DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Gaza lost communications Sunday in its third total outage of the Israel-Hamas war, while Israel’s military said it encircled Gaza City and divided the besieged coastal strip into two.
Israeli warplanes struck two refugee camps, killing at least 53 people and wounding dozens in central Gaza, the zone where Israel’s military had urged Palestinian civilians to seek refuge, health officials said. Israel said it would press on with its offensive to crush Hamas, despite U.S. appeals for even brief pauses to get aid to desperate civilians.
Journalist Muhammed Alaloul told CNN on Sunday the explosion killed four of his children and three of his siblings. Alaloul, a freelance photojournalist with the Turkish news agency Anadolu, said his home was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted the Al-Maghazi refugee camp.
Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry said more than 9,700 Palestinians have been killed in nearly a month of war in Gaza, more than 4,000 of them children and minors. That toll likely will rise as Israeli troops advance into dense, urban neighborhoods.
Meanwhile, in Tkuma, Israel, volunteers from the community emergency response team Zaka on Sunday worked to clean and identify the remains of victims in the cars that were part of the October 7th attack. Also, mourners attended the funeral of First Sergeant Itay Saadon at the Misgav cemetery in Israel. Mr Saadon died in northern Gaza during operations, days before finishing his military service.
Israeli Iron Dome air defense system fires to intercept a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in central Israel, Sunday, Nov. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty) KHAN YUNIS, GAZA – NOVEMBER 5: Editor’s note: Graphic content. People mourn as they collect the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli air raids on November 5, 2023 in Khan Yunis, Gaza. The Israeli army has expanded its military assault. The Gaza strip, a besieged Palestinian territory, is under heavy bombing from Israel in response to the large-scale attack carried out on October 7 by Hamas in Israel. The international community is stepping up pressure for a humanitarian truce.(Photo by Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images) Palestinians look for survivors of the Israeli bombardment in the Maghazi refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, Sunday, Nov. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair) MISGAV, ISRAEL – NOVEMBER 5: Mourners react at the Misgav cemetery during the funeral of First Sergeant Itay Saadon on November 5, 2023 in Misgav, Israel. Mr Saadon died in northern Gaza during operations, days before finishing his military service. Numbers of soldiers killed during ground operations in the Gaza Strip continues to rise, as the Israeli government presses on with its fight against Hamas, the militant organization that governs the Palestinian territory. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) Palestinians flee the southern Gaza Strip on Salah al-Din street in Bureij on Sunday, Nov. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa) Palestinians burn a picture of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a protest against his visit, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Sunday, Nov. 5, 2023. Blinken brought his frenetic Mideast diplomatic push on the Israel-Hamas war to the occupied West Bank on Sunday, meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser) Palestinian child wounded in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip is brought to a treatment room of al Aqsa Hospital in Deir al Balah on Deir al Balah, Sunday, Nov. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Adel Hana) MISGAV, ISRAEL – NOVEMBER 5: The girlfriend of the late First Sergeant Itay Saadon, Liza, is consoled during his funeral at Misgav cemetery on November 5, 2023 in Misgav, Israel. Mr Saadon died in northern Gaza during operations, days before finishing his military service. Numbers of soldiers killed during ground operations in the Gaza Strip continues to rise, as the Israeli government presses on with its fight against Hamas, the militant organization that governs the Palestinian territory. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) KHAN YUNIS, GAZA – NOVEMBER 5: (EDITORS NOTE: Image depicts death.) People mourn as they collect the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli air raids on November 5, 2023 in Khan Yunis, Gaza. The Israeli army has expanded its military assault. The Gaza strip, a besieged Palestinian territory, is under heavy bombing from Israel in response to the large-scale attack carried out on October 7 by Hamas in Israel. The international community is stepping up pressure for a humanitarian truce.