tamp down the flames of wider war — because the longer the conflict in Gaza continues, the greater the risk of escalation and miscalculation," he said.

Israeli officials, including Netanyahu over the weekend, have repeatedly warned the fighting in Gaza will go on for months.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who say they act in solidarity with Gaza, claimed a missile strike on a US-owned cargo ship on Monday, just days after the United States and Britain bombed scores of targets inside the country in response to repeated attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.

The United Nations says the Hamas-Israel war has displaced roughly 85 per cent of Gaza’s 2.4 million population, many of whom have been forced to crowd into shelters and struggle to get food, water, fuel and medical care.

As temperatures plunge, families living in makeshift tents in Rafah have resorted to burning plastic to ward off the chill, despite the noxious fumes.

“I pray every day that we will all be martyred. Death is better than this life,” said Adbul Karim Muhammad, a 29-year-old father of three whose family fled Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza to Rafah in the south.