Two massive quakes leave thousands dead, others missing in Turkiye and Syria

Two massive quakes leave thousands dead, others missing in Turkiye and Syria
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In this video grab from AFP TV taken on Feb. 6, 2023, rescuers search for victims of a 7.8-magnitude earthquake that hit Diyarbakir, in southeastern Turkey. (AFPTV / AFP)
Two massive quakes leave thousands dead, others missing in Turkiye and Syria
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Rescuers evacuate a victim from an 8-story building that collapsed in Hama, Syria after an 7.8-magnitude earthquake in southern Turkiye on Feb. 6, 2023. (SANA handout via AFP)
Two massive quakes leave thousands dead, others missing in Turkiye and Syria
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Rescuers evacuate a victim from an 8-story building that collapsed in Hama, Syria after an 7.8-magnitude earthquake in southern Turkiye on Feb. 6, 2023. (SANA handout via AFP)
Two massive quakes leave thousands dead, others missing in Turkiye and Syria
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Two massive quakes leave thousands dead, others missing in Turkiye and Syria
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Two massive quakes leave thousands dead, others missing in Turkiye and Syria
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Updated 07 February 2023
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Two massive quakes leave thousands dead, others missing in Turkiye and Syria

Rescuers carry a body found in the rubble in Adana on February 6, 2023, after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the country
  • At least 3,800 people dead after huge earthquakes
  • Tremors felt across the region in Egypt, Lebanon and Iraq

ANKARA: A second earthquake of at least 7.5 magnitude rocked Turkiye and neighboring Syria less than 12 hours after the border areas were hit by a quake measuring 7.8, killing more than 3,400 people, with many others missing or injured on Monday morning. 

The 7.8-magnitude quake struck just after 4 a.m. local time on Monday, 23 kilometerseast of Nurdagi, Gaziantep province, at a depth of 24.1 kilometers, according to data from the United States Geological Survey.

Churches, hospitals and residential tower blocks are among the hundreds of buildings razed to the ground - their occupants trapped under the rubble, caught unaware by the massive quake.  

The second quake struck at 1:45 p.m. local time.

Tremors from aftershocks continued throughout the day and were felt as far as Beirut in Lebanon and in Iraq's Duhok and Erbil. 

Officials in Turkiye said the official death toll stood at 2,379, with 14,483 people injured. Although, both figures were expected to rise.

Meanwhile in Syria, the number was placed at more than 1,500 dead according to officials in government-held and rebel-held areas. 

The 7.8-magnitude quake struck just after 4 a.m. local time on Monday, 23 kilometerseast of Nurdagi, Gaziantep province, at a depth of 24.1 kilometers, according to data from the United States Geological Survey.

The earthquake caused devastation across both sides of the Turkish-Syrian border claiming hundreds of lives.

The quake was so strong that tremors were felt in Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and Egypt.

 

A hospital in the southeastern Sanliurfa province was completely destroyed by the earthquake, with many patients remaining trapped beneath the rubble.

Rescue workers and residents frantically searched for survivors under the rubble of collapsed buildings in various cities on both sides of the border. In one quake-struck Turkish city, people frantically pulled away chunks of concrete and twisted metal. People on the street shouted up to others inside a partially toppled apartment building, leaning dangerously.

Berivan Gokoglu, an engineer, was involved in rescue efforts in Sanliurfa's Yenisehir district with her medic husband, and told Arab News: “We rescued one old lady from the fifth floor of a building along with two children, but now we cannot rescue any one living, we are out of hope.”

She continued: “Many of these buildings have columns removed when shopping malls are constructed on the first floors, the most damaged buildings have been those which had shops on the first floor as they lacked columns to support the building.”

In the Turkish city of Adana, one resident said three buildings near his home collapsed. “I don’t have the strength anymore,” one survivor could be heard calling out from beneath the rubble, as rescue workers tried to reach him, said Muhammet Fatih Yavus a resident.

Further east in Diyarbakir, cranes and rescue teams rushed people on stretchers out of a mountain of pancaked concrete floors that was once an apartment building.

 

(The above video was made by Misel Uyar, Iskenderun/Hatay)

Aftershocks followed throughout the day, Turkish authorities said, until the second quake hit, of at least 7.5 magnitude. 

Ozcan Karakoc, a teacher in a state-run school in Diyarbakir, ran to the school building when he felt the first quake.

He joined others in the humanitarian efforts in a sports facility next to the school building, providing blankets and food to those who were rescued from the debris of collapsed buildings.

