GAZA: At least 200 Palestinians have been killed since the collapse of the Israel-Hamas truce Friday morning, driving the death toll in Gaza since the Hamas terror attack on October 7 to upwards of 15,200 people.
According to the Health Ministry in Gaza, 70 percent of them are women and children.
About 2 million Palestinians, almost the entire population of Gaza, are now crammed into the territory’s southern half.
They are running out of space where they can flee and seek shelter.
Israel pounded targets in the southern part of the enclave Saturday and ordered the evacuation of civilians from more neighborhoods it has designated for strikes there.
The Israeli military published an online map dividing the Gaza Strip into hundreds of numbered parcels and asked residents to familiarize themselves with the number of their location ahead of evacuation warnings.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris said Saturday that too many Palestinians are being killed in Gaza and urged Israel to do more to protect them as she presented a broad U.S. vision for post-war Gaza.
At a news conference on the sidelines of the COP28 summit in Dubai, Harris said Israel has a legitimate right to conduct military operations against Hamas, a U.S.-designated terror group, after it launched terror attacks on Israeli civilians on October 7.
The attacks killed 1,200 people, and an estimated 240 people were abducted. About 100 have been released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners during the just-ended seven-day truce.
It was not clear if Israel’s military would heed appeals by the United States to spare civilians during its strikes, as it has vowed to wipe out Hamas from the enclave.
Hamas also is known to prevent people from leaving areas to be evacuated ahead of Israeli strikes, using them as human shields, and embedding itself in and underneath hospitals and other civilian areas.
(VOA/AP/AFP/Reuters)
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