(Photo by Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images) U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, at the Muqata in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Sunday, Nov. 5, 2023. (Jonathan Ernst/Pool photo via AP) TKUMA, ISRAEL – NOVEMBER 05: Volunteers from the community emergency response team, Zaka, work to clean and identify the remains of victims in the cars that were part of the October 7th attack at a site where all the cars are collected on November 05, 2023 in Tkuma, Israel. The location, which is still receiving new cars brought from the kibbutzes, the Nova party location, and other communities and the surrounding areas effected, receives hundreds of new cars daily. Each car, depending on it’s destruction is expected by Zaka, police, or various other teams to identify the cars, to contain remnants of bodies. According to Jewish law all parts of a human being, including blood or body parts must be buried, which Zaka volunteers are responsible for. (Photo by Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images) EDITORS NOTE: Graphic content. Palestinian cameraman Mohammed Alaloul bids his son farewell after he was killed in an Israeli strike on the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in Deir Balah in the central Gaza Strip, in front of al-Quds hospital in the same city on November 5, 2023. Alaloul, working for the Turkish Anadolu Agency, told AFP his 13-year-old son, Ahmed, and his four-year-old son, Qais, were killed in the bombing, along with his brother. The Hamas-run health ministry said, Israeli bombing of Al-Maghazi refugee camp killed 45 people, with an eyewitness reporting children dead and homes smashed. (Photo by Mahmud HAMS / AFP) (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS/AFP via Getty Images) *** BESTPIX *** TKUMA, ISRAEL – NOVEMBER 05: Workers from different agencies search through cars at a site where all cars damaged or abandoned due to the attacks are collected on November 5, 2023 in Tkuma, Israel. The car was part of the Nova music festival that was attacked on October 7th. The location receives hundreds of cars daily from the kibbutzes, the Nova party location, and other surrounding area affected. Depending on the damage, each car is inspected by the Zaka, the police, or various other teams to identify the cars, or any remnants of bodies. According to Jewish law all parts of a human being, including blood or body parts must be buried, which Saka volunteers are responsible for. (Photo by Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images) MISGAV, ISRAEL – NOVEMBER 5: Friends and family console the sister of the late First Sergeant Itay Saadon, Mika, during his funeral at Misgav cemetery on November 5, 2023 in Misgav, Israel. Mr Saadon died in northern Gaza during operations, days before finishing his military service. Numbers of soldiers killed during ground operations in the Gaza Strip continues to rise, as the Israeli government presses on with its fight against Hamas, the militant organization that governs the Palestinian territory. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) Members of Israeli forces and journalists take cover as a siren warns of incoming rockets fired from the Gaza Strip in an area where hundreds of burned and destroyed vehicles are placed after they were damaged in the bloody Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Hamas militants, in which 1,400 people were killed and 240 others were taken hostage, outside the town of Netivot, southern Israel, Sunday, Nov. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Leo Correa) TKUMA, ISRAEL – NOVEMBER 05: A Rabbi from the community emergency response team, Zaka, holds up the bullet most likely fired from a Kalashnikov rifle near a passenger seat covered in dried blood that was part of the October 7th attack at a site where all the cars are collected on November 05, 2023 in Tkuma, Israel. The location, which is still receiving new cars brought from the kibbutzes, the Nova party location, and other communities and the surrounding areas effected, receives hundreds of new cars daily. Each car, depending on it’s destruction is expected by Zaka, police, or various other teams to identify the cars, to contain remnants of bodies. According to Jewish law all parts of a human being, including blood or body parts must be buried, which Zaka volunteers are responsible for. (Photo by Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images) Fire and smoke rises from buildings following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City, Sunday, Nov. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Abed Khaled) Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, foreground, and former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, background left, visit kibbutz Kfar Azza, Israel, Sunday, Nov. 5, 2023. Kibbutz Kfar Azza was one of the locations attacked by Hamas on Oct. 7. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit) Palestinian children mop outside their home after an Israeli bombardment in the Maghazi refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, Nov. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa) U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken boards a military transport aircraft en route to Iraq for meetings, from Larnaca International Airport in Larnaca, Cyprus, Sunday Nov. 5, 2023. (Jonathan Ernst/Pool via AP)
