Israel carried out new deadly attacks on Gaza Strip

Israel has carried out air strikes throughout Gaza, killing at least 18 people during Saturday night and on Sunday, February 18th, doctors and witnesses said, while the United States warned they would veto a new draft resolution in the United Nations calling for ceasefire.

Israel's main ally, Washington, said that instead of the resolution, it favours more that a ceasefire and release agreement between Israel and Hamas the Palestinian group declared a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union be reached, and that it aims to reach a broader solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, ha dismissed Hamas' “absurde” and has rejected US calls and other international factors for a path to Palestinian citizenship.

On Sunday, his cabinet adopted a statement saying that Israel at “the category reject international calls for a permanent agreement with Palestinians” and by refusing unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, which “would be a great price for terror” following the October 7th attack that sparked the war.

The Israeli prime minister pledged to continue offensive “until full victory of” over Hamas, and to expand the war in the town of Rafah, where half the population of 2.3 million Palestinians have been sheltered from fighting in Gaza.

Israel carried out attacks in Rafah at night, killing six people, including a woman and three children. Five other people were killed in another attack in Han Eunice.

In Gaza City, an air strike has destroyed a house, killing seven people, including three women, the victims' families said.

The Israeli Army rarely comments on individual attacks and leaves the civil victims to Hamas, as it says the radical group operates within densely populated areas.

The Gaza war began after Hamas carried out an attack south of Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 250 others. Hamas still keeps close to 130 hostages, a quarter believed to have died. The rest of the hostages were released during a week-long ceasefire last November.

Israeli offensive has killed at least 28,985 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. This institution, which does not distinguish between civilians and warriors killed, said on February 18th that the number includes 127 lifeless bodies sent to hospitals in the last 24 hours. / REL