Trump must stop genocide in Gaza

Iran said yesterday that the US president-elect Donald Trump must end the offensive in Gaza, where the Islamic republic’s arch-foe Israel has been battling Hamas for more than a year.
Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said during a news conference in Tehran that the incoming American president should “stop the continued genocide” in the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces sent tanks into the western side of Gaza’s Nuseirat camp yesterday in a new incursion into the enclave’s central area, and Palestinian medics said Israeli military strikes had killed at least 11 people since Sunday night.
Residents said Israeli tanks opened fire as they rolled into that sector of the camp, one of the Gaza Strip’s eight historic refugee sites, causing panic among the population and displaced families.
One resident, Zaik Mohammad, said the tanks’ advance was a complete surprise.
With the offensive in Gaza now in its 14th month, Israel is focusing its operations in the north and centre in what it says is a campaign to stop Hamas members waging attacks and to prevent them from regrouping.
Tens of thousands of Palestinian residents have been told to evacuate the areas, fueling fears that they may never be allowed to return. Israel’s military campaign has leveled much of Gaza and killed at least 43,603 Palestinians since the offensive began in October last year, Gaza health officials said.
Arab and Muslim leaders gathered in Saudi Arabia yesterday for a summit addressing the wars in Gaza and Lebanon, a chance to send a message to Trump.
Opening the summit, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said the international community must “immediately halt the Israeli actions against our brothers in Palestine and Lebanon”, condemning Israel’s campaign in Gaza as “genocide”.
A draft resolution for the summit stresses “firm support” for “national rights” for the Palestinian people, “foremost among which is their right to freedom and to an independent, sovereign state”.
The already slim chances of a Gaza ceasefire receded further at the weekend when mediator Qatar said it was suspending its efforts until both Israel and Hamas showed greater willingness to reach an agreement.
In attacks overnight and into yesterday, medics in Gaza said seven people were killed in Nuseirat in two separate Israeli airstrikes, one that hit a tent encampment.
In the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, where Israeli forces have operated since October 5, medics said four people were killed in an Israeli airstrike.
At Kamal Adwan Hospital near Beit Lahiya, medics said Israeli fire from a drone wounded three medical workers in the facility. There was no Israeli comment on yesterday’s violence.
The Israeli military said it killed a senior commander of the Islamic Jihad group, an ally of Hamas, Mohammad Abu Skhail, in a strike on Saturday at a command center inside a compound that previously served as a school in Gaza City. Palestinian medics said the attack killed six people.
Yesterday, the Israeli military said it had expanded the “humanitarian zone” in the enclave. It also said it would allow more tents, shelter materials, food, water, and medical supplies to enter.
Its forces “will continue to work to achieve the war’s objectives, including dismantling Hamas and returning all the abductees,” it said.