Group of Seven appeals for immediate aid delivery in Gaza, fighting pause

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — The Group of Seven wealthy industrialized nations called Wednesday for the “unimpeded” delivery of food, water, medicine and fuel in Gaza, and for “humanitarian pauses” in the fighting between Israel and Hamas.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far resisted such calls, while leaving open the possibility of smaller breaks. There remains no real end in sight to the war, triggered by Hamas’ lethal Oct. 7 rampage inside Israel that killed more than 1,400.

Israel has said the battle to end Hamas’ rule and crush its military capabilities will be long and difficult, and that it will maintain some form of control over the coastal enclave indefinitely — though how it will achieve that remains unclear. Support for the war remains strong inside Israel, where the focus has been on the fate of the more than 240 hostages taken by Hamas and other terrorist groups.

About 15,000 people fled northern Gaza on Tuesday — triple the number that left Monday — according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. They are using Gaza’s main north-south highway during a daily four-hour window announced by Israel.

“There is an ocean of needs in Gaza right now, and what’s been getting in is a drop in the ocean. We need fuel, we need water, we need food, and we need medical supplies,” said Dominic Allen of the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, speaking in the West Bank.

Israel has denied fuel shipments so Hamas cannot steal it to fuel the rockets the terrorist group continues to fire into Israel. Hamas also needs fuel to power what’s left of its network of tunnels, where arms and supplies are stored and where hostages are believed to be hidden.

Residents reported loud explosions overnight into Wednesday across Gaza City and in its Shati refugee camp, which houses Palestinian families who fled from or were driven out of what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding its establishment.

“The bombings were heavy and close,” said Mohamed Abed, who lives in Gaza City.

The army’s chief spokesperson, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said late Tuesday that Israeli ground forces had reached “the depths of Gaza City.” The Israeli military said Wednesday that it killed one of Hamas’ leading developers of rockets and other weapons, without saying where he was killed.

Hamas has denied that Israeli troops have made any significant gains or entered Gaza City. It was not possible to independently confirm battlefield claims from either side.

Israel is focusing its operations on the city, which was home to some 650,000 people before the war and where the military says Hamas has its central command and a vast labyrinth of tunnels.

A month of relentless bombardment in Gaza since the Hamas attack has killed more than 10,500 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory. Israeli officials say thousands of Palestinian terrorists have been killed, and blame civilian deaths on Hamas, accusing it of putting civilians at risk by operating in residential areas. Gaza’s Health Ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its casualty reports.

The war has stoked wider tensions, with Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah terrorist group trading fire along the border. More than 160 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since the war began, mainly during violent protests and gunbattles with Israeli forces during arrest raids. Some 250,000 Israelis have been forced to evacuate from communities along the borders with Gaza and Lebanon.

Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Amy Teibel in Jerusalem contributed to this report.