The school is situated in the relatively low income Baglar district, one of the worst-hit areas of the earthquake.

“I live in Seyrantepe district of Diyarbakir where buildings were relatively new and we didn’t have so much damage inside the houses. But the building next to our school is old and about eight-storeys tall, where more than 200 people were living. It collapsed like a paper tower in seconds,” Karakoc told Arab News.

This unverified video was posted on Twitter

Like many Karakoc now waits for news from his students who are living in regions of Diyarbakir affected by the quake, mostly from Baglar. He is concerned that some of them might be trapped in the debris.

In Diyarbakir the streets are full of anxious people of all ages, including children, in pajamas and braving the freezing temperatures outside.

Diyarbakir resident, Berrak Demirel, was sleeping when the earthquake struck the city. She walked out of her home, with her husband and children, after the second aftershock of the first quake.

She said they waited for several hours outside, adding: “But had to come back home due to the freezing weather conditions in the city. Everyone was frightened, especially children in the middle of dark streets and turmoil,” she told Arab News.

In Syria’s cities of Aleppo and Hama to Turkiye’s Diyarbakir, more than 330 kilometers to the northeast the first quake caused buildings to topple to the ground.

Also in Syria, the first quake smashed opposition-held regions that are packed with some 4 million people displaced from other parts of Syria by the country’s long civil war. Many of them were already living in destitute conditions with little health care, with Russian-backed Syrian forces surrounding the area and sometimes carrying out airstrikes. Rescue workers said hospitals in the area were packed.

“We fear that the deaths are in the hundreds,” Muheeb Qaddour, a doctor, said by phone from the town of Atmeh, referring to the entire rebel-held area. Raed Salah, the head of the White Helmets, the emergency organization in opposition areas, said whole neighborhoods were collapsed in some areas.

The quake, felt as far away as Cairo, was centered north of the city of Gaziantep in an area about 90 kilometers from the Syrian border.
On the Turkish side, the area has several large cities and is home to millions of Syrian refugees.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Twitter that “search and rescue teams were immediately dispatched” to the areas hit by the quake.
“We hope that we will get through this disaster together as soon as possible and with the least damage,” he wrote.

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu urged people not to enter damaged buildings due to the risks. “Our priority is to bring out people trapped under ruined buildings and to transfer them to hospitals,” he said.
At least 130 buildings tumbled down in Turkiye’s Malatya province, neighboring the epicenter, Gov. Hulusi Sahin said. In the Turkish city of Diyarbakir, at least 15 buildings collapsed. Rescue teams called for silence as they listed for survivors in a toppled 11-story building.
In northwest Syria, the opposition’s Syrian Civil Defense described the situation in the rebel-held region as “disastrous” adding that entire buildings have collapsed and people are trapped under the rubble. The civil defense urged people to evacuate buildings to gather in open areas. Emergency rooms were full of injured, said Amjad Rass, president of the Syrian American Medical Society.

US President Biden directed USAID and other federal government partners to assess response options to the most affected areas in the Turkiye and Syria earthquake, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a statement on Sunday.
The US is profoundly concerned by the reports of the destructive earthquake, he said.
The US Geological Survey said the quake was centered about 33 kilometers from Gaziantep, a major city and provincial capital. It was centered 18 kilometers deep, and a strong 6.7 aftershock rumbled about 10 minutes later.
Syria’s state media reported that some buildings collapsed in the northern city of Aleppo and the central city of Hama.
In Damascus, buildings shook and many people went down to the streets in fear.

The quake jolted residents in Lebanon from beds, shaking buildings for about 40 seconds. Many residents of Beirut left their homes and took to the streets or drove in their cars away from buildings.
The earthquake came as the Middle East is experiencing a snowstorm that is expected to continue until Thursday.
Turkiye sits on top of major fault lines and is frequently shaken by earthquakes.
Some 18,000 were killed in powerful earthquakes that hit northwest Turkiye in 1999.

The earthquake came as the Middle East is experiencing a snowstorm that is expected to continue until Thursday.

This unverified video was posted on Twitter

Citizens from as far as Jerusalem and Beirut talked of being awakened by the strong shaking. "I live in Gaziantep, Türkiye.  Was sleeping when it started. Absolutely terrifying," Nasip (@iam_nasib) commented on a video posted on Twitter.

"Felt it in Jerusalem," said Amy di Nardò (@amybellabella).

Sagittarius (@JRsagittarius) said he was in Beirut and the experience "was terrifying."

