Israel bombs Gaza after US criticises high civilian toll

Israel kept up its bombing of Gaza Tuesday, after its key military backer the United States renewed criticism of its ally over the high civilian casualty toll of the war.

Residents told AFP of Israeli warplanes striking central Gaza and artillery fire hitting the territory's south, while medics said they pulled multiple bodies from the rubble of the latest bombardment.

Hours earlier, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told two top Israeli officials that casualties among Palestinian civilians "still remain unacceptably high".

"We continue to see far too many civilians killed in this conflict," spokesman Matthew Miller said after Blinken met Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi.

Washington has been pushing for a truce between Israel and Hamas.

But Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh said Sunday that the group was pulling out of indirect talks for a deal in protest at recent Israeli "massacres", including a massive strike on Sunday that the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said killed at least 92 people.

Haniyeh said Hamas stood ready to return to the indirect talks once Israel "demonstrates seriousness in reaching a ceasefire agreement and a prisoner exchange deal".

After the latest deadly strikes, medics from the Palestinian Red Crescent said they recovered four bodies from a house outside the southern city of Khan Yunis and another from Nuseirat camp in central Gaza.

The Hams-run territory's health ministry reported at least 49 deaths over the previous 24 hours.

The Israeli military said its air force struck "approximately 40 terror targets" in Gaza. They included "sniping posts, observation posts, Hamas military structures, terror infrastructure, and buildings rigged with explosives".

It said its troops were also continuing targeted raids in the far-southern city of Rafah and in the central Gaza Strip.

- Prisoner abuse allegations -

The war began with Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

The militants also seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom are still in Gaza including 42 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel responded with a military offensive that has killed at least 38,713 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the Gaza health ministry.

The Israeli military has also rounded up scores of Gazans, who have made allegations of torture, rape and other abuses in custody that Israeli authorities have denied.

Palestinian lawyer Khaled Mahajna said Monday that prisoners had recounted guards using "electric prods" on inmates' bodies.

In the case of one prisoner, a "fire extinguisher tube was inserted into his buttocks and the fire extinguisher was turned on," Mahajna said after visiting detained Palestinian journalists.

The lawyer said prisoners were handcuffed when they ate the meagre meals provided, while detainees reported widespread disease and untreated wounds.

Five Israeli human rights groups have gone to court over conditions at the Sde Teiman desert camp where Gazans are being held. Israeli officials insist they act within the bounds of international law.

- Mass displacement -

Indirect talks on ending the devastating war have been brokered by Qatar and Egypt, with US support, but months of negotiations have failed to bring a breakthrough.

At the end of May, US President Joe Biden outlined a ceasefire roadmap he said had been drawn up by Israel that triggered an intensification of the talks.

But despite meetings in both Cairo and Doha, there has been no sign of progress on how the roadmap might be implemented.

Critics in Israel, including tens of thousands of demonstrators who have marched to demand a deal to bring home the hostages, have accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of prolonging the war.

The war has forced 90 percent of Gaza's 2.4 million people to flee their homes. Many have sought refuge in UN-run schools, six of which have been hit by Israeli strikes since July 6.

"Why do they target us when we are innocent people," asked Umm Mohammed al-Hasanat, who was sheltering with her family at a UN-run school in Nuseirat, which was among the six hit.

"We do not carry weapons but are just sitting and trying to find safety for ourselves and our children."