Israeli military aircraft pound Gaza with fresh strikes amid retaliatory rocket fire

The Israeli military has carried out a fresh round of airstrikes against various areas across the besieged Gaza Strip, drawing retaliatory rocket fire from Palestinian resistance fighters in the impoverished coastal enclave.

Death toll from the Tel Aviv regime’s atrocities has soared to at least 34, including eight children.

Palestinian media outlets reported that at least two people were killed and eight others sustained injuries on Sunday when Israeli fighter jets struck Jabalia refugee camp in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

Lebanon’s Arabic-language al-Mayadeen television news network also said a number of Palestinians were injured when Israeli warplanes targeted a house close to al-Tawbah Mosque, which lies next to Jabalia camp.

Israeli warplanes went on to bombard targets in the city of Beit Lahia, and in Beit Hanoun city, which is situated on the northeast edge of the Gaza Strip. There are no immediate reports of casualties as a result of the air raids.

• Second Islamic Jihad commander, six children killed in Israel’s latest assault on Gaza

Meanwhile, rocket sirens blared in a number of Israeli communities close to the Gaza border, including the town of Sderot. No reports of injuries or damage were immediately available though.

UN Security Council to hold emergency meeting on Gaza violence

Furthermore, the United Nations Security Council is going to hold an emergency closed door meeting on Monday to discuss the latest Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian Ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, said in a statement that the meeting was requested by the United Arab Emirates along with China, France, Ireland and Norway.

“The UAE has emphasized the need to restore calm to the Gaza Strip, reduce escalation, and preserve civilian lives,” UAE Foreign Ministry strategic communications director Afra Mahash al-Hameli said in a statement.

She added that Abu Dhabi “expresses its deep concern over the current escalation and calls for exercising maximum restraint, to prevent being drawn into new levels of violence and instability.”

• Latest Israeli airstrikes kill 9 more Palestinians, including children, across Gaza as tensions flare

During the Monday meeting, Security Council members will discuss “the current developments and ways to support international efforts to achieve a comprehensive and just peace,” the senior Emirati official pointed out.

The decision to hold a meeting comes hours after the Palestinian mission to the UN reached out to Security Council members, calling on them to “assume [their] responsibilities to stop the Israeli aggression against our people in the Gaza Strip and provide international protection to the Palestinian people,” Mansour’s office stated.

South Africa condemns Israeli attacks on Gaza, urges intl. action to end hostilities

South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation also condemned in strongest terms the latest Israeli violence against Palestinians living in Gaza.

“It is of particularly grave concern that Israeli military statements indicate that the operation would “take a long time” and that the ongoing attacks continue to place innocent civilians at severe risk,” it said in a statement.

“Attacks that kill innocent civilians have no justification, and they are more abhorrent as they are committed by an occupying power which has besieged the Gaza Strip for over a decade in contravention of international law.

“As an occupying power, Israel has specific obligations in terms of international human rights and humanitarian law, which it continues to breach without being held accountable,” the South African foreign ministry noted.

The ministry also called on the international community to act more decisively on the Israeli occupation forces and to put an end to the violence, emphasizing that “The killing of children by Israel must urgently be addressed.”

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South African foreign ministry underscored that there has been a significant rise in the killing and maiming of children in the Occupied Palestinian Territory by Israeli forces during hostilities, air strikes on densely populated areas and the use of live ammunition during law enforcement operations.

“It is disheartening to note in the UN Secretary-General’s report on Children in Armed Conflict the verification of 2,934 grave violations against 1,208 Palestinian children.”

“Accountability for these violations must be upheld to ensure that these violations do not continue,” the ministry highlighted.

GCC calls for urgent measure to protect civilians amid latest Gaza violence

Additionally, Secretary-General of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council Nayef al-Hajraf urged the international community to act urgently to protect civilians, especially women and children.

He expressed his sincere condolences and sympathy to the families of the victims and to the government and people of Palestine, wishing the injured a speedy recovery.

• Sirens blare across Israeli-occupied territories as resistance vows ‘non-stop’ retaliatory strikes

A senior commander of the Islamic Jihad resistance movement and several children were killed in the Gaza Strip on Saturday as Israeli jets bombed the blockaded enclave for a second day.

In a statement on Sunday, the Palestinian group confirmed that Khaled Mansour, its commander in the south of the Gaza Strip, had been killed in an Israeli raid.

The latest data by the Israeli military put the number of rockets and mortars launched toward the Israeli-occupied territories by Islamic Jihad fighters since Friday at 580.

The violence has raised fears of another Israeli war on Gaza, just 15 months after a month-long conflict that killed more than 260 people.

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