Karolingston (@karolingston) of Cyprus said he was awakened because "My bed was shaking."

"Felt it in Lebanon. It was a hell of a feeling!" chimed in CharbelRahmé (@charbelrahm_e)

Turkiye is in one of the world’s most active earthquake zones. Duzce was one of the regions hit by a 7.4-magnitude earthquake in 1999 — the worst to hit Turkiye in decades.

That quake killed more than 17,000 people, including about 1,000 in Istanbul.

Experts have long warned a large quake could devastate Istanbul, which has allowed widespread building without safety precautions.

A magnitude-6.8 quake hit Elazig in January 2020, killing more than 40 people. And in October that year, a magnitude-7.0 quake hit the Aegean Sea, killing 114 people and wounding more than 1,000.

(With Agencies)


Polls open in Egypt presidential elections

Polls open in Egypt presidential elections
Updated 26 min 24 sec ago
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Polls open in Egypt presidential elections

Polls open in Egypt presidential elections

CAIRO: Polls opened on Sunday in Egypt's presidential election in which Abdel Fattah El-Sisi is set to secure six more years in power.
Voting is spread over three days and runs from 9 a.m. until 9 p.m. (0700-1900 GMT), with results due to be announced on Dec. 18.
Approximately 67 million Egyptians are eligible to vote, according to the election authority, out of a total population of 104 million.


Israel presses on with its Gaza offensive after US veto derails Security Council efforts to halt war

Israel presses on with its Gaza offensive after US veto derails Security Council efforts to halt war
Updated 10 December 2023
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Israel presses on with its Gaza offensive after US veto derails Security Council efforts to halt war

Israel presses on with its Gaza offensive after US veto derails Security Council efforts to halt war
  • The State Department approves the sale of tank ammunition to Israel in a deal that bypasses Congress
  • In Gaza, residents reported airstrikes and shelling, including in southern city of Rafah near Egyptian border

