At least 22 people have been killed in an airstrike in northern Gaza as Israeli forces step up operations in the besieged Palestinian territory as a new war in Lebanon rages on.
On Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) renewed evacuation orders for Palestinians still living in the devastated northern half of Gaza, but many residents were forced to leave due to fighting and Israeli sniper fire. claims that it is impossible.
IDF spokesman Avichai Adlai told People that the area includes parts of Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan district and areas around the urban refugee camp Jabalia.
In a social media post, Adlai called on people living there to move south to Almawasi, a coastal region south of Gaza where hundreds of thousands of people have already fled. A total of 84% of the territory is now under evacuation orders, with civilians forced into increasingly dwindling “humanitarian zones,” and Israel continues to carry out airstrikes nonetheless.
The United Nations says an estimated 400,000 people have been trapped in recent ground fighting and shelling, mainly in Jabalia, with fighting now in its second week.
“It’s getting tougher day by day. The fear and the situation are indescribable,” said Badr al-Zaharna, 25, from Gaza City. “I can’t leave. I want to travel but I can’t. Rafah crossing has been closed since May.”
Gaza’s Ministry of Health warned on Friday that civilians caught in heavy shelling and airstrikes are in short supply, and has refused to allow medical teams into the northern half of the area to evacuate injured people. Asked for fuel to be delivered to hospitals in the north. About food and water. The United Nations agency announced this week that seven World Health Organization missions were blocked from accessing northern Gaza by Israeli forces. Also on Saturday, the United Nations food agency, the World Food Program, said that no food aid had reached northern Gaza since October 1 and that food supplies for families around the rest of Gaza had fallen by 35%, leaving the country in dire straits. It was reported that there are new concerns about disasters. Hunger and starvation have plagued the Strip for a year already.
The last food supplies – canned goods, flour, high-energy biscuits and nutritional supplements – are being distributed to evacuation centers and health facilities in the north, but it is unclear how long they will last. Israel has consistently denied blocking aid and food to Gaza.
Doctors and first responders say Friday night’s Jabalia airstrike destroyed an entire building and severely damaged several more, but a 20-meter-deep impact crater left behind rubble and ruins. The missing person is currently being rescued.
The dead included at least six women and seven children, with two parents killed and an infant injured in a strike in another area of ​​Jabalia early Saturday, the Hamas-controlled health ministry said. announced. Hospitals across Gaza reported receiving a total of 49 bodies and 219 injured people in the past 24 hours.
The Israel Defense Forces did not immediately respond to a request for comment on recent attacks and civilian deaths in Gaza.
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Israel has nominally controlled the northern half of Gaza since the beginning of this year, splitting the territory in half by building what is known as the Netzarim Corridor, which separates the once-populous Gaza City from the rest of the Gaza Strip. Divided. But it has since frequently re-entered Gaza City and other parts of the northern Gaza Strip, where Hamas fighters say they are regrouping.
In Lebanon, health authorities say 60 people have been killed and another 168 injured in the past 24 hours, and UN peacekeepers operating along the Blue Line separating Israel and Lebanon say their headquarters in Nakoura has been targeted for the second time. Announced. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the fire.
After a year of retaliatory fire sparked by the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and the ensuing war in Gaza, Israel stepped up operations against the Lebanese militia group Hezbollah last month.
A new war in Lebanon raises the risk that Iran and the United States will expand across the region. Ceasefire negotiations to end the fighting in Gaza have stalled since July.
