Israeli strikes 'kill 57' in Gaza as ultra-Orthodox men face conscription to fight for IDF

Israeli forces have battled Hamas-led fighters in several parts of the Gaza Strip and Palestinian health officials say at least 57 people were killed in Israeli bombardments of southern and central areas.

It comes as the Israel Defence Forces will begin conscripting ultra-Orthodox men for military service on Sunday, the Israeli armed forces said.

The Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas has accused Israel of stepping up attacks in the Gaza Strip to try to derail efforts by Arab mediators and the United States to reach a ceasefire deal.

Israel says it is trying to root out Hamas fighters.

In Rafah, a southern border city where Israeli forces have been operating since May, five Palestinians were killed in an air strike on a house, Gaza health officials said.

In nearby Khan Younis, a man, his wife and two children were killed, they said.

Later on Tuesday, an Israeli air strike on a car killed at least 17 Palestinians and wounded 26 others in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, the officials said.

The air strike hit near a tented area housing displaced families in Attar Street in the humanitarian-designated area of al-Mawasi, the health ministry said.

The Israeli military said the strike targeted a senior militant of the Islamic Jihad group, an ally of Hamas.

“We are looking into the reports stating that several civilians were injured as a result of the strike,” the military statement said.

Reuters footage showed residents carrying bodies of the dead and wounded on donkey carts and in rickshaws to hospitals.

“The car was targeted, the blood was splashing, and shrapnel hit our tents and martyrs were left on the street. We screamed: ‘We need an ambulance’. We put (the casualties) on carts and rickshaws and the ambulance came after a while,” said eyewitness Tahrir Matir, who lives in a tent nearby.

In the historical Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, at least four Palestinians were killed in separate shelling and aerial strikes in central Gaza, medics said.

An Israeli air strike also killed four in Sheikh Zayed in northern Gaza, they said.

Hours later, an Israeli air strike on a United Nations-run school that housed displaced families in the Nuseirat camp killed 23 people and wounded many others, health officials said.

“Where is the safety for (UN) agency schools? There are no more safe agency schools, or safe clinics, no more safe houses, no safe streets. We have been left desolate, displaced and destroyed,” eyewitness Umm Omar Ahmed said at Nuseirat camp.

The Israeli military said in a statement it had attacked a group of “terrorists” who had operated from inside the school, after taking steps to mitigate the risk to civilians.

Israel vowed to eradicate Hamas after its militants killed 1200 people and took more than 250 hostage in an attack on southern Israeli communities on October 7, according to Israeli tallies.

On Tuesday, the military said it had eliminated half of the leadership of Hamas’ military wing, with about 14,000 fighters killed or captured since the start of the war.

At least 38,713 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory offensive since then, Gaza health authorities said in their latest update on Tuesday.

Israel also says 326 of its soldiers have been killed in the Gaza Strip.

Relatives visited al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza to say farewell to relatives before funerals.

“We’re exhausted ... we are extremely tired, our patience is over,” elderly Palestinian Sahar Abu Emeira said.

“Whether Hamas or the others (Israel) they need to agree as soon as possible.”

Efforts to end the conflict stalled on Saturday after three days of negotiations failed to produce a viable outcome, Egyptian security sources said, and after an Israeli strike targeting Hamas’ top military chief, Mohammed Deif.

The Israeli army did not specify the number of individuals it would contact to participate in the selection process for its upcoming military recruitment.

Ultra-Orthodox men had been largely exempted from otherwise mandatory military service in Israel for decades.

But a recent decision by Israel’s highest court ordered the government to include them in conscription.

The court decision ending military service exemptions for the ultra-Orthodox was seen as a major setback for the nationalist-religious coalition backing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Exemptions for Ultra-Orthodox men expired three months ago, and Netanyahu’s government failed to pass a law that would have cemented those exemptions in law.

Many ultra-Orthodox Jews see military service as a threat to their religious lifestyle, in part because men and women serve side by side in the Israeli armed forces.

with DPA