Israel's military pushed ahead with its punishing air and ground offensive in Gaza, bolstered by a US veto derailing UN Security Council efforts to stop the war and word that an emergency sale of $106 million worth of tank ammunition had been approved by the Biden administration. Unable to leave Gaza, a territory 25 miles long by about 7 miles wide, more than 2 million Palestinians faced more bombardment Saturday, even in areas that Israel had described as safe zones. A day after Israel confirmed it was rounding up Palestinian men for interrogation, some men told the AP that they had been treated badly, providing the first accounts of the conditions from the detentions.
Ahmad Nimr Salman showed his marked and swollen hands from zip ties. "They used to ask us, 'Are you with Hamas?' We say 'no,' then they would slap us or kick us," he said. The Israeli military had no immediate comment about the allegations. With the war in its third month, the Palestinian death toll in Gaza has surpassed 17,700, the majority women and children, according to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths. Two hospitals in central and southern Gaza received the bodies of 133 people from Israeli bombings over the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry said midday Saturday.
Israel holds the Hamas militants responsible for civilian casualties, accusing them of using civilians as human shields, per the AP, and says it has made considerable efforts with evacuation orders to get civilians out of harm's way. It says 97 Israeli soldiers have died in the ground offensive after Hamas raided southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 240 hostages. Hamas said Saturday that it continued its rocket fire into Israel. In Gaza, residents reported airstrikes and shelling, including in the southern city of Rafah near the Egyptian border—one area where the Israeli army had told civilians to go.
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