GAZA: European countries ramped up pressure on the Zionist entity to abandon its intensified campaign in Gaza and let more aid into the war-ravaged territory, where rescuers said fresh attacks killed dozens of people on Tuesday. Yair Golan, former deputy chief of staff of the Zionist military and current leader of the opposition center-left Democrats party, told local Kan Radio that the Zionist entity risked becoming a pariah state. “A sane country does not engage in combat against civilians, does not kill babies as a hobby, and does not pursue goals of population expulsion,” he said.

A spokesman said on Tuesday that the UN had received permission to send “around 100” trucks of aid into Gaza after nine were authorized the day before. An AFP journalist saw five trucks entering the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza from the Zionist side on Tuesday. UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said that the trucks allowed in on Monday were “a drop in the ocean of what is urgently needed”. Fletcher told the BBC on Tuesday that 14,000 babies could die in the next 48 hours if aid did not reach them in time.

Kuwait’s ministry of foreign affairs expressed on Tuesday condemned the Zionist occupation’s targeting of Hamad Hospital in the Gaza Strip, saying the act was a blatant violation of international and humanitarian laws and norms.

The ministry warned of the deliberate military escalation carried out by the Zionist occupation, which is committing systematic war crimes against the Palestinian people without any repercussions or accountability. The ministry added the international community, the UN Security Council and affiliated institutions must take responsibility to ensure that humanitarian aid and food immediately reach Gazans, who deserve to live in dignity and peace.

The dire humanitarian situation in the Strip has prompted an international outcry, with Sweden saying it would press the European Union to level sanctions against Zionist ministers. “Since we do not see a clear improvement for the civilians in Gaza, we need to raise the tone further,” Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said Tuesday.

Elsewhere, Britain suspended free-trade negotiations with the Zionist entity, summoned the Zionist ambassador and said it was imposing sanctions on settlers in the occupied West Bank over “egregious policies”, in its toughest actions so far against the Zionist entity’s conduct of the war. “The world is judging, history will judge them,” Foreign Secretary David Lammy said in an impassioned speech to parliament.

“Blocking aid, expanding the war, dismissing the concerns of your friends and partners. This is indefensible and it must stop. It is extremism. It is dangerous. It is repellent. It is monstrous, and I condemn it in the strongest possible terms,” a visibly angry Lammy told lawmakers, adding the operation in Gaza was “incompatible with the principles that underpin our bilateral relationship”. “Today, I’m announcing that we have suspended negotiations with this (Zionist) government on a new free trade agreement.”

The European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said on Tuesday that there would be a review of the EU’s trade agreement with the Zionist entity amid the “catastrophic” situation in Gaza. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, speaking in parliament, welcomed the EU decision and said 17 out of the 27 member states had backed the move. EU sanctions on violent Zionist settlers have been prepared but have so far been blocked by one member state, Kallas said, without naming the country.

France is “determined” to recognize a Palestinian state, Barrot said on Tuesday, condemning the Zionist entity for the “indefensible” situation in Gaza created by its military campaign and humanitarian blockade. He also reaffirmed that Paris backed a Netherlands-led initiative for a review of the cooperation agreement between the European Union and the Zionist entity, which could affect political and economic ties. “We cannot leave the children of Gaza a legacy of violence and hatred. So all this must stop, and that’s why we are determined to recognize a Palestinian state,” Barrot told France Inter radio. Britain, along with Canada and France, had previously warned of “concrete actions” if the Zionist entity did not ease its offensive and allow more aid in.

The Zionist army stepped up its offensive at the weekend, vowing to defeat Gaza rulers Hamas. Strikes overnight and early Tuesday left at least 55 dead, mostly children and women, as well as dozens of wounded, civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP. Bassal said 15 people were killed when a gas station was hit near the Nuseirat refugee camp and 12 others in a strike on a house in Deir el-Balah, both in central Gaza.

Eight people were killed in a strike on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza City, further north, he added. At the bombarded gas station, Nuseirat resident Mahmoud Al-Louh carried a cloth bag of body parts to a vehicle. “They are civilians, children who were sleeping. What was their fault?” he told AFP.

Negotiators from the Zionist entity and Hamas began a new round of indirect talks in Doha over the weekend aimed at securing a new agreement. But Qatar, which has been involved in mediation efforts throughout the war, said on Tuesday that the Zionist offensive had undermined the chances of a ceasefire. “This irresponsible, aggressive behavior undermines any potential chance for peace,” Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani said.

A source close to Hamas said on Tuesday that Israel’s delegation “has not held any real negotiations since last Sunday”. “Negotiations are currently stalled due to Netanyahu’s systematic policy of obstruction and the disruption of any opportunity to move towards an agreement on prisoner exchange and a ceasefire,” the source told AFP, adding the “US administration has not exerted sufficient pressure” on the Zionist entity.

Gaza’s health ministry said Tuesday at least 3,427 people have been killed since the Zionist entity resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,573. In Gaza City, Reuters footage showed men, women and children sifting through the rubble of the Daraj neighborhood school where they had been sheltering, and where charred pieces of clothing and a red teddy bear lay among scattered belongings. At the nearby Al-Ahli Hospital men performed prayers over bodies wrapped in white shrouds, before carrying them to their graves.

“What is our fault? What is the fault of children? What is the fault of the women we found on the stairs with their hair and clothes torn and burned?” said Omar Ahel, who had been sheltering at the school. “By God, this is injustice.” Outside a Khan Yunis hospital, Younis Abu Sahloul said his brother, sister-in-law, and their four children were killed in an airstrike that hit a nearby camp sheltering displaced Palestinians without warning.

Responding to criticism, Golan said on X that he was trying to sound the alarm on the direction he believed the Zionist entity was headed. The government’s war plans are “the realization of the fantasies of (Itamar) Ben Gvir and (Bezalel) Smotrich”, Golan said, referring to two far-right ministers. “If we allow them to realise them, we will become a pariah state,” the leftwing politician said. – Agencies