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Israel’s military pushed ahead with its punishing air and ground offensive in Gaza on Saturday, bolstered by a US veto derailing UN Security Council efforts to end the war and word that an emergency sale of $106 million worth of tank ammunition had been approved by Washington.
Unable to leave Gaza, a territory 25 miles (40 kilometers) long by about 7 miles (11 kilometers) wide, more than 2 million Palestinians faced more bombardment Saturday, even in areas that Israel had described as safe zones.
The sale of nearly 14,000 rounds of tank ammunition was announced a day after the US vetoed a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, a measure that had wide international support. The US said Secretary of State Antony Blinken determined that “an emergency exists” in the national interest requiring the immediate sale, meaning it bypasses congressional review. Such a determination is rare.
A day after Israel confirmed it was rounding up Palestinian men for interrogation, some men told The Associated Press they had been treated badly, providing the first accounts of the conditions from the detentions.
Ahmad Nimr Salman showed his marked and swollen hands from zip ties. “They used to ask us, ‘Are you with Hamas?’ We say ‘no,’ then they would slap us or kick us,” he said. The Israeli military had no immediate comment when asked about the alleged abuse.
With the war in its third month, the Palestinian death toll in Gaza has surpassed 17,700, the majority women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths.
Two hospitals in central and southern Gaza received the bodies of 133 people from Israeli bombings over the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry said midday Saturday.
Israel holds the Hamas militants responsible for civilian casualties, accusing them of using civilians as human shields, and says it has made considerable efforts with evacuation orders to get civilians out of harm’s way. It says 97 Israeli soldiers have died in the ground offensive after Hamas raided southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 240 hostages.
Hamas said Saturday that it continued its rocket fire into Israel.
In Gaza, residents reported airstrikes and shelling, including in the southern city of Rafah near the Egyptian border — one area where the Israeli army had told civilians to go. In a colorful classroom there, knee-high children’s tables were strewn with rubble.
“We now live in the Gaza Strip and are governed by the American law of the jungle. America has killed human rights,” said Rafah resident Abu Yasser Al-Khatib.
In northern Gaza, Israel has been trying to secure the military’s hold, despite heavy resistance from Hamas. The military said that it found weapons inside a school in Shujaiyah, a densely populated neighborhood of Gaza City, and that, in a separate incident, militants shot at troops from a UN-run school in the northern town of Beit Hanoun.
More than 2,500 Palestinians have been killed since the Dec. 1 collapse of a weeklong truce, about two-thirds of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
The truce saw hostages and Palestinian prisoners released, but Israel says 137 hostages remain in Gaza.
On Saturday, a kibbutz that came under attack on Oct. 7 said 25-year-old hostage Sahar Baruch had died in captivity. His captors said Baruch was killed during a failed rescue mission by Israeli forces Friday. The Israeli military said Hamas killed him.
With no new cease-fire in sight and humanitarian aid reaching little of Gaza, residents reported severe food shortages. Nine of 10 people in northern Gaza reported spending at least one full day and night without food, according to a World Food Program assessment during the truce. Two of three people in the south said the same. The WFP called the situation “alarming.”
“I am very hungry,” said Mustafa Al-Najjar, sheltering in a UN-run school in the devastated Jabaliya refugee camp in the north. “We are living on canned food and biscuits and this is not sufficient.”
While adults can cope, “it’s extremely difficult and painful when you see your young son or daughter crying because they are hungry,” he said.
Israelis who had been taken hostage also saw the food situation deteriorate, the recently freed Adina Moshe told a rally of thousands of people in Tel Aviv seeking the rapid return of all. “We ended up eating only rice,” said Moshe, who was held for 49 days.
The rally speakers accused Israel’s government of not doing enough to bring loved ones home. “How can I sleep at night? How can I protect my daughter?” asked Eli Albag, the father of 18-year-old hostage Liri Albag.
On Saturday, 100 trucks carrying unspecified aid entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing with Egypt, said Wael Abu Omar, a spokesman for the Palestinian Crossings Authority. That is still well below the daily average before the war.
Despite growing international pressure, President Joe Biden’s administration remains opposed to an open-ended cease-fire, arguing it would enable Hamas to continue posing a threat to Israel.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has argued that “a cease-fire is handing a prize to Hamas.”
Blinken continued to speak with counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and elsewhere amid open criticism of the US stance.
“From now on, humanity won’t think the USA. supports the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech.
Protesters at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai called for a cease-fire, despite restrictions on demonstrations.
Amid concerns about a wider conflict, Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen threatened to prevent any ship heading to Israeli ports from passing through the Red Sea and Arabian Sea until food and medicine can enter Gaza freely. Spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said in a speech that all ships heading to Israel, no matter their nationality, will be a target.
In southern Gaza, thousands were on the run after what residents called a night of heavy gunfire and shelling.
Israel has designated a narrow patch of barren southern coastline, Muwasi, as a safe zone. But Palestinians described desperately overcrowded conditions with scant shelter and no toilets. They faced an overnight temperature of around 52 degrees (11 degrees Celsius).
“I am sleeping on the sand. It’s freezing,” said Soad Qarmoot, who described herself as a cancer patient forced to leave her home in the northern town of Beit Lahiya.
As she spoke, her children huddled around a fire.


French frigate downs drones over Red Sea: military

French frigate downs drones over Red Sea: military
Updated 10 December 2023
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French frigate downs drones over Red Sea: military

French frigate downs drones over Red Sea: military
  • Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militia threatened to attack vessels heading to Israeli ports unless food and medicine were allowed into Gaza

PARIS: A French frigate shot down two drones in the Red Sea that were heading toward it from the coast of Yemen, the French military said on Sunday.
“The interception and destruction of these two identified threats” were carried out late Saturday by the frigate Languedoc, which operates in the Red Sea, the general staff said in a press release.
The interceptions happened at 2030 GMT and 2230 GMT, it added, and were 110 km (68 miles) from the Yemeni coast.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militia on Saturday threatened to attack any vessels heading to Israeli ports unless food and medicine were allowed into the besieged Gaza Strip.
The latest warning comes amid heightened tensions in the Red Sea and surrounding waters following a series of maritime attacks by Houthi militia since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7.
In a statement posted on social media, the Houthis said they “will prevent the passage of ships heading to the Zionist entity” if humanitarian aid is not allowed into Hamas-ruled Gaza.
The Houthis have recently attacked ships they claim have direct links to Israel, but their latest threat expands the scope of their targets.
An American destroyer shot down three drones last week while providing assistance to commercial ships in the Red Sea targeted by attacks from Yemen, according to Washington, which denounced “a direct threat” to maritime security.


Gaza war: Who voted for an immediate ceasefire?

Gaza war: Who voted for an immediate ceasefire?
Updated 10 December 2023
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Gaza war: Who voted for an immediate ceasefire?

Gaza war: Who voted for an immediate ceasefire?
  • President Mahmoud Abbas: US ‘responsible for bloodshed’ of Gaza children
  • Saudi foreign minister: ‘Our public and private positions on Gaza are identical’

JEDDAH: World leaders, rights groups and UN officials criticized the US for vetoing a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire as Israel continued to pound the Gaza Strip with airstrikes and artillery on Saturday.

