Gaza City (Palestine): Israel has killed 36 Palestinians including 11 children in Gaza during its ongoing attack on the strip that has been under siege for several years. Five more people were killed in Gaza on Sunday evening, the Gaza health ministry said, amid reports of a ceasefire. "Thirty-six martyrs, among them 11 children and four women, and 311 injured," the ministry said.
UN Human Rights, in a tweet on Sunday evening, confirmed that 32 Palestinians had been killed so far minutes before the death of five more people was reported. The UN body, as it has been historically witnessed, adopted a 'pulling-my-punches' approach asking both Israel and Palestinian armed groups to respect International Humanitarian Law to protect civilians.
"Gaza: Alarm at high level of civilian casualties on blockaded strip w/ ongoing escalation since Friday. Of 32 Palestinians killed, we verified at least 10 civilians, incl. 6 children. Israel and Palestinian armed groups must respect IHL principles to protect civilians," reads the UN Human Rights tweet. Meanwhile, Israel on Sunday agreed to an Egyptian proposed truce with Palestinian authorities in Gaza after three days of intense conflict, an Egyptian source said, according to AFP.
The negotiations raise hopes that Egypt could help broker a deal to end the worst fighting in Gaza since an 11-day war last year devastated the impoverished coastal territory, home to some 2.3 million Palestinians. Since Friday, Israel has carried out heavy aerial and artillery bombardment of Islamic Jihad positions in Gaza, with the militants firing hundreds of rockets in retaliation.
At least 32 Palestinians have been killed including six children, and 275 people have been wounded since Friday, health authorities said in the enclave where several buildings were reduced to rubble. Two Israelis have been wounded by shrapnel, and others forced to shelter from a barrage of rockets fired from Gaza. Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has said officials were talking with both sides "around the clock" to ease the violence. A security source in Cairo said that Israel "has accepted" a ceasefire, adding that Cairo was waiting for the Palestinian response.
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In Gaza, run by the Islamist group Hamas, the health ministry said 31 people had been killed. But Israel said it had "irrefutable" evidence that a stray rocket fired by Islamic Jihad, an Iran-backed group designated as a terrorist organisation by several Western nations, was responsible for the deaths of several children in Gaza's northern Jabalia area on Saturday.
'Killing and wounding'
Daily life in the Gaza Strip has come to a standstill, with the sole power station shut down due to a lack of fuel after Israel closed its border crossings. The United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA has warned of the "severe risk" to the "continuation of basic essential services". "Each day we wake up to child and women martyrs... there is killing and wounding and people displaced," said Gaza City resident Abu Mohammed al-Madhoun, 56. "We hope that Israeli aggression will end".
In southern and central Israel, civilians were forced into air raid shelters. Two people were hospitalised with shrapnel wounds and 13 others lightly hurt while running for safety, the Magen David Adom emergency service said. "It's tense, it's frightening," said Beverly Jamil, a resident of Ashkelon close to Gaza. "Ashkelon's a ghost town -- it's a holiday, kids should be out playing." (Agency inputs)
