Pressure after 110 mounting for ceasefire killed in Israeli attacks

INTERNATIONAL calls for an immediate ceasefire are growing after Israel targeted a refugee camp with a ferocious set of overnight airstrikes that killed at least 110 people.

- Mark Reynolds

Hours after being accused of "terrorism" by the Pope for shooting dead two unarmed women at a Gaza City church, Israel launched what it said were orchestrated bombing raids on Jabalia in the north of the strip.

Jerusalem insisted it was only targeting "terrorist infrastructure", adding that it had already eliminated thousands of Hamas operatives.

But the attacks on a residential block at the Jabalia refugee camp killed some 110 Palestinians, according to local health officials.

Israel insists it is going to great lengths to avoid hitting civilians.

But the latest deadly attacks came as US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin arrived in Israel, while the UK and Germany stepped up global calls for a "sustainable ceasefire".

France is urging an immediate cessation of hostilities as the death toll in Gaza approaches 20,000, according to figures from the Hamas-run health authorities.

Meanwhile, Pope Francis reentered the Gaza war debate.

Tensions

The head of the Catholic Church accused Israel of using "terrorism" in the Palestinian enclave and deplored the killing by the Israeli military of two Christian women who had sought refuge in a church complex.

The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said a "sniper" from the Israel Defence Forces killed the pair named by the Pope as Nahida Khalil Anton and daughter Samar - as they walked to a convent of nuns in the compound of the Holy Family Parish on Saturday.

Pope Francis said: "I continue to receive very grave and painful news from Gaza.