At least 85 Palestinians killed in Gaza strikes, local health authorities say
Israeli strikes killed at least 85 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip overnight and into Thursday, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Five UN staff members have also been killed, according to the head of the UNRWA.
It comes as fighting in the enclave has restarted in recent days.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, the United Nations Palestinian relief agency, said on Thursday: “In the past few days, another five UNRWA staff have been confirmed killed, bringing the death toll to 284.
“They were teachers, doctors and nurses: serving the most vulnerable.”
He added he feared “the worst is yet to come”.
“Under our daily watch, people in Gaza are again and again going through their worst nightmare,” he said in a statement.
“An endless unleashing of the most inhumane ordeals.”
Speaking in Parliament, Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the UK government opposed the resumption of Israel’s hostilities and added that a British national was among the wounded when a UN compound was struck on Wednesday.
Israel has previously said it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas because it operates in densely populated areas.
It denied previous reports it had targeted a UN compound.
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Briton wounded in Israeli strike
Israel resumes strikes
On Tuesday, Israel resumed heavy airstrikes on the enclave killing more than 400 people, bringing to a halt the ceasefire that had paused fighting in the 17-month war.
A day later, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) relaunched ground operations, seizing part of a key corridor that divides the north and south of Gaza – the Netzarim corridor.
On Thursday, the IDF said it had begun a ground operation in northern Gaza.
Meanwhile, Hamas fired three rockets at Israel without causing casualties.
It was the first such attack since the resumption of the IDF’s strikes.
Palestinians mourn loved ones killed in Israeli strikes in Khan Younis. Pic: Reuters
Hospitals across Gaza said the strikes hit houses in Khan Younis and Rafah in southern Gaza and the northern town of Beit Lahiya.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports.
Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. Pic: Reuters
The European Hospital in Rafah said 26 people, mostly women and children, had been killed in strikes on two family homes overnight.
A father and his seven children were killed in one of the attacks, it added.
The Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis received the bodies of seven people killed overnight in an attack on a home, it said.
A child looks on as Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in Khan Younis. Pic: Reuters
Meanwhile, Hamas said talks with mediators were ongoing.
Fragile ceasefire
Hamas and Israel disagreed over how to proceed with the ceasefire after phase one came to an end.
The militant group wanted to move onto phase two to negotiate Israel’s permanent withdrawal from Gaza, the release of hostages in exchange for more prisoners and an eventual end to the war.
Read more:
What happened to the Israel-Hamas ceasefire?
Siblings among those killed in one of Gaza’s deadliest days
A man sits amid rubble in Khan Younis. Pic: Reuters/Hatem Khaled
Israel wanted to temporarily extend phase one and for more hostages to be released.
It cut off all supplies to Gaza to try and pressure the group into doing so before restarting its military campaign.
The war started after Hamas militants attacked Israeli communities in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages.
More than 49,000 Palestinians have been killed in the ensuing conflict, according to Gaza’s health authorities,
The cardinals have arrived, the finishing touches are being made; Vatican City is preparing for an election like no other.
On Wednesday, the papal conclave begins and many visitors to St Peter’s Square already have a clear view on what they would like the outcome to be.
“I want a liberal pope,” says Joyce who has travelled to Rome from the US.
“My number one is Pierbattista Pizzaballa,” says blogger Teodorita Giovannella referencing the 60-year-old Italian cardinal.
Rome resident Michele Rapinesi thinks the next pope will be the Vatican’s secretary of state, Pietro Parolin, who was Pope Francis’ number two.
Joyce has travelled all the way to Rome from the US
Michele Rapinesi speaks to Siobhan Robbins
Although the job of selecting the next pontiff lies with 133 cardinal electors, Ms Giovannella and Mr Rapinesi are among 75,000 Italians playing an online game trying to predict who they’ll pick.
Fantapapa is a similar format to fantasy football, but teams are made up of prospective pontiffs.
Ms Giovannella has chosen three popular Italians as her favourites: Cardinals Pizzaballa, Zuppi and Parolin.
After 47 years she wants an Italian pope but believes an Asian or African would be a good “plot twist”.
Despite the growing speculation and excitement, for the cardinal electors the papal conclave is the serious and sombre process of choosing the next leader of the Catholic Church and its 1.4 billion followers.
Teodorita Giovannella is hoping the next pope will be a fellow Italian
To keep the vote secret, they are locked in the Sistine Chapel which has been swept for hidden cameras, recording equipment and bugs.
The windows are covered to keep the outside world out and to stop drones from spying.
Mobile phones are banned and signal jammers have been installed to help stop any information being leaked.
Ballots are burned after they are cast and a plume of coloured smoke shows people if a new pope has been chosen.
Read more:
How Pope Francis heralded a new kind of leadership for Catholic Church
When does conclave start and how does it work?
How does the Sistine Chapel prepare for conclave?
Preparations inside the Sistine Chapel
The cardinal who is elected will become one of the most powerful men in the world and will set the course for the Catholic Church for years to come, making decisions which will affect the lives of millions of people worldwide.
Pope Francis’ 12-year reign pulled the church in a more progressive direction.
His fight for migrants and climate change made him a muse for Roman street artist Mauro Pallotta.
He met him five times and painted more than 30 pictures of him, celebrating his life on the walls of Rome.
Siobhan Robbins with Rome street artist Mauro Pallotta
One of Mr Pallotta’s artworks of Pope Francis
One shows Francis with a catapult shooting out hearts.
“It depicts the strong love he had for people,” Mr Pallotta explains.
In another, he wears a cape and is depicted as a superhero.
“I hope the new pope continues the way of Pope Francis and remembers the poor people of the world,” he says.
Whether the next pontiff is another pope of the people, a progressive or conservative will soon be decided by the cardinals.
Their choice will determine if the Catholic Church continues down the route set by Francis or takes a different path.
Israel has approved a plan to capture all of the Gaza Strip and remain there for an unspecified length of time, Israeli officials say.
According to Reuters, the plan includes distributing aid, though supplies will not be let in yet.
The Israeli official told the agency that the newly approved offensive plan would move Gaza’s civilian population southward and keep humanitarian aid from falling into Hamas’s hands.
On Sunday, the United Nations rejected what it said was a new plan for aid to be distributed in what it described as Israeli hubs.
Israeli cabinet ministers approved plans for the new offensive on Monday morning, hours after it was announced that tens of thousands of reserve soldiers are being called up.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far failed to achieve his goal of destroying Hamas or returning all the hostages, despite more than a year of brutal war in Gaza.
Palestinian children struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, Gaza. Pic: AP
Officials say the plan will help with these war aims but it would also push hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to southern Gaza, exacerbating an already dire humanitarian crisis.
They said the plan included the “capturing of the strip and the holding of territories”.
It would also try to prevent Hamas from distributing humanitarian aid, which Israel says strengthens the group’s rule in Gaza.
The UN rejected the plan, saying it would leave large parts of the population, including the most vulnerable, without supplies.
It said it “appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic – as part of a military strategy”.
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IDF reservists call for end to war in Gaza
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Israeli pilots’ letter reveals deepening rift
Seriously ill children from Gaza allowed into UK
More than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed since the IDF launched its ground offensive in the densely-populated territory, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
It followed the deadly Hamas attacks on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and saw around 250 people taken hostage.
A fragile ceasefire that saw a pause in the fighting and the exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners collapsed earlier this year.
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