Israeli strikes kill at least 17 Palestinians in Gaza, say officials
Israel has struck houses and tents in central and southern Gaza, crushing families inside and killing at least 17 Palestinians, including 10 children and three women, local health officials said, as international pressure for a ceasefire continued to grow.
On the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, French President Emmanuel Macron told France 24 that his country had recognised a Palestinian state on the conviction it âis the only way to isolate Hamasâ, which has proved itself able to regenerate even after many of its leaders have been killed.
âTotal war in Gaza is causing civilian casualties but canât bring about the end of Hamas,â he said in the interview on Wednesday.
âFactually, itâs a failure.â
He said he had been lobbying US President Donald Trump to press Israel again for a ceasefire.
âYou cannot stop the war if there is no path to peace,â Mr Macron added.
Some Israeli ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuâs government have pushed for annexing the occupied West Bank in response to international recognition of Palestinian statehood â a move that could effectively strip the Palestinian Authority of all civil and security powers in the territory.
Mr Macron said such a move would be a red line for France, and âI think itâs also a red line for the United States of Americaâ.
Neither the White House nor the State Department responded to requests for comment on Mr Macronâs statement.
Mr Netanyahu has said he will not make any decisions until he returns from the United States, where he is to address the UN General Assembly on Friday and then meet Mr Trump in Washington.
In the early hours of Thursday, an Israeli strike hit a tent and a house in the central town of Zawaida, killing at least 12 people, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby city of Deir al-Balah.
Among the dead were a couple and five of their children, along with three other children.
Associated Press footage showed the building collapsed into a pile of rubble â the dust-covered arm of a child sticking out from under a slab of concrete.
Relatives said another child was still missing under the wreckage.
Another strike hit a tent in Deir al-Balah, killing a girl and wounding seven people, the hospital said.
In the southern city of Khan Younis, an Israeli attack hit an apartment building, killing a man, his pregnant wife and their 10-year-old child as well as a female relative, according to Nasser Hospital, where the bodies were taken.
On Monday, France, Andorra, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta, and Monaco announced or confirmed their recognition of a Palestinian state in the hopes of galvanising support for a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict.
Their announcements came a day after the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Portugal did the same, in defiance of Israel and the US.
Mr Netanyahu lashed out at the idea early on Thursday before heading to New York.
âAt the UN General Assembly I will speak our truth,â he told reporters.
âI will denounce those leaders who, instead of denouncing the murderers, the rapists, the child burners, want to give them a state in the heart of the land of Israel. It will not happen.â
At separate events in New York on Wednesday, US secretary of state Marco Rubio and Mr Trumpâs lead negotiator Steve Witkoff both offered optimistic views about what Mr Witkoff called a âTrump 21-point plan for peaceâ that was presented to Arab leaders on Tuesday.
The US has not released details of the plan or said whether Israel or Hamas accepts it.
Mr Netanyahu suggested Israelâs position had not changed.
He said that during his trip to the US he would discuss âour need to complete the goals of the war: to return all our hostages, to defeat Hamas and to expand the circle of peace that is open to usâ.
The US, along with Egypt and Qatar, has spent months trying to broker a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release.
Those efforts suffered a major setback earlier this month when Israel carried out an air strike targeting Hamas leaders in Qatar.
Israel launched another major ground operation earlier this month in Gaza City, which experts say is experiencing famine.
More than 300,000 people have fled, but up to 700,000 are still there, many because they cannot afford to relocate.
The UN humanitarian office, known as OCHA, warned that Israelâs closure this week of the border crossing between the occupied West Bank and Jordan threatens to âseverely undermineâ its ability to deliver aid to Gaza.
It said that last month a quarter of the aid destined for Gaza through the UN humanitarian effort came through the Allenby Bridge Crossing over the Jordan River, also known as the King Hussein Bridge.
Israel announced the closure on Tuesday after an attack last week that killed two Israelis.
Israelâs campaign in Gaza has killed more than 65,000 people and wounded more than 167,000 others, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
It does not say how many were civilians or combatants, but says women and children make up around half the fatalities.
The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government.
UN agencies and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties.
Israelâs campaign was triggered when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on October 7 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage.
Forty-eight captives remain in Gaza, around 20 of them believed by Israel to be alive, after most of the rest were freed in ceasefires or other deals.
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