ガザ北部空爆の死者１００人に　子どもの犠牲に米国も深い懸念

【ガザ市ＡＦＰ＝時事】パレスチナ自治区ガザ地区の民間防衛当局によると、イスラエル軍が前日行ったガザ北部ベイトラヒヤの集合住宅に対する夜間空爆の死者が約１００人に上っている。（写真は、イスラエル軍に空爆されたガザ地区北部ベイトラヒヤの集合住宅）
　空爆を前にイスラエル国会は２８日、国連パレスチナ難民救済事業機関（ＵＮＲＷＡ）の国内および占領下の東エルサレムでの活動を禁止する法案を圧倒的多数で可決していた。
　破壊された５階建ての集合住宅では、上階の窓から長髪の人物の焼死体がぶら下がり、また辺りの通りには毛布に包まれた遺体が多数並べられた。
　ガザ民間防衛当局の広報担当者はＡＦＰに対し、「ベイトラヒアでの虐殺による殉教者の数は９３人に増え、まだ４０人前後ががれきの下にいる」と述べた。
　空爆についてイスラエル側は「調査中」としたが、先にイスラム組織ハマスの戦闘員４０人を殺害したと報告している。
　ある住民は「犠牲者のほとんどは女性と子どもだ。負傷者の救出が続いているが、病院もなければ、適切な医療体制も整っていない」と語った。
　米国務省のマシュー・ミラー報道官は記者団に「恐ろしい結果を伴う恐ろしい出来事だった」と述べ、「イスラエル政府に何が起こったのかを確認している」と述べた。
　イスラエル軍は今月６日以降、ハマス戦闘員の再結集を阻止する作戦として、ガザ北部のジャバリア、ベイトラヒア、ベイトハヌンを中心に、大規模な空爆および地上作戦を実施している。
　またイスラエル国会がＵＮＲＷＡの活動を禁止する法案を可決したことで、米国を含めイスラエルと同盟する西側諸国は深い懸念を表明している。
　ミラー報道官はイスラエルに対し、ガザへの人道援助が改善されない場合、軍事援助を保留する可能性があるとの警告を繰り返した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/10/30-17:00）

An Israeli air strike on a single residential block killed nearly 100 people on Tuesday, Gaza's civil defence agency said, leaving rescuers scrambling for survivors as Israel pursued its offensives in Gaza and Lebanon.
Israel's key ally and backer the United States called the strike -- which killed a large number of children -- horrifying.
The bombing came with Israel facing an international backlash after its parliament voted overwhelmingly to ban UNRWA, the main United Nations aid agency working with Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Palestinian rescuers and desperate family members gathered around the demolished five-storey block in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza.
A charred body with long hair hung from an upper-storey window and bodies in blankets were lined up in the street as stunned relatives sought to identify loved ones.
The number of martyrs in the massacre of the Abu Nasr family home in Beit Lahia has risen to 93 martyrs, and about 40 are still missing under the rubble, Gaza civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
Israel's military said it was looking into the reports of the strike. It earlier reported its forces had killed 40 Hamas fighters, and the loss of four soldiers in Gaza.
- 'Women and children' -
The explosion happened at night and I first thought it was shelling, but when I went out after sunrise I saw people pulling bodies, limbs and the wounded from under the rubble, said Rabie al-Shandagly, 30.
Most of the victims are women and children, and people are trying to save the injured, but there are no hospitals or proper medical care, he told AFP.
Washington expressed deep concern.
This was a horrifying incident with a horrifying result, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
We have reached out to the government of Israel to ask what happened here.
Israel's military has been conducting a sweeping air and ground assault in northern Gaza since October 6 -- particularly around Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun -- saying it aims to prevent Hamas regrouping.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled the area, more than 12 months into the war sparked by Hamas militants launching a bloody cross-border assault into Israel on October 7 last year.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 43,061 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable, triggering warnings of a humanitarian catastrophe.
International concerns mounted after the Israeli parliament voted overwhelmingly to ban UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
Israel strictly controls all humanitarian aid shipments into Gaza, and UNRWA has provided essential aid, schooling and healthcare across the Palestinian territories and in the diaspora for more than seven decades.
- 'Devastating consequences' -
There is a deep connection between the terrorist organisation (Hamas) and UNRWA, and Israel cannot put up with it, lawmaker Yuli Edelstein said in parliament as he presented the proposal.
But several of Israel's Western allies including the United States voiced deep disquiet.
Miller reiterated a warning to Israel that Washington could withhold military assistance without improvements in humanitarian aid into Gaza.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said London was gravely concerned and the French foreign ministry said it very strongly regrets the law.
Germany, a staunch defender of Israel's security, warned it would effectively make UNRWA's work in Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem impossible.
UN chief Antonio Guterres said the Israeli law could have devastating consequences if implemented.
In a letter he sent to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, seen by AFP, Guterres argued that under international law an occupying power must implement mechanisms for aiding the people living in that occupied territory.
If Israel is not in a position to meet such needs, it has an obligation to allow and facilitate the activities of the United Nations, Guterres wrote.
Israel's neighbour Jordan, which also hosts UNRWA offices, condemned the ban as a continuation of Israel's frantic efforts to assassinate the UN agency politically.
Netanyahu said on social media that Israel was ready to continue providing aid to Gaza in a way that does not threaten Israel's security.
- Hezbollah names new leader -
During the October 7 attack, Palestinian militants seized 251 hostages, including soldiers and civilians, of whom 97 are still in Gaza. The Israeli military says 34 of these are dead.
The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
In Lebanon, Israeli tanks entered the outskirts of the village of Khiam, their deepest incursion yet in the ground operation they launched against Hezbollah last month, state media reported.
Late Tuesday, the health ministry said an Israeli strike on Sarafand in south Lebanon killed at least eight people.
It also reported six dead in an earlier strike on Haret Saida near the main southern city of Sidon.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, announced it has chosen deputy head Naim Qassem to succeed Hassan Nasrallah as leader after his death in an Israeli strike on south Beirut last month.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant posted on X that Qassem was a temporary appointment who would not last for long. In a separate post in Hebrew, he added that the countdown has begun.
Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian's website said Qassem's appointment would strengthen the will of the resistance.
Separately, the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, said its southern Lebanon headquarters had been hit by a rocket fired likely by Hezbollah or an affiliated group. Austria said eight of its soldiers were hurt.
According to an AFP tally based on official figures, at least 1,750 people have been killed in Lebanon since September 23, when the fighting escalated as Israel launched an air and ground offensive against Hezbollah, which had been carrying out rocket attacks in support of Hamas.
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