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Agence France-Presse

<div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/171128513799612117330 (1).jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Demonstrators light a fire on a road during a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu&#x27;s government and to demand the release of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, outside the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv, Israel, March 23, 2024. Atef Safadi, EPA-EFE"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Demonstrators light a fire on a road during a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu&#x27;s government and to demand the release of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, outside the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv, Israel, March 23, 2024. <em>Atef Safadi, EPA-EFE</em></span></span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES -- Heavy fighting raged in Gaza on Sunday as Israel has vowed to push on with its ground war in the territory&#x27;s far south despite US objections and truce talks.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">UN chief Antonio Guterres said &quot;horror and starvation stalk the people of Gaza&quot; and urged an immediate ceasefire and the release of all hostages held since October 7.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/world/2024/3/23/un-chief-to-visit-gaza-border-as-israel-vows-rafah-attack-1539"></a><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/world/2024/3/23/un-chief-to-visit-gaza-border-as-israel-vows-rafah-attack-1539">READ: UN chief to visit Gaza border as Israel vows Rafah attack</a></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">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.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Combat has flared for almost a week in and around Gaza&#x27;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.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">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.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Israel&#x27;s military said fighter jets had struck about 65 targets &quot;including a terror tunnel used to carry out attacks, military compounds where armed terrorists operated and additional military infrastructure&quot;.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">In Gaza&#x27;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.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">&quot;My children and I were sleeping here,&quot; he told AFP. &quot;I was surprised, we didn&#x27;t hear the sound of a rocket and suddenly everything was unleashed over our heads... strikes, screams.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">&quot;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.&quot;</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">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.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Guterres urged an end to the &quot;non-stop nightmare&quot; endured by Gaza&#x27;s 2.4 million people in a visit on Saturday to the Egyptian border with the coastal territory.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">He said &quot;nothing justifies&quot; either the October 7 attack or the &quot;collective punishment&quot; of Palestinians, and demanded Israel allow vastly more aid into Gaza.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Writing on social media platform X, he said &quot;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.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">&quot;It&#x27;s more than time for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire &amp; the immediate release of all hostages.&quot;</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/world/2024/3/20/blinken-tours-mideast-as-israel-hamas-war-pushes-gaza-towards-famine-006"></a><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/world/2024/3/20/blinken-tours-mideast-as-israel-hamas-war-pushes-gaza-towards-famine-006">READ: Blinken tours Mideast as Israel-Hamas war pushes Gaza towards famine</a></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><strong>- US-Israel tensions -</strong></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CDnlX3oouRs?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The bloodiest ever Gaza war was sparked by the unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7 that resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Israel has vowed to destroy the militants, who also seized about 250 hostages, of whom Israel believes around 130 remain in Gaza, including 33 presumed dead.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Relatives and supporters of the hostages, demanding greater efforts to bring them home, rallied Saturday outside the defense ministry in Tel Aviv in a protest that saw scuffles between demonstrators and police.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Tensions have grown between Israel and its traditional top ally the United States, which has called for greater efforts to alleviate the humanitarian crisis.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The main flashpoint is Israel&#x27;s plan to push its ground invasion into Rafah city on the Egyptian border, where some 1.5 million Palestinians are living, mostly in overcrowded shelters.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Washington has made clear it would not support an Israeli attack on Rafah without a plan to protect civilians there.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned that &quot;a major ground operation there would mean more civilian deaths, it would worsen the humanitarian crisis&quot;.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu argued that &quot;we have no way to defeat Hamas without getting into Rafah and eliminating the battalions that are left there&quot;.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Netanyahu added he had told Blinken that &quot;I hope to do that with the support of the United States, but if we need to, we will do it alone&quot;.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant was to head to Washington Sunday to discuss the war with Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin and other senior US defense officials.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/world/2024/3/20/gazans-in-jabalia-crowd-receive-ramadan-meal-1710"></a><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/world/2024/3/20/gazans-in-jabalia-crowd-receive-ramadan-meal-1710">WATCH: Gazans in Jabalia crowd receive Ramadan meal</a></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><strong>- Hospital battle -</strong></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VZEJMlVnLaU?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">US intelligence chief Bill Burns and his Israeli counterpart David Barnea departed Doha late Saturday following talks on a temporary truce in Gaza and a hostage exchange, a source briefed on the talks told AFP.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The latest negotiations &quot;focused on details and a ratio for the exchange of hostages and prisoners&quot;, the source said, adding that technical teams remained in Qatar.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">A major sticking point has been Hamas&#x27;s position that a temporary truce must lead to a permanent Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, a demand Israel has rejected.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">A Hamas official with knowledge of the talks said on Saturday that &quot;there is a deep divergence in positions in the negotiations&quot; in Doha.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The official said Israel &quot;refuses to agree on a comprehensive ceasefire and refuses the complete withdrawal of its forces from Gaza&quot;.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Deadly fighting meanwhile rocked Gaza, where Hamas reported 21 deaths on Saturday at an aid distribution point on the outskirts of Gaza City.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Hamas said they were killed by Israeli &quot;tank fire and shells&quot;, while the Israeli army denied it had fired on the crowd.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Israeli forces also pressed on with their offensive in and around the Al-Shifa hospital complex.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The army said it had avoided harm to civilians and medics, but the UN humanitarian office OCHA said &quot;health workers have been among those reported arrested and detained&quot;.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The Hamas government media office said 190 people had been killed in the operation, and 30 nearby buildings destroyed.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The army said more than 170 militants had been killed.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">It also said troops had &quot;apprehended approximately 480 terrorists affiliated with the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations, and have located weapons and terrorist infrastructure in the hospital&quot;.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;text-align:justify;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:10pt"><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/world/2024/3/20/aircrafts-drop-aid-into-gaza-as-fighting-continues-029"></a><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/world/2024/3/20/aircrafts-drop-aid-into-gaza-as-fighting-continues-029">WATCH: Aircrafts drop aid into Gaza as fighting continues</a></span></div><div><br/></div>

<p>Heavy fighting raged in Gaza on Sunday as Israel has vowed to push on with its ground war in the territory's far south despite US objections and truce talks.</p>

Heavy fighting raged in Gaza on Sunday as Israel has vowed to push on with its ground war in the territory's far south despite US objections and truce talks.

Gaza fighting rages as UN chief decries 'horror and starvation'

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Gaza fighting rages as UN chief decries 'horror and starvation'

Agence France-Presse,

Adel Zaanoun with Joshua Melvin in Jerusalem

Published March 24, 2024 09:05 PM PHT

Read More:

Israel

Gaza

Hamas

Palestine

Israel-Hamas War

United Nations

Antonio Guterres

Al-Shifa

Rafah

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