By WAFAA SHURAFA and SAMY MAGDY, Associated Press
Gaza Strip’s DEIR AL-BALAH (AP) Israeli raids on the Gaza Strip continued overnight and into Wednesday, striking a built-up refugee camp and a house in the remote north where displaced Palestinians were taking sanctuary. Palestinian health officials said at least 29 individuals were murdered.
Even after Israel struck a ceasefire with Lebanon’s Hezbollah and focus switched to the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad, the Israel-Hamas war has continued with no end in sight. Although months of ceasefire negotiations have frequently stagnated, both the departing and new U.S. administrations have stated that they intend to conclude the war before the inauguration.
According to the neighboring Kamal Adwan Hospital, which received the victims, the attack on the house killed 19 people in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, which is close to the Israeli border. According to hospital records, four children, their parents, and two grandparents were among the eight members of the family who perished.
According to the Israeli military, it targeted a Hamas militant near the hospital. Without providing further details, it stated that stories of the strike’s death toll were erroneous. The military claims it makes an effort to protect civilians and charges militants with hiding among them and endangering their lives.
A mother and her two children were murdered in another attack near the hospital’s entrance on Wednesday, according to the hospital.
Israeli drones hit neighboring apartment blocks overnight, generating explosions that alarmed the more than 120 ill and injured patients within the hospital, according to Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of the facility.
Neighbors and stranded individuals have called us in despair, but due to the ongoing danger, we are unable to evacuate the hospital, he said. There are many martyrs in the targeted areas, and we are seeing a huge death toll.
According to the Awda Hospital, at least seven individuals were murdered in another attack in the long-standing Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. It stated that three relatives, their parents, and two children were among the deceased.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the other two strikes.
Meanwhile, the IDF reported that two of the four rockets fired into Israel by militants in central Gaza on Wednesday were intercepted. No casualties were reported, while the other two fell in wide spaces.
The military claimed the rockets were fired from a five-block section of the crowded Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza and ordered its evacuation. Israel was to launch strikes in the region shortly, according to the orders.
On October 7, 2023, terrorists led by Hamas invaded Israel, killing around 1,200 people, primarily civilians, and kidnapping about 250 others, including children and elderly people. This marked the start of the conflict. At least a third of the approximately 100 hostages who are still inside Gaza are thought to be dead.
According to local health professionals, Israel’s retaliatory onslaught has killed more than 44,000 Palestinians in Gaza. They claim that over half of the deceased are women and children, but they do not differentiate between fighters and civilians when counting them. Israel claims to have killed more than 17,000 militants, but it offers no proof.
Throughout the conflict, thousands more Palestinians have vanished, some following run-ins with Israeli forces.
Since early October, Israel has been launching a fresh offensive against Hamas in the remote and severely damaged northern part of Gaza. The urban Jabaliya refugee camp, Beit Lahiya, and Beit Hanoun have been encircled by troops, who have ordered tens of thousands to evacuate to neighboring Gaza City and let virtually no humanitarian supplies to enter.
The United Nations humanitarian office stated on Tuesday that it believes between 65,000 and 75,000 people remain in the three settlements, despite Israeli officials’ claims that they are largely abandoned. They have limited access to food, water, electricity, and medical care. There may be hunger in the north, experts have warned.
The senior U.N. humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, Sigrid Kaag, told reporters at the U.N. on Tuesday that the situation facing civilians attempting to survive throughout Gaza is very dire.
The U.N. and several aid organizations are unable to provide food and other necessities to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in need due to the collapse in law and order and looting, she said.
Kaag stated that she and other U.N. representatives are constantly requesting that Israel permit convoys to enter northern Gaza and other areas, permit commercial products to enter, reopen the Rafah gate from Egypt in the south, and authorize dual-use commodities.
The Israeli military claims that it lets in adequate humanitarian aid and accuses the United Nations of failing to distribute it, claiming that substantial volumes of aid have gathered inside Gaza’s boundaries. U.N. officials have repeatedly urged for a ceasefire, claiming that accessing and distributing the supplies is complicated by Israeli restrictions, the breakdown of law and order, and continued violence.
For almost a year, the United States, Egypt, and Qatar have been mediating negotiations between Israel and Hamas; according to diplomats, these efforts have recently accelerated.
However, Hamas has stated that it will not free the remaining detainees until the conflict is over and Israeli forces have completely left the area. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated that Israel will keep a permanent military presence in some regions and has promised to fight the war until Hamas is defeated and all captives are freed.
Magdy was in Cairo reporting. This report was written by Edith Lederer at the United Nations and Natalie Melzer in Nahariya, Israel for the Associated Press.
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