Israel kills at least 50 in Gaza, forces encircle northern Jabalia
Israeli military strikes killed at least 50 Palestinians
across the Gaza Strip as Israeli forces tightened their squeeze around Jabalia
in the north of the enclave on Tuesday, amid fierce battles with Hamas-led
fighters.
Palestinian health officials said at least 17 people were
killed by Israeli fire near Al-Falouja in Jabalia, the largest of Gaza's eight
historic refugee camps, while 10 others were killed in Bani Suhaila in eastern
Khan Younis in the south when an Israeli missile struck a house.
Earlier on Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike destroyed three
houses in the Sabra suburb of Gaza City, and the local civil emergency service
said they recovered two bodies from the site, while the search continued for 12
other people who were believed to have been in the houses at the time.
Eight others were killed when a house was struck in the
Nuseirat camp in central Gaza.
The Gaza health ministry said one doctor was killed when he
tried to help people wounded by Israeli strikes in Al-Falouja in Jabalia. It
added that several medics were wounded when their ambulance came under Israeli
fire in the northern and southern Gaza Strip.
Jabalia has been the focus of an Israeli offensive for more
than 10 days, with troops returning to areas of the north that came under heavy
bombardment in the early months of the year-long war.
The operation has raised concerns among Palestinians and
U.N. agencies that Israel wants to clear residents from the north of the
crowded enclave, a charge it has denied. Residents said Israeli forces
destroyed dozens of houses in the past 10 days.
On Tuesday, the Israeli military said troops had killed
dozens of fighters in the Jabalia area over the past day, including a unit that
fired an anti-tank missile at them.
The United Nations human rights office said the Israeli
military appeared to be "cutting off North Gaza completely from the rest
of the Gaza Strip."
"Gaza families are facing unimaginable fear, loss of
loved ones, confusion, and exhaustion. People must be able to flee safely,
without facing further danger," Adrian Zimmerman,
The Israeli military's administrative unit, Cogat, which
oversees aid and commercial shipments to Gaza, said on Tuesday that operations
in Jabalia were targeting terrorist infrastructure and operatives embedded
inside civilian areas. It said it was facilitating humanitarian, and in
particular medical aid to residents.
JABALIA ENCIRCLED
The Israeli military has now encircled the Jabalia camp and
sent tanks into nearby Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun towns, with the declared aim
of stamping out Hamas fighters who are trying to regroup there.
The Israeli military has told residents to leave their homes
and head to safety in southern Gaza. Palestinian and U.N. officials say there
is no safe place in Gaza.
Hamas' armed wing said fighters were engaged in fierce
battles with Israeli forces in and around Jabalia.
Gaza's health ministry said the army ordered the three
hospitals operating there to evacuate but medical staffers said they were
determined to continue their services.
Cogat said in recent days it had facilitated the transfer of
33 patients, medical staff and accompanying personnel from the Kamal Adwan
Hospital in the north to functioning facilities elsewhere in Gaza.
It said it has also provided 68,650 litres of fuel to
hospitals and coordinated the delivery of 800 blood transfusion units.
Ismail Al-Thawabta, the director of the Hamas-run Gaza
government media office, said Israel was trying to give a misleading impression
and that its forces had been preventing ambulance and civil emergency teams
from recovering the bodies of dozens of people from the streets.
Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, one of
the three hospitals in northern Gaza, said they were facing serious shortages
of food, medication, and fuel, that could soon impact patients in their
facilities.
"There is a stark shortage of consumables and supplies
began to run out. Milk is running out, and everything available is depleting
and we could face a humanitarian disaster that would impact those in the
maternity and the neonatal units," said Abu Safiya in a video appeal to
international relief and human rights groups.
The northern part of Gaza is home to well over half the
territory's 2.3 million people. Around 400,000 people remain, according to
United Nations estimates.
Israel launched the offensive against Hamas after the
militant group's Oct. 7 attack on Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and
around 250 taken hostage in Gaza, by Israeli tallies. More than 42,000
Palestinians have been killed in the offensive so far, according to Gaza's
health authorities.
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