The US is among the five permanent members of the UNSC who are entitled to a veto power. The others are China, France, Russia and the UK.

China, France and Russia, along with the ten non-permanent current members of the Council — Albania, Brazil, Ecuador, Gabon, Ghana, Japan, Malta, Mozambique, Switzerland, and United Arab Emirates — voted for the resolution. The UK abstained.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the US veto made it “complicit” in war crimes in Gaza and that the US was “responsible for the bloodshed” of children.

“The president has described the American position as aggressive and immoral, a blatant violation of all humanitarian values and principles, and holds the US  responsible for the bloodshed of Palestinian children, women, and elderly in Gaza” due to its support for Israel, said a statement from Abbas’s office.

Jordan’s top diplomat said the killings of Palestinian civilians in Israel’s bombardment and siege of Gaza were war crimes and threatened to destabilize the region, the US and the world for years to come.
“If people are not seeing it here, we are seeing it,” Safadi said, adding: “We’re seeing the challenges that we are facing talking to our people. They are all saying we’re doing nothing. Because despite all our efforts, Israel is continuing these massacres.”

Opinion

This section contains relevant reference points, placed in (Opinion field)

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, during an interview with PBS NewsHour, reiterated that the Kingdom’s stance on Gaza is the same in public and private.
Prince Faisal was refuting claims from PBS Presenter Nick Schifrin that Saudi Arabia’s “public calls do not match your private calls to destroy Hamas. Why the dual message?”
Prince Faisal said: “There is no dual message. What we say in private and what we say in public is exactly the same, not just for the Kingdom but for all the Arabs.”
He added: “I am very proud that what we are saying in public and private are the same. I can’t say the same for some of our Western interlocutors.”
Prince Faisal, who is currently leading the Arab-Islamic Ministerial Committee’s visit in Washington to call for a Gaza ceasefire, disagreed with the US veto and voiced disappointment at the Security Council’s inability to “take a firm position” on Gaza.
Mohamed Abushahab, UAE’s deputy UN ambassador, said: “What is the message we are sending Palestinians if we cannot unite behind a call to halt the relentless bombardment of Gaza?”
Oman’s Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi said in a post on X: “The use of the veto at the Security Council is a shameful insult to humanitarian norms.”
China’s permanent representative to the UN, Zhang Jun, told the council: “Condoning the continuation of fighting while claiming to care about the lives and safety of people in Gaza is self-contradictory.”
Russia’s Ambassador to the UN, Dmitry Polyanskiy, said: “Our colleagues from the USA have literally before our eyes issued a death sentence to thousands if not tens of thousands more civilians in Palestine and Israel.”
Agnes Callamard, Amnesty’s secretary-general, said the US veto “displays a callous disregard for civilian suffering in the face of a staggering death toll.”
Meanwhile, the Biden administration said it has approved the emergency sale to Israel of nearly 14,000 rounds of tank ammunition worth more than $100 million as Israel intensifies its military operations.


Israel presses on with its Gaza offensive after US veto derails Security Council efforts to halt war

Israel presses on with its Gaza offensive after US veto derails Security Council efforts to halt war
Updated 10 December 2023
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Israel presses on with its Gaza offensive after US veto derails Security Council efforts to halt war

Israel presses on with its Gaza offensive after US veto derails Security Council efforts to halt war
  • The State Department approves the sale of tank ammunition to Israel in a deal that bypasses Congress
  • In Gaza, residents reported airstrikes and shelling, including in the southern city of Rafah near the Egyptian border — one area where the Israeli army had told civilians to go

