Israeli forces have intensified attacks on areas in the northern Gaza Strip despite new ongoing ceasefire discussions.
At least 50 people were killed in the latest 24-hour reporting period and dozens were injured in attacks across the besieged coastal enclave, Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Tuesday.
Israeli tanks have deepened their incursions into some districts of Gaza City, such as Shujayea, Sabra and Tal al-Hawa, where residents have reported some of the fiercest fighting since the start of the war.
The armed wings of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad said they fought Israeli soldiers in Tal al-Hawa with anti-tank rockets and mortars and inflicted casualties. Gaza City residents reported “explosions and numerous gunfights” as well as overnight helicopter strikes on southwestern neighborhoods.
The Israeli army focused its attention on Gaza City after announcing it had intelligence showing that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters operated there.
Gaza City residents have now been told to move to the central district of Deir el-Balah, which, according to the United Nations, “is already seriously overcrowded with Palestinians displaced from other areas of the Gaza Strip.”
In the first weeks of the war, Israel called on civilians in the north of the enclave to move south, declaring the area a “safe zone” but later expanding its attacks there.
Maha Mahfouz fled his home with his two children and many other Palestinians from the Zeitoun neighborhood in Gaza City. She said their area was not included in the latest evacuation orders, but “we are panicking because the shelling and gunfire is very close to us.”
Dead women and children
Seven people died in an explosion in a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza. Six people died in an attack on a house on al-Jalaa Street, north of Gaza City, and three others were killed in a bomb attack in nearby Lababida.
Marwan al-Sultan, director of the Indonesian Hospital, said he received 80 patients and injured people from al-Ahli Hospital. They had to be crammed into “every corner,” he said, as Gaza’s medical facilities were overwhelmed with the wounded as they struggled to remain operational due to Israeli strikes and a lack of supplies.
“Many cases require urgent surgery. Many cases suffer direct gunshots to the head and require intensive care. Fuel and medical supplies are running low,” he said.
He said the hospital also received 16 bodies, half of them women and children.
Mahmoud Bassal, a Civil Defense spokesman, said the military shelled houses in the Jaffa area of Gaza City and that rescuers “saw people lying on the ground and were unable to recover them.”
In a situation update on Tuesday, the Israeli army said its forces “eliminated dozens of terrorists and located numerous weapons” during their operations in Gaza City.
Its soldiers continue to carry out attacks “above and below” the ground in the Shujayea neighborhood, he added.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said it was “appalled” by the latest mass evacuation orders as “civilians continue to be killed and injured”.
At least 38,243 people have been killed in Gaza and 88,033 people have been injured in Israel’s war since October 7, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. The war began that day after Hamas attacked southern Gaza, killing at least 1,139 people and taking dozens more captive.
Hassan Barari, professor of international affairs at Qatar University, said the level of attacks on the civilian population is nothing new.
“These atrocities have been the hallmark of the Israeli operation in Gaza since the beginning,” he told Al Jazeera.
Ceasefire negotiations
As Israel increases its bombardment of northern Gaza, Hamas and Israeli authorities have discussed a potential ceasefire with mediators.
But on Monday, Hamas warned that intensifying attacks would bring talks back to “zero”. Its political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, said he had made “urgent contact” with mediators warning of the “catastrophic consequences” of the deadly incursions.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi discussed efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza on Tuesday in Cairo with US Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement. an announcement.
Burns and the head of Israel’s Mossad, David Barnea, will travel to Doha on Wednesday and meet with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, a key mediator.
Barari said the first phase of the proposed ceasefire – six weeks without any fighting – is crucial for the people of Gaza to have some sense of security after nine months of relentless attacks and to receive desperately needed humanitarian aid.
“The continuation of the war is not good for the Palestinians, but it is also not good for the Israelis. If the Israeli government manages to secure the release of the hostages, the impetus for the continuation of the war will become less and less,” said Barari.
“I think this would be a warning to Israeli society that the time has come to end the war.”
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
