������Ƶ

JERUSALEM: Israel’s military kept up its assault on Gaza City and the wider Gaza Strip on Saturday, dismantling underground shafts and booby-trapped structures in attacks that left 34 Palestinians dead, according to Gazan health authorities.
The assault came as 10 countries including Australia, Belgium, Britain and Canada are scheduled to formally recognize an independent Palestinian state on Monday, ahead of the annual leaders’ gathering at the UN General Assembly.
Israel’s intensified military demolition campaign targeting high-rise buildings in Gaza City began this week alongside a ground assault.
Its forces, which control Gaza City’s eastern suburbs, have in recent days been pounding the Sheikh Radwan and Tel Al-Hawa areas from where they would be positioned to advance on central and western parts of the city, where most of the population is sheltering.
The military estimates it has demolished up to 20 Gaza City tower blocks over the past two weeks and believes some 350,000 people have left Gaza City since the start of September. Another 600,000 or so remain, however.
Included in that tally are some of the Israeli hostages being held by the militant group Hamas.
Hamas’ military wing released an image of the hostages on messaging site Telegram earlier on Saturday, warning that their lives were at risk due to Israel’s military operation in Gaza City.
In almost two years of fighting, Israel’s offensive has killed more than 65,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, spread famine, demolished most structures and displaced most of the population, in many cases multiple times.
Israel says the hunger crisis in Gaza has been exaggerated and that Hamas could end the war if it surrendered, freed Israeli hostages, disarmed and disbanded. Hamas says it will not disarm until a Palestinian state is established.
The war began after Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, led attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. A total of 48 of the hostages remain in Gaza, and around 20 are thought to be alive.

WASHINGTON: At a moment of growing international alarm about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, more US adults view Israel’s military action in the Palestinian territory as excessive than at the beginning of the war, according to a new poll.
About half of Americans say the military response from Israel in the Gaza Strip has “gone too far,” according to the survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That’s up from November 2023, when 40 percent said Israel’s military action had gone too far. That AP-NORC poll was conducted shortly after the Oct. 7, 2023, assault on Israel.
But at the same time, Americans overall, particularly Republicans, are less likely to say that negotiating a ceasefire should be a high priority for the US government than they were just a few months ago when the US was holding ceasefire talks with Hamas.
The shift in American attitudes about Israel’s actions comes as Israel begins an expanded ground offensive on Gaza City. Israel is facing increased international scrutiny over its conduct in Gaza, with a team of independent experts commissioned by the UN’s Human Rights Council this week announcing it has concluded that Israel is committing genocide.
“The level of innocent women and children suffering,” said Renee Hollier, of Lafayette, Louisiana, who described herself as a political independent and mother of a toddler. 
“There’s just no justification for this kind of suffering to continue.”
The poll found a bipartisan uptick in Americans finding Israel’s military response has “gone too far.”
About 7 in 10 Democrats say this now, up from 58 percent in November 2023.  And roughly half of independents say the same, compared with about 4 in 10 in the earlier measure. 
Republicans have also moved slightly, from 18 percent to 24 percent.
Concern about overreach from Israel was high in January 2024, when 50 percent of US adults said Israel had “gone too far,” but that fell slightly as the war continued.
And 45 percent of US adults now say it’s “extremely” or “very” important for the US to provide humanitarian relief to Palestinians in Gaza, similar to Americans’ views at the start of the war but up slightly from 41 percent in March.
Miguel Martinez, 55, of Miami, said it remains critical for the Republican administration to prioritize humanitarian relief even as it backs the Israeli military’s effort to defeat Hamas. 
Martinez supports Israel’s aim to defeat Hamas, but he’s concerned that the conflict is dragging on.
“Not everyone there is the enemy,” said Martinez, a Republican who said he broadly approves of Trump’s handling of the conflict. “Those people need help.”
In interviews, Americans across the political spectrum were dour about the prospects of the US mediating a lasting ceasefire. 
“There’s an all-or-nothing attitude on both sides,” Martinez said of Israel and Hamas. 
“Any resolution, any ceasefire, it’s hard to see it being anything more than temporary.”
Democrats are more likely to prioritize negotiations on an independent Palestinian state
Larry Kapenstein, 71, a Democrat from Middletown, Pennsylvania, said he’s worried about the conflict’s long-term ramifications for Israel’s economy and standing in the world.
“I side with Israel, and I think they’re in the right in this, but I think Netanyahu has just taken this too far,” Kapenstein said. “There’s got to be a better way.”
About 3 in 10 US adults said it is “extremely” or “very” important to negotiate the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, unchanged from January 2024. But that belief is especially pronounced among Democrats: About half now say this is highly important, up from 41 percent in 2024. That compares with 19 percent of independents and 14 percent of Republicans.
The survey also found slightly less support for military aid for Israel.
About 2 in 10 US adults said it is “extremely” or “very” important for the US to provide aid to Israel’s military to fight Hamas, down from 36 percent at the war’s start. The decline has been particularly dramatic among Democrats, from 30 percent at the war’s beginning to 15 percent now.