Live: Israel and Hamas claim victory as fragile ceasefire holds
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Gaza’s Ministry of Health has announced that two doctors were killed as a result of Israeli bombardment on the besieged Gaza Strip.
“Today we commemorate Doctor Ayman Abu al-Auf, a knight from the knights of health workers, a scientist, skilled doctor and a model human being,” the health ministry said in a statement.
In a tribute to Abu al-Auf, the ministry said it would name an education hall at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza after him.
The other medic killed was named as Dr Moean Alalol.
In a press conference earlier on Sunday, Doctor Yusuf Abu al-Reesh, secretary of Gaza’s Ministry of Health, condemned Israeli attacks targeting health and humanitarian workers.
“Residential buildings have been destroyed, schools, places of worship, roads, media offices, government buildings and business and electronic lines,” Abu al-Reesh said. “All of this has had devastating impacts on people and the environment.”
In recent days, doctors and medical staff have condemned Israel’s bombardment near medical facilities as well as the blocking of roads which has prevented ambulances from reaching key areas and delivering life-saving treatment.
Online, many people paid their respects to the slain medics, sharing tributes and prayers for them.
At least 192 Palestinians, including 58 children, have been killed in air strikes since Israel started its heavy bombardment on Monday, with over 1,200 people wounded.
Top progressive US Senator Bernie Sanders has called on Washington to "urge an immediate ceasefire" in Gaza, suggesting that the United States should revise its military assistance to Israel to ensure that it is not supporting human rights violations.
Chris Murphy, another Senate Democrat, also called for a ceasefire.
"The mounting civilian death toll, disproportionately affecting Gaza, does nothing to promote short or long term peace. Both sides need to agree to a ceasefire," Murphy wrote in a tweet on Sunday.
President Joe Biden's administration has been urging de-escalation while supporting what it calls "Israel's right to defend itself" without calling for a ceasefire.
At least 192 Palestinians, including 58 children, have been killed in air strikes since Israel started its heavy bombardment on Monday.
The High Follow-up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel announced on Sunday that it had approved a general strike in response to ongoing Israeli aggression against Palestinians in Gaza, Jerusalem and many parts of the West Bank.
The committee called for a peaceful strike to take place on Tuesday, including the involvement of local authorities and youth communities in all cities and towns.
The committee is an extra-parliamentary umbrella organisation, made up of Palestinian members of the Knesset, Palestinian mayors and leaders of civic movements.
Among the committee’s demands are an end to air strikes in Gaza, which have claimed the lives of over 192 Palestinians since last Monday, as well as the withdrawal of settlers in occupied neighbourhoods.
The head of the committee, Mohammed Barakeh, wrote to the United Nations special rapporteur on minority rights, the European Union foreign minister and the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, among others, calling on them to take action to protect Palestinians in the face of escalating tensions.
“These days, Palestinian citizens of the State of Israel are subjected to a dangerous and excessive violent campaign of bloody attacks by the police, the extreme right-wing mob and settler gangs,” the letter read.
“Palestinian citizens of Israel are collectively worried about their lives. This fear is exacerbated, particularly as it appears that legally binding bodies and law enforcement provide protection to settler mobs,” it added.
Rescue workers in Gaza are continuing to search through the rubble of destroyed buildings following Israeli air strikes on the besieged enclave.
At least 192 Palestinians, including 58 children, have been killed in air strikes since Israel started its heavy bombardment on Monday.
Victims have been pulled out from under collapsed buildings, where over 1,200 people have been injured.
Medical staff have described horrific scenes at one of Gaza’s biggest hospitals, al-Shifa, which has been overwhelmed by patients.
The air strikes on Gaza have been condemned internationally and by numerous rights organisations, who have called for governments to cease arms deals with Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday defended the bombing of al-Jalaa tower where several media outlets were based, claiming it housed a Palestinian "terrorist" group's intelligence office.
On CBS's Face the Nation programme, Netanyahu described the building as "a perfectly legitimate target", even though it housed offices for Al Jazeera and the Associated Press.
He said the information regarding Saturday's attack had been shared with US authorities.
Al Jazeera, the Associated Press and Middle East Eye have condemned the air strikes.
Israel bombs Gaza building used by Middle East Eye, Al Jazeera and AP
Wounded Palestinians from Gaza were taken Sunday across the Rafah border crossing into Egypt for medical treatment as Israeli strikes continued to pummel the enclave, medical and border sources told AFP.
Three convoys of 263 Palestinians - including those wounded in the latest strikes as well as students and travellers with serious ailments - crossed into Rafah in the restive North Sinai region, the sources said.
Egypt prepares for cross-border influx of wounded Palestinians from Gaza
Four Israeli soldiers have been wounded after a suspected car-ramming attack by a Palestinian man in the occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah on Sunday, AFP reported, citing Israeli police.
After the "vehicle-ramming attack" in the district, the assailant was "shot by officers", police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. Israeli police later confirmed that the man, whose name had not been released, had died.
A Middle East Eye correspondent said that Israeli forces blocked off entrances to the neighbourhood to stop others from aiding the Palestinian man. Ambulances had also been prevented from entering the area.
In videos shared online, Israeli forces were shown preventing the press from covering the shooting and getting close to the scene of the incident.
