Palestinians recover 360 bodies in north Gaza killed in Israeli offensive

Emergency services have recovered the bodies of 360 people, mostly women and children, killed in the northern refugee camp of Jabaliya, during a recent three-week Israeli offensive there, a spokesman for Gaza’s civil defence said on Tuesday.

Palestinian health officials in the Gaza Strip said Israeli strikes killed at least 11 people overnight into Tuesday, including a family of three in the built-up Bureij refugee camp and eight police officers.

The ongoing Israeli strikes and ground offensives across Gaza come as a ceasefire proposal, announced by US President Joe Biden, has placed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a crossroads.

The proposal offers the possibility of ending Israel’s war against Hamas, returning scores of hostages held by the militant group and quieting fighting on the northern border with Lebanon.

Although Mr Biden said the proposal was Israeli, the Israeli leadership has appeared to distance itself from the plan, vowing to keep conducting military operations against Hamas until the group is destroyed.

Israeli bombardments and ground operations in Gaza have killed more than 36,000 Palestinians, according to the health ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.

Israel’s expanding offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and other supplies to Palestinians facing widespread hunger.

Israel launched the war in Gaza after Hamas’ October 7 attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted about 250.

Israel’s military confirmed the deaths on Monday of four more hostages held by Hamas.

About 80 hostages captured on October 7 are believed to still be alive in Gaza, alongside the remains of 43 others.