Dozens injured in attacks in Bureij, Maghazi is the only functioning hospital in the area “overflowing” with patients, health official says.
At least 15 people were killed in Israeli ground and air strikes on the Bureij and Maghazi refugee camps in central Gaza, a Palestinian health official said.
“More than 15 martyrs and dozens of injured people have arrived at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the last few hours,” a Health Ministry spokesperson told journalists outside the hospital in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza. .
If the “aggression” in central Gaza areas does not stop, the death toll is expected to rise quickly, he said.
Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital is the only medical facility that currently provides services to more than a million people in the area, the spokesperson said.
The establishment does not have the capacity for more patients, he warned, adding that the hospital is already “overflowing with injured people”, many of whom are being treated on the floor.
An attack on another house in the neighboring Maghazi refugee camp killed two people, according to officials at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital.
Previously, the Israeli military said in a statement that jets were hitting Hamas targets in central Gaza, while ground forces operated “in a concentrated manner, with intelligence guidance” in the al-Bureij area.
Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Deir el-Balah, said the hospital’s medical staff were overwhelmed by the number of casualties.
“Doctors are rushing everywhere, searching for remaining medical supplies, including antiseptics and anesthetics, to carry out urgent life-saving operations,” Mahmoud said.
“We can still hear explosions from ongoing attacks and heavy machine gun fire in the eastern area of central Gaza – including the densely populated camps of Maghazi and Bureij,” he added.
“We are learning from victims’ relatives that there are still entire families trapped in bombed-out homes in these camps.”
Wavering ceasefire proposal?
Israeli forces launched an offensive earlier this year over several weeks on Bureij and several other nearby refugee camps in central Gaza.
Troops withdrew from the Jabalia camp in northern Gaza last Friday, after weeks of fighting caused widespread destruction in the already devastated area. First responders recovered the bodies of 360 people, mostly women and children, a Gaza civil defense spokesman said.
The Israeli airstrikes and ground offensives across the Gaza Strip come at a time when international mediators expect Israel and Hamas to respond to a new ceasefire and a proposed exchange of captives.
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said on Tuesday that the group will not accept a deal with Israel that does not clearly establish a permanent ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
“The Israeli response talks about opening the door to negotiations on everything, without end or deadline… this confirms that Israel only wants a phase, where it takes its prisoners and then resumes its aggression and war against our people,” said Hamdan.
“As long as there is no clear position of readiness on the part of the Zionist occupation for a permanent ceasefire and a total withdrawal from Gaza… we cannot agree to an agreement that does not ensure and guarantee a permanent ceasefire, a total withdrawal and a subsequent prisoner exchange. ,” he added.
When announcing the plan last week, US President Joe Biden said the three-phase plan was proposed by Israel, however, Israeli leaders have since appeared to distance themselves from the proposal and have vowed to continue the fight against Hamas. until the group is destroyed.
Israeli bombings and ground operations in Gaza have killed more than 36,000 Palestinians, according to the Ministry of Health.
Israel is expanding its offensive on the southern Gaza city of Rafah and has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and other supplies to Palestinians facing widespread hunger.
More than 1 million Palestinians have fled Rafah, mainly to tent camps that have sprung up in central and southern Gaza.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