The number of those killed in Israeli pre-dawn air strikes on Gaza on Sunday has reached 42 and is expected to rise, in the worst daily death toll since the bombardment began almost a week ago, the Gaza health ministry said.
At least 192 civilians have been killed since Monday, including 58 children and 34 women, the ministry said in its latest update.
The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has called for an immediate halt to what it described as Israel's barbaric attacks on Gaza and blamed "systematic crimes" against the Palestinians for hostilities now in their seventh day.
The OIC statement came on Sunday after a virtual meeting in which Saudi Arabia condemned the violation of the sanctity of Muslim holy sites and evictions of Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem.
The 57-member body accused the United Nations Security Council of inertia.
Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei issued a separate statement on Sunday, tweeted by Malaysia's premier, calling for an emergency UN General Assembly meeting.
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates called for a ceasefire. The UAE and Bahrain had, along with other Arab states, last year broke a longstanding taboo in the region by establishing formal ties with Israel, with tacit approval from Gulf power Riyadh.
"De-escalation and the highest degree of restraint are important to avoid dragging the region to new levels of instability," said UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation Reem al-Hashimy.
Pre-dawn Israeli strikes in the centre of Gaza City on Sunday brought the death toll in Gaza to 181, including 47 children, health officials said. Israel has reported 10 dead, including two children.
Palestinian militants began rocket assaults on Israel on Monday after weeks of tensions over a court case to evict several Palestinian families in East Jerusalem and in retaliation for Israeli police clashes with Palestinians near the city's Al-Aqsa Mosque during the holy month of Ramadan.
Israel has retaliated with air and artillery strikes into densely populated Gaza.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan al Saud opened the OIC meeting by urging the global community to end the escalation in violence and revive peace negotiations based on a two-state solution.
Israel sees all of Jerusalem as its capital. Palestinians want the eastern section as a capital of a future state. Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem is unrecognised internationally.
Turkish foreign ministry sources said Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called for an international protection mechanism for Palestinian civilians and told the OIC that Israel should be held accountable for war crimes and that the International Criminal Court could play a role.
His Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, urged the international community to start a "political and legislative" campaign against Israel, Iranian state media said.
Gaza's heath ministry has updated the death toll of the overnight Israeli air strikes on the besieged enclave to 188, including 55 children and 33 women.
The wounded are at least 1,230, many in critical condition.
Civil defence forces continue to carry out search and rescue operations, looking for civilians under the rubble of their homes that have been hit in the pre-dawn raids, the ministry said in an update sent to Middle East Eye.
Yousef Abu Al-Rish, the deputy minister of health in Gaza said Sunday that Israeli air strikes, ongoing since last week, have targeted and blocked the roads leading to hospitals in Gaza, including al-Shifa Hospital.
"These attacks impede regular patient movements, and prevent the wounded from obtaining health services," he said in a statement.
The health ministry said earlier on Sunday that the death toll from Israeli raids have reached 181 Palestinian civilians, including 52 children and 31 women. The number is expected to rise as rescue teams continue to look for survivors under the rubble of bombed homes, the ministry added.
Egypt has opened the Rafah border crossing a day earlier than planned to allow the passage of students, people needing medical treatment and other humanitarian cases, two sources at the border told Reuters on Sunday.
The border had been closed for the Eid al-Fitr holiday and was due to reopen on Monday.
Israeli air strikes killed 33 Palestinians, including 13 children, in Gaza on Sunday, Gaza health officials said. The attacks brought the death toll in Gaza to 181, including 52 children, they said. Israel has reported 10 dead, including two children.
Egypt has so far sent 16 ambulances into Gaza to pick up casualties of Israeli bombardments for treatment in Egyptian hospitals, a medical source said.
The source said a bus with 95 people on board had arrived from Gaza on Sunday morning.
Health officials previously told MEE that hospitals in Egypt's northeast were gearing up to receive casualties of Israel's ongoing onslaught on the besieged enclave:
Egypt prepares for cross-border influx of wounded Palestinians from Gaza
Pope Francis called on Sunday for an end to the conflict in Israel and Gaza, saying the deaths of so many innocent people in recent days, including children, was unacceptable.
"I appeal for calm, and for those responsible to end the clamour of weapons and to take the path of peace," he said in a weekly address to faithful gathered in Saint Peter's Square.
"Many innocent people have died, amongst them there are also children. This is terrible. Unacceptable. Their death is a sign that (people) don't want to build a future, but destroy it ... I wonder where hatred and revenge will lead?"
Gaza's heath ministry has updated the death toll of the overnight Israeli air strikes on the besieged enclave to 188, including 55 children and 33 women.
The wounded are at least 1,230, many in critical condition.
Civil defence forces continue to carry out search and rescue operations, looking for civilians under the rubble of their homes that have been hit in the pre-dawn raids, the ministry said in an update sent to Middle East Eye.
Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, on Sunday condemned Israel's "flagrant violations" of Palestinian rights and called on the international community to act urgently to put an end to hostilities.
Prince Al Saud was speaking in televised remarks at the start of an emergency virtual meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) as escalation between Israel and armed Palestinian factions in Gaza entered the seventh day.
