Dozens killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza as Biden discusses war with Netanyahu

Dozens of Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza on Friday, according to Hamas, in the fourth month of the war affecting relations between Israel and its ally, the United States. 

For the first time since December 23, US President Joe Biden discussed the developments of the war with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday, who had previously reiterated his rejection of a Palestinian state contrary to the US position. 

On the ground in Gaza, eyewitnesses reported intensive airstrikes early on Friday in the main city of Khan Yunis in the southern part of the Strip, where Israel says many Hamas leaders are hiding. 

According to the Health Ministry in Gaza, controlled by Hamas since 2007, Israeli airstrikes had claimed the lives of 77 people in the besieged enclave by midday. 

Israeli forces invaded Gaza on October 27, advancing from the north to the south, causing hundreds of thousands of residents to flee in the early weeks of the war. 

However, the army, which announced on Friday the death of 194 of its members in the sector since the start of the war, claims it still faces isolated fighters in the north. 

On Friday evening, the Al-Nasser Salah al-Deen Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, released a video showing a hostage in Gaza, claiming he was killed in an Israeli airstrike. 

AFP