The HAMAS GOVERNMENT in the Gaza Strip said Saturday that 240 people had been killed in the Palestinian territory since a pause in the fighting expired yesterday.

Another 650 people had been injured in “hundreds of air strikes, artillery and navy bombardments, everywhere in the Gaza Strip”, it said in a statement, adding that Israeli forces had “particularly targeted Khan Yunis, where dozens of houses were destroyed with their inhabitants inside”.

The Israeli military said today it had attacked more than 400 “terrorist targets” in the Gaza Strip since a pause in the fighting with Hamas ended the day before.

Air, naval and ground forces were involved, it said, adding that fighter jets hit “more than 50 targets in an extensive attack in the Khan Yunis area” in the south of the territory.

Israeli air strikes killed two Syrian pro-Hezbollah fighters when they hit sites belonging to the Iran-backed group near Damascus on Saturday.

“Two Syrian fighters working for Hezbollah were killed and seven other fighters working for the group were wounded in Israeli air strikes on Hezbollah sites near Sayyida Zeinab,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on its northern neighbour since Syria’s civil war began in 2011, primarily targeting Iran-backed forces and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, as well as Syrian army positions.

But it has intensified attacks since its war with Hamas began in October. Hamas last year said it had restored relations with Syria’s government.

© AFP 2023