Israel strikes southern Gaza, faces calls to reduce civilian toll

Israel kept up its barrage of the Gaza Strip on Thursday despite intensifying international calls to reduce civilian casualties and address a mounting humanitarian catastrophe.

In central Rafah, in the south of the coastal enclave, 24 people were killed in an Israeli strike that hit two houses, Hamas media said early on Thursday. There was no immediate confirmation from the Palestinian health ministry.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, who is visiting the region and will be in Israel on Thursday and Friday, would discuss with the Israelis the need to be more precise with their strikes against Hamas targets, spokesperson John Kirby told reporters.

Sullivan met with officials of Saudi Arabia on Wednesday and discussed “broader diplomatic efforts to maintain stability across the region and prevent the Israel-Hamas conflict from expanding,” another U.S. official said.

Nearly half of the air-to-ground munitions that Israel has used in Gaza in its war with Hamas since Oct. 7 have been unguided, otherwise known as “dumb bombs,” according to a new U.S. intelligence assessment.

Israel says its bombardment and ground offensive in Gaza is aimed at annihilating Hamas, the group whose fighters stormed across the border fence from Gaza on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, and seizing 240 hostages.

Since then, Israel has laid much of the Palestinian enclave to waste. At least 18,608 people have been killed and 50,594 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

The coastal strip is now facing a public health disaster due to the collapse of its health system and the spread of disease, the U.N. humanitarian office said.

“We’ve got a textbook formula for epidemics and a public health disaster,” said Lynn Hastings, the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory.