At least 240 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 600 injured in the hours since the Israeli army resumed its offensive in Gaza Friday morning, following the end of a seven-day truce implemented last Friday.
Israel brushed off international calls to renew an expired truce on Saturday as air strikes pounded Gaza. Smoke again clouded the sky over the north of the Palestinian territory.
The truce had been brokered with the help of Qatar, backed by Egypt and the United States, but on Saturday Israel said it was withdrawing its negotiators from Doha after reaching a dead end in talks aimed at securing a renewed pause in hostilities.
In Israel, the military’s Home Front Command reported 40 missile alerts in the south and centre of the country, and the Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad announced “rocket barrages” against three Israeli municipalities near Gaza.
According to the United Nations, an estimated 1.7 million people in Gaza -- around 80% of the population -- have been displaced by eight weeks of war.
Fadel Naim, chief doctor at the Al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza City, said his morgue had received 30 bodies since the morning, including seven children.
The population is short of food, water and other essentials, and many homes have been destroyed. UN agencies have declared a humanitarian catastrophe, although some aid trucks did arrive on Saturday.
After the truce between Israel and Hamas expired on Friday, Israel had told NGOs not to bring aid convoys across the Rafah border crossing from Egypt, the Palestine Red Crescent Society had said.
But on Saturday in a social media post, the charity said its Egyptian colleagues had managed to send over a number of trucks.
Both sides blamed each other for the breakdown of the truce, which had enabled the release of 80 Israeli hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
French President Emmanuel Macron appealed for “stepped-up efforts to reach a lasting ceasefire” to free all hostages, allow in more aid and to assure Israel of its security.
Since the end of the pause, Israel’s air, naval and ground forces have attacked more than 400 targets in Gaza, the army said on Saturday. The figure is roughly in line with the daily average number of strikes prior to the pause, according to military figures released previously.
Warplanes hit “more than 50 targets in an extensive attack in the Khan Yunis area” of Gaza’s south, the military added.
