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GAZA/RAMALLAH: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas demanded an immediate Israeli ceasefire at a meeting with top U.S diplomat Antony Blinken on Sunday, as Gaza’s health ministry said dozens died in a strike on a refugee camp overnight.
Blinken, who has repeatedly dismissed the idea of a ceasefire by Israel for fear it would benefit Hamas, was making an unannounced visit to the occupied West Bank, as part of effort to try and ensure the Israel-Hamas war does not spread in the region.
His visit to Ramallah took place as people sifted through rubble for victims or survivors at the Maghazi refugee camp refugee camp in Gaza.
“All night I and the other men were trying to pick the dead from the rubble. We got children, dismembered, torn apart flesh,” said Saeed al-Nejma, 53, adding that he had been asleep with his family in their single-storey house when the blast hit his neighbourhood.
A spokesman for the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said earlier on Sunday that the Israeli military had struck the camp overnight, killing at least 47 people.
In a separate attack, 21 Palestinians from one family, including women and children, were killed in Israeli strikes targeting Gaza overnight, the health ministry said.
“We demand that you stop them from committing these crimes immediately,” Abbas told Blinken, demanding an “immediate ceasefire” from Israel.
“There are no words to describe the war of genocide and destruction to which our Palestinian people are being subjected in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli war machine, without regard to the rules of international law,” Palestinian news agency WAFA quoted Abbas as telling Blinken.
Foreign ministers from Qatar, Saudi, Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates met Blinken in Amman on Saturday and also pushed for Washington to convince Israel to agree to a ceasefire.
Gaza health officials said on Sunday more than 9,770 Palestinians have been killed in the war, which began when Hamas fighters launched a surprise attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,400 people and taking more than 240 others hostage.
Israel continued to strike the Gaza Strip by air, sea, and ground overnight.
Gaza health officials said Israeli air strikes destroyed a cluster of houses in the Maghazi refugee camp. Asked for comment, the Israeli military said they were waiting and gathering details.
Mohammad Al-Aloul, a photographer for Turkish news agency Anadolu, said he lost his four children, four of his brothers and their children in the strike, which destroyed his house.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said there was also intense bombardment, violent artillery explosions, and air strikes in the vicinity of the Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza’s Tal Al-Hawa area.
