GAZA—Israel faced mounting international pressure to do more to protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza as the death toll rose and fighting intensified near hospitals.
The number of Palestinians killed during the bombardment of the coastal enclave in the past five weeks rose above 11,000, according to Gaza health officials, as Israeli forces waged war on Hamas terrorists who carried out the deadly Oct. 7 rampage in southern Israel.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters on a visit to India on Friday: “Far too many Palestinians have been killed; far too many have suffered these past weeks.”
But Mr. Blinken reaffirmed U.S. support for Israel’s campaign to ensure that Gaza can no longer be used “as a platform for launching terrorism.”
French President Emmanuel Macron, in a BBC interview published late on Friday, said Israel must stop bombing Gaza and killing civilians. France, he said, “clearly condemns” the “terrorist” actions of Hamas, but that while recognizing Israel’s right to protect itself.
“We do urge them to stop this bombing,” Mr. Macron said.
In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said world leaders should be condemning Hamas, and not Israel. “These crimes that Hamas [is] committing today in Gaza will be committed tomorrow in Paris, New York, and anywhere in the world,” he said.
Israel has said that Hamas terrorists, who are holding as many as 240 hostages taken in last month’s attack, would exploit a truce to regroup if there were a ceasefire.
Iran backs both Hamas and Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian terrorist group in Gaza, as well as Hezbollah, a terrorist group based in Lebanon.
Overcrowded Hospitals Hit by Explosions, Gunfire
Fighting intensified overnight into Saturday near Gaza City’s overcrowded hospitals, which Palestinian officials said were hit by explosions and gunfire.“Israel is now launching a war on Gaza City hospitals,” said Mohammad Abu Selmeyah, director of Al Shifa hospital.
Gaza officials said missiles landed in a courtyard of Al Shifa, the enclave’s biggest hospital, in the early hours of Friday, damaged the Indonesian Hospital, and reportedly set fire to the Nasser Rantissi paediatric cancer hospital.
Israel’s military said later that a misfired projectile launched by Palestinian gunmen in Gaza had hit Shifa.
The hospitals, filled with displaced people as well as patients and medical staff, are in northern Gaza, where Israel says the Hamas terrorists are concentrated.
Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy said the Hamas headquarters was in Shifa Hospital’s basement, which meant the facility could lose its protected status and become a legitimate target.
Israel says Hamas hides weapons in tunnels under hospitals. Hamas denies that.
‘No One Is Safe’
Israeli tanks have taken up positions around the Nasser Rantissi hospital as well as the Al-Quds hospital, medical staff said earlier.Israeli army spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht said at a briefing the army “does not fire on hospitals. If we see Hamas terrorists firing from hospitals we’ll do what we need to do. We’re aware of the sensitivity [of hospitals], but again, if we see Hamas terrorists, we’ll kill them.”
Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan said Israel had created a task force to establish hospitals in southern Gaza. On Oct. 12, Israel ordered some 1.1 million people in Gaza to move south ahead of its ground invasion.
Hamas-controlled Palestinian officials said on Friday that 11,078 Gaza residents had been killed in air and artillery strikes since Oct. 7.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said about 1,200 people had been killed, mostly civilians, in the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, a revision of an earlier death toll, although it added that might change again once all bodies were identified.
Israel has also said 39 soldiers have been killed in combat since Oct. 7.
