Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD: Israel’s military intensified its bombing of southern Gaza overnight after one of the deadliest days for Palestinians since the conflict began as world leaders called for a halt to fighting to allow aid into the besieged enclave.
The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip has soared to 6,546, the Health Ministry said Wednesday.
“The fatalities included 2,704 children, 1,584 women, and 364 elders,” the ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told a press conference in Gaza City.
He said 17,439 other people were injured in the assaults, while 1,600 people remained trapped under the rubble, including 900 children.
The spokesman said 73 medics were killed and 25 ambulances destroyed in the Israeli attacks.
“Gaza’s healthcare system went out of service” amid relentless attacks and critical shortages, al-Qudra said.
Amid concerns the Israel-Hamas conflict will spread across the Middle East, Israel’s military said its jets struck Syrian army infrastructure and mortar launchers in response to rockets launched from Iran ally Syria.
The military did not provide further details. It did not accuse Syria’s army of firing the two rockets, which set off air raid sirens in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Citing a military source, Syrian state news agency (SANA) said the Israeli attack killed 8 soldiers and wounded 7 more in an “aerial aggression” near the southwestern city of Deraa.
The United States and Russia are leading international calls for a pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas to allow aid into Gaza where Palestinians are living in harrowing conditions.
US President Joe Biden and Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman spoke by phone on Tuesday and agreed on broader diplomacy “to maintain stability across the region and prevent the conflict from expanding,” the White House said.
Deadly clashes have intensified between the Israeli military and Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, and resurged between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah armed group along the Israeli-Lebanon border.
