(MENAFN- The Peninsula)
AFP
Gaza Strip, Palestinian Territories: Israel struck Gaza on Monday and witnesses reported blasts in the besieged territory's south, but fighting has largely subsided after a day of relative calm and as Muslims marked Eid al-Adha.
In a holiday message late Sunday, US President Joe Biden called for the implementation of a ceasefire plan he outlined last month, saying it was "the best way to end the violence in Gaza" and to help civilians suffering "the horrors of the war between Hamas and Israel".
A daytime "pause" for aid deliveries announced at the weekend by Israel's military around a southern Gaza route appeared to be holding, while elsewhere in the Palestinian territory an AFP correspondent said strikes and shelling have decreased.
In Gaza City, medics at Al-Ahli hospital said at least five people were killed in two separate air strikes, and witnesses reported tank shelling in the southern neighbourhood of Zeitun.
At least one strike hit Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, residents said.
Palestinian officials in the far-southern city of Rafah reported tank shelling early on Monday, before the start of the daily "local, tactical pause of military activity" announced by the army.
It said the pause "for humanitarian purposes will take place from 8:00 am (0500 GMT) until 7:00 pm (1600 GMT) every day until further notice along the road that leads from the Kerem Shalom crossing to the Salah al-Din road and then northwards".
Witnesses told AFP they could hear blasts in Rafah's city centre and west on Monday morning.
Humanitarian needs
A map released by the army showed the declared humanitarian route extending up to Rafah's European Hospital, about 10 kilometres (six miles) from Kerem Shalom.
Mahmud Basal, spokesman for the civil defence agency in Gaza, said that apart from the deadly Gaza City strikes overnight, "the other areas of the Gaza Strip are somewhat calm".
He reported military movements and gunfire in parts of Rafah as well as Bureij camp in central Gaza.
On Sunday, the first day of Eid al-Adha, or the feast of the sacrifice, the spokesman said "calm has prevailed across all of Gaza".
The United Nations has welcomed the Israeli announcement of the pause, although "this has yet to translate into more aid reaching people in need", said Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA.
He called for "further concrete measures by Israel to address longstanding issues" on humanitarian needs.
Gazans "urgently need food, water, sanitation, shelter, and health care, with many living near piles of solid waste, heightening health risks," Laerke said.
Dire shortages of food and other essentials in the Gaza Strip have been exacerbated by overland access restrictions and the closure of the key Rafah crossing with Egypt since Israeli forces seized its Palestinian side in early May.
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