Death toll climbs in Israel-Gaza conflict due to France proposes ceasefire
Heavy oxygen strikes and rocket fire on the Israel-Gaza conflict claimed additional lives in both sides Tuesday as calls intensified for a finish to the bloodshed.
A UN Reliability Council meeting broke up without issuing a affirmation, but France then said it had proposed a resolution calling for a ceasefire, in coordination with Israel’s neighbours Egypt and Jordan.
Zhang Jun, Beijing’s ambassador to the UN, told reporters his staff had heard the French ceasefire proposal and China was first “supportive”.
Sporadic bombardment of Gaza city continued just after midnight, with residents held awake as Israeli jets flew low overhead, an AFP correspondent on the besieged coastal strip stated.
Randa Abu Sultan, 45, said her spouse and children no longer knew what rest was.
“We’re all terrified by the audio of explosions, missiles and fighter jets,” said the mother of seven.
“Most of us sit together within a room. My four-year-good old son tells me he’s scared that if he falls asleep he’ll wake up to locate us dead.”
Earlier at night, an AFP photographer saw streaks of light found in the sky just as Israel’s air defence program intercepted rockets launched from Gaza.
Israeli forces and protesters meanwhile clashed at multiple flashpoints over the occupied West Lender and in east Jerusalem, hospitalising scores, as Palestinians rallied on solidarity with their besieged Gazan counterparts.
Dozens were treated for wounds due to live bullets, medics said.
Israeli weather strikes have killed 217 Palestinians, including 63 kids, and wounded a lot more than 1,400 persons in just over weekly in the Hamas-run enclave, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
The death toll on the Israeli side has increased to 12 after rockets Hamas fired at the southern Eshkol region killed two Thai nationals employed in a factory, police said.
Hamas has launched practically 3,700 rockets in Israel since May 10, often forcing persons living by Gaza into bomb shelters night and day.
Israel’s near-relentless bombing advertising campaign in response has sent fireballs, debris and black smoke in to the sky, leaving two million Palestinians in Gaza in need of reprieve.
The humanitarian crisis has deepened in the impoverished strip, with the UN saying 72,000 Palestinians have been displaced.
But a convoy of international aid trucks that began rolling into Gaza through a border crossing from Israel, Kerem Shalom, was halted when Israel quickly shuttered it again, citing a mortar attack on the region.
