Israeli bombing martyrs over 4,651 Palestinians mostly civilians.

Israel tells Gazans to move south or risk being seen as ‘terrorist’ partner

Arab leaders reject forced dispossession of Palestinian people,

Gaza_Israel has launched heavy bombardment of the Gaza Strip in retaliation, which has martyred more than 4,651 Palestinians, mostly civilians including over 1,000 children, according to the Gaza health ministry.

As fears mount of a wider conflagration, the Pentagon said it was bolstering its forces in the Middle East to “assist in the defence” of US ally Israel amid “escalations by Iran and its proxy forces” across the region.

A first trickle of aid entered the besieged Gaza Strip on Saturday, but the 20 trucks permitted to cross were described as a “drop in the ocean” given the “catastrophic” humanitarian situation for 2.4 million people.

It was the worst attack on civilians in Israel’s history and coincided with the end of the religious holiday of Sukkot.

The retaliatory bombing campaign has killed more than 4,300 Palestinians, mainly civilians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, and reduced swathes of densely populated Gaza to smouldering ruins.

More than 40 percent of all Gaza’s housing has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN citing local authorities, and Israel has halted the delivery of food, water, fuel and electricity.

Israel has massed tens of thousands of troops around the enclave for a widely predicted ground invasion. It says its daily raids have already killed many Hamas leaders and military commanders.

Israel will now intensify its bombardment to minimise the risks to its troops when they begin a ground invasion, military spokesman Admiral Daniel Hagari said on Saturday.

Israel has warned more than one million residents of northern Gaza to move south for their safety, and the UN says more than half the enclave’s population is now internally displaced.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians are believed to remain in and around Gaza City in the north, unwilling or unable to leave.

Palestinians said they had received renewed warnings from Israel’s military to move from north Gaza to the south of the strip, with the added warning that they could be identified as sympathisers with a “terrorist organisation” if they stayed put.

The message was delivered in leaflets marked with the Israel Defense Forces name and logo from Saturday and sent to people via mobile phone audio messages across the Gaza Strip, a narrow territory that is just 45 km (28 miles) long.

“Urgent warning, to residents of Gaza. Your presence north of Wadi Gaza puts your life in danger. Whoever chooses not to leave north Gaza to the south of Wadi Gaza might be identified as an accomplice in a terrorist organisation,” the leaflet said.

Israel has pounded Gaza with airstrikes since the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a deadly attack on Israeli soil on Oct. 7. Israel has massed troops and armour on the border with Gaza ahead of an expected land incursion.

Israel has previously warned Palestinians to move south, although Palestinians said they had not previously been told they could be considered “terrorist” sympathisers if they did not. They also say making the journey south remains highly risky amid airstrikes and say areas of the south have also been hit.

Many families who left Gaza to the south said they had lost relatives during the Israeli airstrikes in southern Gaza.

Earlier,

Arab leaders attending the Cairo Summit for Peace rejected the forced dispossession of Palestinian people and called for international pressure to stop Israeli aggression in Gaza.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated that force could not be used to remove Palestinians from their land.

“We will never accept relocation, we will remain on our land whatever the challenges,” he said.

Jordan’s King Abdullah also called forced dispossession a ‘war crime’ and strongly denounced the international silence on Israel’s attacks against Gaza.

“The message the Arab world is hearing is that Palestinian lives matter less than Israeli ones,” the king said.

Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan also denounced the ‘selectivity’ of intrnational ators in condemning atrocities and called for actions to ‘bind’ Israel to humanitarian law.

“I call on the international community to press Israel to lift the siege of Gaza,” Farhan said.

Organised by Egypt, the summit brought together representatives of Arab states as well as multiple European foreign ministers. However, the United States only sent its chargé d’affaires in Cairo.

UK’s foreign secretary James Cleverly said that his government had asked Israel to preserve civilian lives in Gaza.

“Despite the incredibly difficult circumstances, I have called for discipline and professionalism and restraint from the Israeli military,” he added.

France’s foreign minister called for a humanitarian corridor into Gaza that could lead to a ceasefire.

Israel has pounded Gaza with airstrikes after Hamas attacked it on October 7. After 1,400 Israeli deaths, above 4,000 people have been killed in Israeli air strikes in the densely populated strip.