Abdel Karim Hana/AP
DEIR ALBALA, Gaza Strip — Israeli airstrikes killed 20 people, most of them women and children, in central Gaza and across the north on Sunday as Israeli leaders broadcast divisions over who should rule Gaza after a war now in its eighth month. The battle intensified. .
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, along with his main political rival Benny Gantz, faced criticism from his war cabinet as he threatened to leave the government if a plan involving a post-war international administration for Gaza was not formalized by June 8.
U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan was scheduled to meet with Israel's top leaders on Sunday to discuss an ambitious U.S. plan to get Saudi Arabia to recognize Israel and help the Palestinian Authority rule the Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu, who opposes the creation of a Palestinian state, rejected the proposal, saying Israel would maintain open security controls over the Gaza Strip and cooperate with local Palestinians unaffiliated with Hamas or the Western-backed Palestinian Authority.
Gantz's withdrawal would not topple Netanyahu's coalition government, but would make it more dependent on far-right allies who support “voluntary displacement” of Palestinians from Gaza, a full military occupation and the rebuilding of Jewish settlements there.
While discussions about post-war planning are taking on new importance, the war continues to rage with no end in sight. In recent weeks, Hamas has regrouped in northern Gaza, an area bombed early in the war and where Israeli ground forces have already been operating.
The airstrike killed 20 people, including eight women and four children, in Nusseyrat, a Palestinian refugee camp built in central Gaza dating back to the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, according to records from Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Hospital in a nearby town. . Deir al-Balah took over the body.
Five more people were killed in another strike on the streets of Nusseyrat, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Emergency Services. In Deir al-Balah, the strike killed Zahed al-Houli, a senior Hamas-run police official, and another man, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. do.
Palestinians reported more airstrikes and heavy fighting in northern Gaza. Gaza has been largely isolated by Israeli forces for months and the World Food Program (WFP) says famine is underway.
The Civil Defense Corps said the airstrike hit several houses near Kamal Adwan Hospital in the town of Beit Lahiya, killing at least 10 people. Video released by rescue workers showed them trying to pull the woman's body out of the rubble as explosions sounded in the background and smoke billowed.
Residents of the refugee camp in the nearby city of Jabliya reported large-scale shelling and airstrikes.
“The situation is very difficult,” said Abdel-Kareem Radwan, 48, a resident of Jabaliya. He said the entire east had become a combat zone, with Israeli warplanes “attacking everything that moves.”
Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal said rescuers had recovered at least 150 bodies, more than half of them women and children, since Israel began its operation in Jabaliya last week. He said about 300 homes were “completely destroyed.”
Israel launched an offensive following the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, in which Palestinian militants stormed southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting about 250 others.
According to the Gaza Strip's Health Ministry, at least 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war. About 80% of the Palestinian population of 2.3 million have become refugees within the territory, often multiple times.
Israel says it is trying to avoid harming civilians and blames the high death toll and destruction on Hamas, which deploys fighter jets, tunnels and rocket launchers in dense residential areas.
Netanyahu's critics, including thousands of protesters who took to the streets again Saturday, accused him of prolonging the war and rejecting a cease-fire deal that would have released hostages to avoid judgment for security failures that led to the attacks.
Opinion polls show that Gantz, a political centrist, is likely to succeed Netanyahu if early elections are held. If that happens, Netanyahu could be indicted on long-standing corruption charges.
Netanyahu has denied any political motivation and said attacks must continue until Hamas is disbanded and the remains of 100 hostages and more than 30 others held in Gaza are repatriated. He said it was pointless to discuss post-war plans while Hamas was still fighting. Because the militants threatened anyone who collaborated with Israel.
Netanyahu also faces pressure from the United States, Israel's closest ally. The United States, expressing growing dissatisfaction with Israel's conduct of the war, provided vital military support and diplomatic cover for the offensive.
President Joe Biden's administration recently put on hold a shipment of 3,500 bombs weighing up to 2,000 pounds (900 kilograms) each and said the United States would not provide offensive weapons for a full-scale invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, citing humanitarian concerns. He said it would be. denouement.
But last week, after Israel launched a limited operation in Rafah, the administration told lawmakers it would pursue sales of $1 billion worth of weapons, tank ammunition, tactical vehicles and mortar shells.
Prime Minister Sullivan is scheduled to visit Israel on Saturday after meeting with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The administration has been advancing an ambitious plan for Saudi Arabia to recognize Israel and help manage and rebuild the Gaza Strip along with other Arab countries in exchange for American defense agreements and help building a civilian nuclear program.
But U.S. and Saudi officials say the deal requires Israel to agree on a credible path to an eventual Palestinian state, which Netanyahu has repeatedly ruled out.
In his ultimatum, Gantz expressed support for normalizing relations with Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries. But he also said, “We will not allow any external force, friendly or hostile, to impose a Palestinian state on us.”