 "Israeli strikes kill over 70 in Gaza as Trump wraps up West Asia trip with no new truce push")
Multiple Israeli airstrikes from Thursday through Friday have killed over 70 people as US President Donald Trump finished his West Asia trip with no hope of a truce in the Palestinian region.
The Friday morning strikes forced people to flee the Jabaliya refugee camp and the town of Beit Lahiya, just a day after similar attacks that killed more than 130 people, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
Trump's visit to West Asia and his subsequent high-level meetings with various stakeholders brought widespread hope of a step forward in ceasefire talks and the renewal of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Hamas still holds 58 of the roughly 250 hostages it took during its October 7 attack on Israel, with 23 believed to still be alive, although Israeli authorities have expressed concern for the status of three of those.
Trump’s visit yields no results
While there were no substantial talks on a possible Israel-Hamas truce, Trump once again made territorial claims, stating that the US should "take" Gaza.
The US president made the comments during his visit to Qatar, where he said, “I have concepts for Gaza that I think are very good, make it a freedom zone, let the United States get involved and make it just a freedom zone. I’d be proud to have the United States have it, take it, make it a freedom zone.”
This is not the first time Trump has made territorial claims on Gaza. Earlier this year, the Republican leader suggested that he could “own” Gaza and resettle its population, a plan that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was on board with at the time.
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View AllIsrael vows to escalate war
Meanwhile, Netanyahu vowed earlier in the week to push ahead with a promised escalation of force in Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip to pursue his aim of destroying the Hamas militant group, which governs Gaza.
In comments released by Netanyahu’s office Tuesday, the prime minister said Israeli forces were days away from entering Gaza “with great strength to complete the mission … It means destroying Hamas.”
International rights group Human Rights Watch said Thursday that Israel’s stated plan of seizing Gaza and displacing hundreds of thousands of people “inches closer to extermination,” and called on the international community to speak out against it.
With inputs from agencies
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