As US Urges Pause, Israel Strikes 2 More Refugee Camps

UPDATE Nov 6, 2023 12:00 AM CST

Israeli airstrikes hit two refugee camps in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday, killing at least 53 people including children and wounding dozens in central Gaza, health officials said. The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war surpassed 9,700 with more than 4,000 of them children and minors, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. In the occupied West Bank, more than 140 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids, the AP reports. More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, most of them in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that started the fighting, and 242 hostages were taken from Israel into Gaza by the militant group. Also Sunday, Gaza lost communications Sunday in its third total outage of the Israel-Hamas war, while Israel's military said it encircled Gaza City and divided the besieged coastal strip into two, the AP reports.

Nov 5, 2023 7:31 AM CST

Israeli airstrikes hit a refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip early Sunday, killing dozens of people, health officials said. Palestinian officials put the number of casualties at more than 30, reports Al Jazeera, though the numbers are in flux and some outlets reported as many as 51, mostly women and children. The strikes came as the US is urging Israel to take a humanitarian pause from its relentless bombardment of Gaza and rising civilian deaths. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to Ramallah in the West Bank for a previously unannounced meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, reports the AP.

Blinken on Saturday met with Arab foreign ministers in Jordan, after holding talks in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who insisted there could be no temporary ceasefire until all hostages held by Hamas are released. President Biden suggested Saturday that progress was being made on the humanitarian pause. The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war reached 9,700, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. In the occupied West Bank, more than 140 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids. Roughly 1,100 people have left the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing since Wednesday under an apparent agreement among the United States, Egypt, Israel, and Qatar, which mediates with Hamas. (More Israel-Hamas war stories.)