Pakistan on Saturday condemned Israel’s killing of Palestinians in Gaza as fresh violence continued on second day, ending more than a year of relative calm along the border.
In a tweet, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the martyrdom of 10 Palestinians, including a five-year-old girl in Gaza, is the latest act of Israeli terrorism. “If impunity and barbarism had a face, it would have been that of Israel, which has targeted Palestinians without any care for consequences. Pakistan strongly condemns Israeli airstrikes,” he stated. On the other hand, Israel’s military warned Saturday deadly air strikes against Palestinian fighters in Gaza could last a week, as cross-border fire reverberated for a second day in the worst escalation since last year’s war.
Israel has said it was necessary to launch a “pre-emptive” operation against Islamic Jihad, alleging that the group was planning an imminent attack following days of tensions along the border with Gaza. Health authorities in the Palestinian enclave, which is controlled by the Islamist group Hamas, said a five-year-old girl was among 15 people killed in the Israeli bombardment, adding that more than 120 have been wounded.
Civilians meanwhile took refuge in air raid shelters on the Israeli side, with AFP journalists hearing sirens warning of incoming fire in the Tel Aviv area on Saturday evening.
Israel’s ongoing strikes are being met with barrages of rockets from the Palestinian side, stoking fears of a repeat of an 11-day conflict that devastated Gaza in May 2021. Daily life in the enclave has come to a standstill, while the electricity distributor said the sole power station shut down due to a lack of fuel after Israel closed its border crossings.
Gaza’s health ministry said the next few hours will be “crucial and difficult”, warning it risked suspending vital services within 72 hours as a result of the lack of electricity.
There have been no reports of Israelis wounded by rockets, though officials said a home was hit and land was set ablaze by income fire near the border.
An Israeli military spokesman said its forces were “preparing for the operation to last a week,” and told AFP that the army is “not currently holding ceasefire negotiations”. Islamic Jihad’s leader in Gaza, Mohammed al-Hindi, said: “The battle is still at its beginning.”
Mohammed Abu Salameh, the director of Shifa, Gaza City’s main hospital, said medics are facing “acute shortages of medical supplies”.
The UN humanitarian chief for the occupied Palestinian territories, Lynn Hastings, urged the warring sides to allow “fuel, food, and medical supplies” to be delivered to Gaza amid the worsening crisis. On Friday, the health ministry reported “a five-year-old girl” was among those killed by Israeli fire.
The girl, Alaa Kaddum, had a pink bow in her hair and a wound on her forehead, as her body was carried by her father at her funeral.
Israeli military spokesman Richard Hecht said Friday “we are assuming about 15 killed in action” in Gaza, referring to Palestinian combatants.
