Adedokun Waliyu 
Israel pounded areas of the Gaza Strip with airstrikes and artillery on Saturday, a day after the United States vetoed a U.N. resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for the first time invoked Article 99 of the U.N. Charter, which enables a U.N. chief to raise threats he sees to international peace and security. He warned of a “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza. But U.S. Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood said on Friday that halting military action would allow Hamas to continue to rule Gaza and “only plant the seeds for the next war.”
The war was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, in which militants from Gaza killed about 1,200, most of them civilians and took more than 240 people hostage.
The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the death toll in the territory has surpassed 17,400 over the past two months, with more than 46,000 wounded. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths, but said 70% of the dead were women and children.
Two hospitals in central and southern Gaza received the bodies of a total of 133 people killed in Israeli bombings over the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory said Saturday.
Seventy-one bodies were brought to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah. The hospital also received 160 wounded people.
Dozens of people were holding funeral prayers Saturday morning in the hospital’s courtyard, before taking the bodies for burial — a scene that has become routine over the past two months of war.
In the southern city of Khan Younis, which has been the focus of Israel’s military operations over the past week, Nasser Hospital received the bodies of 62 people, the ministry said.
The hospital, which is one of the main medical facilities still operating in southern Gaza, also received 99 wounded people, the ministry added.
An Israeli man who was taken hostage by Hamas militants has died in captivity, his community announced Saturday.
His captors said Sahar Baruch was killed during a failed rescue mission by Israeli forces early Friday. The Israeli military has only confirmed that two soldiers were seriously wounded in an attempted hostage rescue and that no hostages were freed.
Baruch, 25, was among more than 240 people taken hostage during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, in which militants from Gaza also killed about 1,200 people. Baruch’s brother was killed in the attack on their community, Kibbutz Be’eri.
The kibbutz confirmed Sahar Baruch’s death Saturday.
More than 130 hostages remain in captivity.
Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man in the West Bank on Saturday and another succumbed to his wounds from an Israeli raid the day before, health officials said.
The deaths brought to 274 the number of Palestinians killed in the occupied territory since the start of the Israel-Hamas war two months ago. Most of the Palestinians were killed during shootouts that the Israeli military says began during operations to arrest suspected militants.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said a 25-year-old man died of his wounds Saturday after being shot during an arrest raid in the Faraa refugee camp on Friday, bringing the death toll there to seven. Among those killed was a local commander of the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade.
Also Saturday, Israeli forces killed a 25-year-old Palestinian near the city of Hebron. The circumstances of the shooting were not immediately clear. The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment.
