It's raining bombs as Israel pounds Gaza

Khan Younis: Israel bombed areas of southern Gaza where it had told Palestinians to flee to ahead of an expected ground invasion, killing dozens of people on Tuesday in attacks it says are targeted at Hamas militants that rule the besieged territory.

With no water, fuel or food being delivered to Gaza since Hamas' brutal attack on Israel last week, mediators struggled to break a deadlock over delivering supplies to increasingly desperate civilians, aid groups and hospitals.

US President Joe Biden prepared to head to the region as he and other world leaders tried to prevent the war from sparking a broader regional conflict.

Violence flared on Tuesday along Israel's border with Lebanon, where Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants operate. In Gaza, dozens of injured were rushed to hospitals after heavy attacks outside the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis, residents reported.

Basem Naim, a senior Hamas official and former health minister, reported 27 people were killed in Rafah and 30 in Khan Younis. An Associated Press reporter saw around 50 bodies brought to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.

Family members came to claim the bodies, wrapped in white bedsheets, some soaked in blood. A strike in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza killed a top Hamas commander, Ayman Nofal, the group's military wing said — the most high-profile militant known to have been killed so far in the war.

Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed at least 2,778 people and wounded 9,700, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Nearly twothirds of those killed were children, a ministry official said.

Another 1,200 people across Gaza are believed to be buried under the rubble, alive or dead, health authorities said.

More than 1 million Palestinians have fled their homes — roughly half of Gaza's population — and 60 per cent are now in the approximately 14-kilometer (8-mile) long area south of the evacuation zone, the UN said.

Iran's Khamenei: Stop bombings

ran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that Israel's continuing offensive in Gaza could cause a violent reaction across the region.

“Bombardments should be immediately stopped. Muslim nations are angry,” Khamenei said, according to state media.

Gaza Hospital bombed, toll 500

Hamas-run Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip says at least 500 people have been killed in an explosion that it says was caused by an Israeli airstrike.

If confirmed, the attack on the al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City it would be by far the deadliest Israeli airstrike in five wars fought since 2008. The Israeli military says it is looking into the report.

UN to Israel: Avoid aerial bombardment

The UN human rights office decried “appalling reports” that civilians who were trying to flee to southern Gaza were killed by a military strike.

Spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani urged Israeli forces to avoid “aerial bombardments, indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks” and to “take precautions to avoid – and in any case, to minimize – loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects. (PTI)