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Israel’s military pushed ahead with its punishing air and ground offensive in Gaza on Saturday, bolstered by a US veto derailing UN Security Council efforts to end the war and word that an emergency sale of $106 million worth of tank ammunition had been approved by Washington.
Unable to leave Gaza, a territory 25 miles (40 kilometers) long by about 7 miles (11 kilometers) wide, more than 2 million Palestinians faced more bombardment Saturday, even in areas that Israel had described as safe zones.
The sale of nearly 14,000 rounds of tank ammunition was announced a day after the US vetoed a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, a measure that had wide international support. The US said Secretary of State Antony Blinken determined that “an emergency exists” in the national interest requiring the immediate sale, meaning it bypasses congressional review. Such a determination is rare.
A day after Israel confirmed it was rounding up Palestinian men for interrogation, some men told The Associated Press they had been treated badly, providing the first accounts of the conditions from the detentions.
Ahmad Nimr Salman showed his marked and swollen hands from zip ties. “They used to ask us, ‘Are you with Hamas?’ We say ‘no,’ then they would slap us or kick us,” he said. The Israeli military had no immediate comment when asked about the alleged abuse.
With the war in its third month, the Palestinian death toll in Gaza has surpassed 17,700, the majority women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths.
Two hospitals in central and southern Gaza received the bodies of 133 people from Israeli bombings over the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry said midday Saturday.
Israel holds the Hamas militants responsible for civilian casualties, accusing them of using civilians as human shields, and says it has made considerable efforts with evacuation orders to get civilians out of harm’s way. It says 97 Israeli soldiers have died in the ground offensive after Hamas raided southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 240 hostages.
Hamas said Saturday that it continued its rocket fire into Israel.
In Gaza, residents reported airstrikes and shelling, including in the southern city of Rafah near the Egyptian border — one area where the Israeli army had told civilians to go. In a colorful classroom there, knee-high children’s tables were strewn with rubble.
“We now live in the Gaza Strip and are governed by the American law of the jungle. America has killed human rights,” said Rafah resident Abu Yasser Al-Khatib.
In northern Gaza, Israel has been trying to secure the military’s hold, despite heavy resistance from Hamas. The military said that it found weapons inside a school in Shujaiyah, a densely populated neighborhood of Gaza City, and that, in a separate incident, militants shot at troops from a UN-run school in the northern town of Beit Hanoun.
More than 2,500 Palestinians have been killed since the Dec. 1 collapse of a weeklong truce, about two-thirds of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
The truce saw hostages and Palestinian prisoners released, but Israel says 137 hostages remain in Gaza.
On Saturday, a kibbutz that came under attack on Oct. 7 said 25-year-old hostage Sahar Baruch had died in captivity. His captors said Baruch was killed during a failed rescue mission by Israeli forces Friday. The Israeli military said Hamas killed him.
With no new cease-fire in sight and humanitarian aid reaching little of Gaza, residents reported severe food shortages. Nine of 10 people in northern Gaza reported spending at least one full day and night without food, according to a World Food Program assessment during the truce. Two of three people in the south said the same. The WFP called the situation “alarming.”
“I am very hungry,” said Mustafa Al-Najjar, sheltering in a UN-run school in the devastated Jabaliya refugee camp in the north. “We are living on canned food and biscuits and this is not sufficient.”
While adults can cope, “it’s extremely difficult and painful when you see your young son or daughter crying because they are hungry,” he said.
Israelis who had been taken hostage also saw the food situation deteriorate, the recently freed Adina Moshe told a rally of thousands of people in Tel Aviv seeking the rapid return of all. “We ended up eating only rice,” said Moshe, who was held for 49 days.
The rally speakers accused Israel’s government of not doing enough to bring loved ones home. “How can I sleep at night? How can I protect my daughter?” asked Eli Albag, the father of 18-year-old hostage Liri Albag.
On Saturday, 100 trucks carrying unspecified aid entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing with Egypt, said Wael Abu Omar, a spokesman for the Palestinian Crossings Authority. That is still well below the daily average before the war.
Despite growing international pressure, President Joe Biden’s administration remains opposed to an open-ended cease-fire, arguing it would enable Hamas to continue posing a threat to Israel.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has argued that “a cease-fire is handing a prize to Hamas.”
Blinken continued to speak with counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and elsewhere amid open criticism of the US stance.
“From now on, humanity won’t think the USA. supports the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech.
Protesters at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai called for a cease-fire, despite restrictions on demonstrations.
Amid concerns about a wider conflict, Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen threatened to prevent any ship heading to Israeli ports from passing through the Red Sea and Arabian Sea until food and medicine can enter Gaza freely. Spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said in a speech that all ships heading to Israel, no matter their nationality, will be a target.
In southern Gaza, thousands were on the run after what residents called a night of heavy gunfire and shelling.
Israel has designated a narrow patch of barren southern coastline, Muwasi, as a safe zone. But Palestinians described desperately overcrowded conditions with scant shelter and no toilets. They faced an overnight temperature of around 52 degrees (11 degrees Celsius).
“I am sleeping on the sand. It’s freezing,” said Soad Qarmoot, who described herself as a cancer patient forced to leave her home in the northern town of Beit Lahiya.
As she spoke, her children huddled around a fire.