GAZA: Battles and bombardment pounded the Gaza Strip on Thursday after Washington said the Zionist entity had agreed to reschedule talks that had been canceled amid tensions between the allies. The Zionist military said it struck dozens of militant targets including tunnels over the previous day, and the health ministry in Gaza reported at least 62 more deaths over a similar period.

The United States’ criticism of Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has mounted over Gaza’s civilian death toll, dire food shortages, and Zionist plans to push its ground offensive against Hamas militants into Rafah. Gaza’s far-southern city is crowded with displaced civilians and world leaders have warned against a Rafah offensive.

They fear it would worsen a catastrophic humanitarian situation for the Palestinian territory’s 2.4 million residents, many of whom are sheltering in Rafah along the Egyptian border. The United Nations reported late Wednesday that famine “is ever closer to becoming a reality in northern Gaza,” and said the territory’s health system is collapsing “due to ongoing hostilities and access constraints”.

Bombardment and fighting have not eased despite a binding UN Security Council resolution passed on Monday demanding an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza and the release of hostages held by militants. Netanyahu had scrapped a Zionist delegation’s visit called by Washington to discuss the Rafah plan — a protest after the United States had abstained from voting on the UN ceasefire resolution, allowing it to pass.

The Zionist government has since backtracked. White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said the Zionist entity had agreed “to reschedule the meeting dedicated to Rafah”. US officials say they plan to present the Zionist entity with an alternative for Rafah, focused on striking Hamas targets while limiting the civilian toll.

Even without a ground invasion, Rafah is under regular bombardment that on Wednesday left the city’s Al-Kuwaiti Hospital coping with the wounded and the dead. A motorcycle cart roared up with a man lying motionless in the back, part of his pants soaked with blood. The Zionist entity’s campaign has killed at least 32,552 people, most of them women and children, according to the latest toll issued Thursday by the health ministry in Gaza.

The Zionist entity has launched raids on and near several Gaza hospitals since the war began, saying fighters have used them as bases. Palestinian militants deny such accusations. Troops began raiding Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City early last week, and on Wednesday night carried out an air strike.

The UN has reported “intensive exchanges of fire between the (Zionist) military and armed Palestinians”. It cited the health ministry as saying the army has confined Al-Shifa medical staff and patients to one building, not allowing them to leave.

Al-Amal Hospital “has ceased to function completely”, the Palestine Red Crescent said earlier this week, following the evacuation of civilians from the medical center. Zionist tanks and armored vehicles have also massed around another Khan Yunis facility, Nasser Hospital, the health ministry said, adding that shots were fired but no raid had begun.

The Zionist entity denies it is blocking aid trucks but only around 150 vehicles a day are entering the Gaza Strip, compared with at least 500 before the war, according to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. With limited ground access, several nations have begun aid airdrops, and a sea corridor from Cyprus has delivered its first cargo of food. UN agencies said these are no substitute for land deliveries.

Desperate crowds have rushed towards sustenance drifting down on parachutes, and Hamas on Tuesday said 18 people drowned or died in stampedes trying to recover airdropped aid. Talks in Qatar towards a new truce and hostage release deal, involving US and Egyptian mediators, have brought no result halfway through the holy month of Ramadan.

US criticism has mounted but President Joe Biden has made clear he will not use his key point of leverage — cutting US military assistance to the Zionist entity, which amounts to billions of dollars. Netanyahu, who leads a coalition including religious and ultra-nationalist parties, faces ongoing protests over his failure to bring home all of the captives.

Alongside the bloodiest-ever Gaza war, violence has surged in the Zionist-occupied West Bank, where medics and the army said three people were wounded in a gun attack Thursday. The war has raised fears of wider regional conflict, particularly along the Zionist-Lebanon border. Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement on Wednesday announced the deaths of eight of its members after a day of cross-border fire with the Zionist entity that left at least 16 people dead.

Zionistfirst responders said they pronounced a man dead in a Zionistborder town, after Hezbollah rocket fire followed a Zionist strike on what its military called a “military compound” in southern Lebanon. Both Hezbollah and Hamas are backed by Iran, the Zionist entity’s archenemy. – AFP