Israel strikes refugee camps in central Gaza as US approves new weapons deal

Two refugee camps in Gaza were damaged by airstrikes on Saturday as US President Joe Biden bypassed Congress to approve a new emergency weapons sale to Israel.

The arms deal comes despite persistent international calls for a ceasefire over mounting civilian deaths, hunger and mass displacement in the Gaza Strip.

Since the war, triggered by a surprise attack on southern Israel by Hamas on October 7, some 85% of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced.

Swells of people have been forced to seek shelter in Israeli-designated safe areas that have nevertheless been bombed, leaving Palestinians with a harrowing sense that nowhere is safe.

Health authorities in Gaza said on Saturday that the territory's death toll rose to 21,672, with 56,165 wounded. They said 165 people were killed in the past 24 hours.

The Palestinian Health Ministry does not distinguish between the deaths of combatants and civilians, but has said about 70% of those killed have been women and children.

Some of the latest deaths were reported as Israeli airstrikes targeted the urban refugee camps of Nuseirat and Bureij overnight and into Saturday.

Nuseirat resident Mustafa Abu Wawee said a strike hit the home of one of his relatives, killing two people.

“The (Israeli) occupation is doing everything to force people to leave,” he said over the phone while searching along with others for four people missing under the rubble. “They want to break our spirit and will but they will fail. We are here to stay.”

A second strike late Friday in Nuseirat targeted the home of a journalist for Al-Quds TV, a channel linked to the group Islamic Jihad, whose militants also participated in the October 7 attack. The channel said the journalist, Jaber Abu Hadros and six members of his family were killed.

Bureij resident Rami Abu Mosab said sounds of gunfire echoed across the camp overnight, followed by heavy airstrikes on Saturday.

With Israeli forces pushing deeper into Khan Younis and the camps of central Gaza, tens of thousands of Palestinians streamed into the already crowded city of Rafah at the southernmost end of Gaza in recent days.

Drone footage showed a vast camp of thousands of tents and makeshift shacks set up on what had been empty land on Rafah’s western outskirts next to UN warehouses.

People arrived in Rafah in trucks, in carts and on foot. Those who did not find space in the already overwhelmed shelters put up tents on roadsides slick with mud from winter rains.

Concerns over the scale of suffering in the Palestinian enclave prompted South Africa to launch a case at the United Nation's top court on Friday, accusing Israel of engaging in "genocidal acts".

Its submission to the International Court of Justice says Israel is carrying out these acts with the intent “to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as a part of the broader Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group" and calls for an interim order for it to cease its attack on the strip.

Israel said it has “rejected with disgust” South Africa's allegations, describing them as "blood libel", adding that the case has no legal or factual basis and constitutes a “vile exploitation and cheapening” of the court.

It also accused South Africa of cooperating with Hamas, which is accused of trying to commit genocide in its October 7 attack, which killed 1,200 people and triggered the current war in Gaza.

While the US has said it wants Israel to scale back its offensive, expressing concerns over mounting civilian casualties, it has still shielded its Middle Eastern ally diplomatically and has continued to supply it with weapons.

Israel argues that ending the war now would mean victory for Hamas, a stance shared by the Biden administration.

On Friday the US State Department announced a $147.5 million sale for equipment, including fuses, charges and primers, that is needed for 155 mm shells Israel bought previously.

It marked the second time this month that the Biden administration is bypassing Congress to approve an emergency weapons sale to Israel. The department cited the “urgency of Israel's defensive needs” as a reason for the approval.

Meanwhile President Biden's request for a nearly $106 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and other national security needs remains stalled in Congress, caught up in a debate over US immigration policy and border security.

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International calls for a ceasefire may be consistent, but currently, even a brief halt in fighting seems out of reach.

Speaking in Beirut, a senior Hamas official said the group has not budged from its position that a permanent ceasefire has to be the starting point for any further releases of Israeli and foreign hostages.

More than 100 hostages are still being kept in Gaza, after militant seized more than 240 on October 7. Hamas's demands run counter to a recent proposal by Egypt for a staged end to the war.

Israel is bound to reject calls for a complete ceasefire, having bound to continue with its offensive until it has dismantled Hamas.

Critics have suggested this goal is unattainable, as the military cannot destroy an ideology, and argue its attempts to do so will fuel more radicalisation.

However Israel has insisted it will press on with its goal of wiping out Hamas's fighters and infrastructure in Gaza and to "demilitarise" the territory.

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