The Israeli military says it has expanded its ground offensive in the Gaza Strip to the densely populated urban refugee camps in the central part of the territory.
With international pressure for a cease-fire building, top U.S. officials were meeting with Israel’s minister for strategic affairs Tuesday at the White House in Washington.
Residents reported shelling and airstrikes shaking the Nuseirat, Maghazi and Bureij camps. The built-up towns hold Palestinians whose families fled or were driven from their homes in what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s independence.
The camps are now crowded with Palestinians who fled northern Gaza in the early stages of Israel’s ground offensive.
“We have expanded the fighting to an area known as the central camps,” Israel’s military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, told a news conference.
More than 20,900 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and children, have been killed since the start of the war, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants among the dead.
About 1,200 people were killed after Hamas raided southern Israel on Oct. 7, with around 240 people taken hostage. Israel says it aims to free the more than 100 hostages who remain in captivity in Gaza.
Currently:
— Lose a limb or risk death? Growing numbers among Gaza’s thousands of war-wounded face hard decisions
— An Israeli airstrike in Syria kills a high-ranking Iranian general
— Americans beg for help getting family out of Gaza. ‘I just want to see my mother again,’ a son says
— Find more of news agencies’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Here’s what’s happening in the war:
JERUSALEM — Supporters of a local Palestinian activist in the West Bank say he has been arrested by Israel on suspicions of incitement.
They say Munther Amira, a social worker and community activist in the Aida refugee camp near Bethlehem, was arrested on Dec. 18 by Israeli troops.
Jonathan Pollak, an Israeli activist assisting Amira, says Munther was questioned about Facebook posts, but denied allegations against him. He said it was unclear which posts drew attention from Israeli authorities.
Amira’s lawyer, Riham Nasra, said the military is now trying to place Amira under administrative detention – a status under which suspects can be held without charge for months at a time. She accused Israel of trying to stifle criticism of the Gaza war.
“Munther is a renowned activist, and Israel is grasping at the opportunity to remove him from the stage,” Nasra said.
Israel’s Shin Bet domestic security agency did not respond to a request for comment.
Rights groups say that Israel has arrested scores of Palestinians, including Israeli citizens, in a crackdown on free speech and political activity since the war erupted on Oct. 7.
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