Dozens dead by Israeli strikes on Gaza

GAZA CITY/ LONDON  –  Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes on Tuesday killed at least 44 people across the war-ravaged Palestinian territory, where Israel has intensified a military offensive aimed at crushing Hamas.

Aid trickled into the Gaza Strip on Monday for the first time in more than two months, following wide-spread condemnation of Israel’s total blockade that has sparked severe shortages of food and medi-cine.

On Tuesday, a UN spokesman said it had received permission to send another “around 100” trucks of aid into Gaza.

Strikes overnight and early Tuesday left “44 dead, mostly children and women, as well as dozens of wounded”, civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

Bassal said 15 people were killed when a gas station was hit near the Nuseirat refugee camp and 12 others in a strike on a house in Deir el-Balah, both in central Gaza.

Eight people were killed in a strike on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza City, further north, Bassal said.

‘UK halts trade talks with Israel, summons envoy over Gaza’

Britain suspended free-trade negotiations with Israel on Tuesday and summoned its ambassador to the foreign ministry in its toughest stance yet against Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s gov-ernment of “egregious actions and rhetoric” over its expansion of military operations in the Palestinian territory.

During an impassioned speech to Britain’s parliament, Lammy also said the UK government was imposing new sanctions on individuals and organisations involved in settlements in the West Bank.

“The world is judging, history will judge them. Blocking aid, expanding the war, dismissing the concerns of your friends and partners. This is indefensible and it must stop,” he said.

Lammy said Britain “cannot stand by in the face of this new deterioration” in Gaza and was pausing negotiations with Israel on a new free-trade agreement.

He said Britain would be “reviewing cooperation” with Israel under its so-called 2030 roadmap for UK-Israel relations. “Netanyahu government’s actions have made this necessary,” Lammy said.

‘Pakistan condemns continued Israeli aggression in Gaza’

Pakistan condemned in the strongest possible terms the continued Israeli aggression in Gaza. The Foreign Office, in a statement on Tuesday, said the continued Israeli aggression is resulting in the deaths of dozens of Palestinians, as well as deliberate targeting of hospitals and other critical in-frastructure, along with mass evacuation orders.

It said the expansion of Israeli ground operations in Gaza, as well as its announcement to “take control of all” of Gaza, poses a grave threat to efforts aimed towards achieving peace and stabil-ity in the region. In addition, Israel also continues to deliberately obstruct critical humanitarian aid from reaching millions in dire need, which amounts to the imposition of collective punish-ment on the besieged Palestinian people.