Israeli strikes pound targets in Gaza, as U.S. vice-president calls for restraint

Israel faced growing U.S. calls to avoid further harm to Palestinian civilians in its fight against Hamas militants in Gaza, as the warring sides showed no sign of moving toward reviving their collapsed truce.

As Israeli forces pounded the enclave following the breakdown of a temporary ceasefire, U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris said too many innocent Palestinians had been killed in Gaza, while U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin deemed it a "moral responsibility" for Israel to protect civilians.

The Saturday remarks from the senior U.S. officials reinforced pressure from Washington for Israel to use more caution as it shifts the focus of its military offensive further south in the besieged Gaza Strip.

With renewed fighting stretching into a third day, residents feared the air and artillery bombardmentpresaged an Israeli ground operation in the southern strip that would pen them into a shrinking area and possibly try to push them across into Egypt.

The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gazasaid at least 193 Palestinians had been killedsince the truce ended on Friday, adding to the more than 15,000 Palestinians killed since the start of the war.Israel has sworn to annihilate Hamas following its Oct. 7 rampage in southern Israel in which it says about 1,200 people were killed and 240taken hostage.

Speaking in Dubai, Harris said Israel had a right to defend itself but that international and humanitarian law must be respected, and "too many innocent Palestinians have been killed."

"Frankly, the scale of civilian suffering, and the images and videos coming from Gaza, are devastating," Harristold reporters.

Austin weighedin with perhaps his strongest comments to date on Israel's need to protect civilians in Gaza, calling it a "moral responsibility and strategic imperative."

"If you drive them into the arms of the enemy, you replace a tactical victory with a strategic defeat," he told a defence forum in Simi Valley, Calif.

Austin, who pledged that the U.S. would stand by Israel as its "closest friend in the world," also said he pressed Israeli officials to dramatically expand Gaza's access to humanitarian aid.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was continuing to work in co-ordination with the United States and international organizations to define "safe areas" for Gaza civilians.

"This is important because we have no desire to harm the population," Netanyahu told a news conference in Tel Aviv. "We have a very strong desire to hurt Hamas."

WATCH |Bombardment resumes as Israel-Hamas truce comes to an end:

Bombardment resumes as Israel-Hamas truce comes to an end

11 months ago

Duration 0:51

Areas in southern Gaza once again came under intense bombardment after the truce agreement between Israel and Hamas ended on Friday. In Khan Younis, rescuers carried people from the remains of a destroyed building. 'At dinnertime, people sat down to eat [and] a bomb fell on the entire building,' a man told CBC freelancer Mohamed El Saife. 'We dont want aid. We dont want medicine. We want a ceasefire.'

The United States has been increasingly vocal that Israel must narrow the combat zone during any offensive in southern Gaza and ensure safe zones for non-combatants.

Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas once and for all, saying the Islamist group is bent on its destruction.One of its officials has said Hamas would repeat the Oct. 7 attacks if possible.

The Israeli military said it had killed Wessam Farhat, commander of a Hamas battalion who sent fighters to hit two kibbutzim near the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7. It also described him as one of the planners of the raid.

Israel to seek 'security envelope'

Mark Regev, a senior adviser to Netanyahu, said Israel did not want to see Gaza's civilians caught in the crossfire and was making a "maximum effort" to safeguard them.

He said that when the war isover, Israel would seek a "security envelope"to prevent Hamas from being positioned on its border.

Robert Mardini, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, told Reuters the renewed fighting was "a new layer of destruction coming on top of massive, unparalleled destruction."

Gaza health officials said that in addition to the death toll, 650 people had been wounded since the truce collapsed.

With conditions inside Gaza reaching a "breaking point," in Mardini's words, the firstdeliveries of aid since the end of the truce entered from Egypt through the Rafah crossing on Saturday, saidEgyptian security and Red Crescent sources.Some 100 trucks passed through, the sources said.

A senior official said Israel would facilitate the provision of humanitarian aid to Gaza's civilians.

No progress on truce renewal

The warring sides blamed each other for the collapse of the truce, during which Hamas had released hostages in exchange for Palestinian detaineesheld in Israeli jails.

Israel said it had recalled a team from Qatar, host of indirect negotiations with Hamas, accusing the Palestinian faction of reneging on a deal to free all the women and children it was holding.

French President Emmanuel Macron said he was heading to Qatar to work on a new truce.

However, the deputy head of Hamassaid no prisoners would be exchanged with Israel unless there is a ceasefire and all Palestinian detainees in Israel are released.

Saleh Al-Arouri told Al Jazeera TV that Israeli hostages held by Hamas are soldiers and civilian men who previously served in the army.

But Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Hamas breached its commitment to free 17 women and children still held in Gaza.

Attacks in the south

The southern part of Gaza, including Khan Younis and Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of people displaced from the north of the enclave had sought refuge, was being pounded on Saturday.

Hamas said it targeted Tel Aviv with a rocket barrage. There were no reports of damage but paramedics said one man was treated for a shrapnel injury in central Israel.

Displaced Gazans have been sheltering in Khan Younis and Rafah because of fighting in the north, but residents said they feared Israeli troops were preparing to move south.

Palestinian witnesses said Israeli tanks had taken up positions near the road between Khan Younis and Deiral-Balah.

On Saturday morning, Israeli airstrikes hit areas close to the Nasser Hospital six times, medics and witnesses said.

The hospital is filled with thousands of displaced people and hundreds of wounded, including many of those who had been evacuated from north Gaza hospitals.

Among the dead on Saturday was the president of the territory's Islamic University, a theoretical physicist and applied mathematician who was killed with his family when a house was bombed, health officials said.

'There's no safe place'

Mohamed Abu Saif, who is in Khan Younis after movingfrom the north, said people "started getting used to the peace" before the truce endedand nowthe Israeli military "at any moment" can tell peopleto evacuate, "and you have to evacuate."

"The Gaza Strip is not safe. There's no safe place," he said in an interview withCBC News on Friday.

"If they ask me to leave the neighbourhood I'm in, where am I supposed to go?I came to the south based on their requests and today in the south and I'm not safe."

Ahmed Abu Mustafa isalso sheltering in the city in southern Gaza. "People were happy; for those seven days, we were happy," he said."There was peace and there was everything. Wewoke up on Friday and they were bombing us and our houses."

Unable to go into northern Gaza or neighbouring Egypt, their only escape is to move around within the 220-square-kilometrearea. Israel has released a map outlining the most dangerous zones.