An Israeli airstrike hit a house in the city of Rafah on the southern edge of Gaza, killing at least eight people, including four women and a child, according to Health Ministry officials in Hamas-ruled Gaza.
The attack brings to 92 the total number of Palestinians killed by shelling in the last 24 hours, the Health Ministry said.
It was also reported that the total number of dead in almost five months of war rose to 29,606 and the total number of wounded to almost 70,000.
Although the ministry’s death toll does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, it has said that two-thirds of those killed were children and women.
Search and rescue teams search for injured and dead Palestinians after Israeli forces attacked a building and its surroundings in Rafah, Gaza.
People gather in front of a building destroyed in the Rafah airstrike. At least eight people died
Palestinians help a man injured after the bombing in Rafah. Four women and a child are said to have been murdered.
Meanwhile, Israel claimed its troops have killed more than 10,000 Hamas fighters, but has not provided details.
Independent journalists saw the bodies of those killed in the airstrike at the Abu Youssef al-Najjar hospital.
Israel declared war after the deadly Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel in which Hamas terrorists killed about 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages.
More than 100 hostages remain captive in Gaza.
The rising number of civilian deaths and the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza have amplified calls for a ceasefire.
Famine and infectious diseases are spreading and around 80 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced, with around 1.4 million crammed into Rafah, on the border with Egypt.
‘There are suffocating and skyrocketing prices. It’s terrifying,” said Hassan Attwa, a displaced man from Gaza City now sheltering in a tent on the sands of Mawasi in the south.
‘There is no source of income. The area is very overcrowded, the garbage, God bless them, is not collected at all. He stays in a pile.
‘It becomes a mess and clay when it rains. The situation is disastrous in every sense of the word.’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to fight until “complete victory” but sent a delegation to Paris to seek the release of the hostages in exchange for a temporary truce.
Negotiators face major differences and an unofficial deadline: the start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan around March 10.
It comes as Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said he would not give up his “dignity for falsehood” amid calls for him to retract recent comments he made accusing Israel of genocide.
The president compared Israel’s conduct in Gaza to the Nazi Holocaust, in which six million Jews and others perished during World War II.
Palestinian artist Mahmoud Zuaiter inspects the ruins of his house after an airstrike on the house in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, on February 24.
Medics transport a body to al-Najjar hospital in Rafah following an Israeli airstrike on the Rafah refugee camp.
“What the Israeli government is doing is not war, it is genocide,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “They are murdering children and women.”
In response to Lula’s initial comments, Israel declared him persona non grata, summoned Brazil’s ambassador and demanded an apology.
Lula then called the Brazilian ambassador to Israel for consultations.
Last month, South Africa brought a landmark case to the International Court of Justice, accusing Israel of genocide against the Palestinians.
The court issued a preliminary order two weeks later, ordering Israel to do everything possible to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide in Gaza.
Israel, created in part as a refuge for Holocaust survivors, has accused South Africa of hypocrisy.
South Africa has compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in Gaza to its treatment of black South Africans during apartheid, framing the issues primarily around oppressed people in their homeland.
Brazil’s president alleged Saturday that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians, doubling down on his harsh rhetoric after sparking controversy a week ago by comparing Israel’s military offensive in Gaza to the Nazi Holocaust.
Palestinians monitor the destruction after an Israeli attack in Rafah, Gaza Strip, on February 24.
More destruction caused by Israeli attacks in Rafah. Israel claimed its troops have killed more than 10,000 Hamas fighters, but has not provided details.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (pictured) compared Israel to the Nazis
Israel has vehemently rejected accusations of genocide made at the UN’s top court and elsewhere, saying its war targets the Hamas militant group, not the Palestinian people.
It has blamed Hamas for civilian deaths, arguing that the group operates from civilian areas.
An Israeli delegation returned from a meeting in Paris with negotiators from the United States, Egypt and Qatar to try to reach an agreement on a pause in fighting, an Israeli official said.
The delegation was expected to meet senior Cabinet members on Saturday, the official said on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Egypt and Qatar are mediators between Israel and Hamas.