PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES, March 25 ------ Heavy fighting raged in Gaza as Israel has vowed to push on with its ground war in the territory's far south despite US objections and truce talks.
UN chief Antonio Guterres said "horror and starvation stalk the people of Gaza" and urged an immediate ceasefire and the release of all hostages held since October 7. The health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said another 84 people had been killed over the past 24 hours, raising the total death toll in the nearly six-month-old war to 32,226. Combat has flared for almost a week in and around Gaza's biggest hospital complex, Al-Shifa, which has been a refuge for patients and displaced people and where Israel says Hamas and Islamic Jihad group militants have been hiding out. Hamas also said Israel had launched more than 60 airstrikes as well as artillery bombardment on Gaza City, the southern urban center of Khan Yunis and other areas. Israel's military said fighter jets had struck about 65 targets "including a terror tunnel used to carry out attacks, military compounds where armed terrorists operated and additional military infrastructure".
In Gaza's far-southern Rafah city, local resident Hassan Zanoun looked sadly at the remains of his building, reduced to a jumble of broken concrete and rubble by an airstrike. "My children and I were sleeping here," he told AFP. "I was surprised, we didn't hear the sound of a rocket and suddenly everything was unleashed over our heads... strikes, screams. "I got out from under the rubble, and my daughters got out from under the rubble too. What more can I say? Our neighbors are injured, we too are injured, the houses have collapsed over our heads." Israel has faced ever greater global scrutiny and opposition to its military campaign as Palestinian civilian deaths have soared and its siege has brought widespread malnutrition and hunger.
Guterres urged an end to the "non-stop nightmare" endured by Gaza's 2.4 million people in a visit on Saturday to the Egyptian border with the coastal territory. He said "nothing justifies" either the October 7 attack or the "collective punishment" of Palestinians, and demanded Israel allow vastly more aid into Gaza. Writing on social media platform X, he said "horror and starvation stalk the people of Gaza. Any further onslaught will make everything worse. Worse for Palestinian civilians, for the hostages, for all people of the region. "It's more than time for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire & the immediate release of all hostages."
Source: news.abs-cbn.com
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