18 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: Gaza rescuers and medics said Israeli air strikes killed at least 18 people across the Palestinian territory overnight and on Monday morning, including 10 in one attack on a house.

The 10 were killed and 15 others were injured when an air strike hit the home of the Al-Qassas family in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, a medic at Al-Awda hospital, where the bodies were brought, told AFP.

Gaza´s civil defence agency confirmed the death toll, with its spokesman Mahmud Bassal saying the strike took place on Monday morning.The agency said six Palestinians were killed in a similar air strike during the night on a house belonging to the Bassal family in Gaza City´s Zeitun neighbourhood, a regular target of Israeli military raids since the war began in October.

Two people were killed in another overnight air strike in Rafah that targeted a house belonging to the Abu Shaar family, the agency said.Several people were also wounded in these strikes, medics and rescuers said.

Meanwhile, Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar said on Monday the Palestinian group had ample resources to sustain its fight against Israel, with support from Iran-backed regional allies, nearly a year into the Gaza war.Sinwar, who last month replaced slain Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, said in a letter to the group´s Yemeni allies that “we have prepared ourselves to fight a long battle of attrition”.

The Huthis said they had “penetrated” Israel´s air defences, while Israel said the missile likely fragmented mid-air but was not destroyed.“Our combined efforts with you” and with groups in Lebanon and Iraq “will break this enemy and inflict defeat on it,” Sinwar added.

Earlier, Israel´s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said that prospects were dimming for a halt in nearly a year of fighting with Hamas ally Hezbollah in Lebanon.According to a statement from Gallant´s office, the Israeli minister told his US counterpart, Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin, in a call that “the possibility for an agreed framework in the northern arena is running out as Hezbollah continues to tie itself to Hamas.”

Netanyahu on Sunday publicly addressed the crisis on Israel´s northern border, saying at a cabinet meeting that “the existing situation will not continue”.“We will do everything necessary to return our residents safely to their homes,” he said, adding that he was attentive to displaced residents´ “distress”.