Cairo/Jerusalem/Gaza:
Israeli tanks pushed deep into central and southern Gaza under heavy air and artillery fire on Saturday, residents said, in a deadly offensive that destroyed much of the enclave and that Israel said could last for months. can be OK.
Fighting was concentrated in al-Burij, Nussirat, Maghaji and Khan Yunis, supported by intense air strikes, leaving hospitals filled with wounded Palestinians.
Health officials in the Hamas-run territory said 165 people had been killed and 250 others injured in bombings in Gaza in the past 24 hours.
At Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, the largest and most important medical facility in the south of the small, crowded area, a Red Crescent video showed paramedics carrying a small, dust-covered baby into a busy hospital And one is shouting “There is breathing, there is breathing”.
Nearly all of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been forced from their homes by Israel’s 12-week offensive, which began on October 7 when Hamas and allied groups attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 240 hostages. It started after the capture.
According to health officials in Gaza, at least 21,672 Palestinians have been killed in the attack, more than 56,000 have been injured and thousands more are feared dead under the debris.
Mariam Abu Akel, a Palestinian girl rescued from under the debris of a house hit by an Israeli strike, and her brother Hamed receive medical care inside an ambulance in Rafah, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. Southern Gaza Strip, December 29, 2023. Photo: Reuters
Israel says that 170 of its military personnel have been killed in the Gaza fighting.
The conflict threatens to spread across the region with the involvement of Iran-aligned groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen, which have exchanged fire with Israel and its US ally, or targeted merchant shipping.
The bombing has destroyed homes, apartment blocks and businesses and put hospitals out of action. On Saturday, the Palestinian Culture Ministry said Israeli strikes targeted a medieval bathhouse. The Old Great Mosque was attacked at the beginning of the war.
Ziad, a doctor in Maghazi, central Gaza, was fleeing with his family of three children towards Rafah on the border with Egypt.
“We want a ceasefire now. Not even tomorrow. Enough is enough, too much already,” he said.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant said on Friday that troops were reaching Hamas command centers and weapons depots. Photos released by the army showed soldiers walking on raised earth amid the ruins of destroyed buildings.
artillery shells
The Israeli military said it has destroyed a tunnel complex in the basement of one of the homes of Gaza’s Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza City. A military statement said troops also raided a Hamas military intelligence headquarters and an Islamic Jihad command center in Khan Yunis, killing several gunmen in ambushes elsewhere in the city, including a weapons factory. Destroyed their bases.
In northern Gaza, Israeli forces killed more than 15 gunmen in the clashes and captured a weapons cache, the statement said.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad said in separate statements that their fighters destroyed and damaged several Israeli tanks and military carriers in attacks in Gaza on Saturday. He also said they fired mortar bombs against Israeli forces in the areas of Khan Younis and al-Burij, as well as in northern Gaza.
Israel’s stated aim is to destroy Hamas and while the US has called on it to de-escalate the war in the coming weeks and step up targeted operations against the group’s leaders, it has so far shown no signs of doing so .
On Friday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken approved the sale of more artillery shells and other equipment to Israel without congressional review, the Pentagon said.
Read more: US skips congressional review to approve sale of artillery projectiles to Israel
Israel said on Friday it had facilitated the entry of vaccines into Gaza in coordination with the UN children’s agency UNICEF to help stop the spread of the disease.
What little aid has reached the enclave since the beginning of the war, when Israel imposed an almost complete blockade of all food, medicine and fuel, has arrived across the border with Egypt.
Israel has allowed access only to the south of the enclave, where it began ordering the relocation of all Gaza civilians in October, and aid agencies have said Israeli inspections have prevented access to a small portion of essential supplies. Everyone has been stopped.
The Israeli government said it does not limit humanitarian aid and that the problem lies with distribution inside Gaza.
Al-Burij, Nusirat and Khan Yunis are three of eight camps established in Gaza for Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes during the creation of Israel in 1948. After decades of construction the camps have gradually become overcrowded urban areas. Other Palestinian refugees live in camps in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the West Bank.
Palestinian journalist murdered
South Africa on Friday asked the International Court of Justice for an immediate order declaring Israel in breach of its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention in its actions against Hamas in Gaza.
In response, Israel’s Foreign Ministry blamed Hamas for inflicting suffering on Palestinians in Gaza by using them as human shields and stealing relief aid from them. Hamas has denied the allegations.
The Gaza war has also sparked violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli troops on Saturday shot dead a Palestinian motorist who tried to run them over near the West Bank city of Hebron, the army said. The Palestinian Health Ministry said he was killed in the incident.
A Palestinian journalist working for al-Quds TV was killed along with some of his family members in an airstrike on his home in the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip on Friday, health officials and fellow journalists said.
Gaza’s government media office says 106 Palestinian journalists have been killed in the Israeli attack.
Israel has previously said it has never and would not deliberately attack journalists and is doing what it can to avoid civilian casualties, but the high death toll has raised concern even among its staunchest allies. Has given.
