CAIRO: Israeli tanks pushed deeper into central and southern Gaza on Saturday, pressing a deadly offensive that has razed much of the enclave and that Israel has said may last several months.
Fighting was focused around refugee camps in Al Bureij, Nuseirat, Maghazi and Khan Yunis, backed by intensive air strikes that filled hospitals with injured Palestinians.
The bombardment has killed 165 people and wounded 250 others in Gaza over the past 24 hours, health authorities in the Hamas-run territory said.
At Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, the biggest and most important medical facility in the south of the tiny, crowded territory, a Red Crescent video showed paramedics rushing a tiny, dust-covered baby into a busy hospital as one shouted “there is breathing, there is breathing”.
Refugee camps being targeted; 165 more killed over the past 24 hours; Hamas condemns US sale of arms to Israel
Almost all of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been forced from their homes by Israel’s assault, which began on Oct 7.
The offensive has killed 21,672 Palestinians, according to health authorities in Gaza, with more than 56,000 injured and thousands more feared dead under the rubble.
The conflict risks spreading across the region, drawing in what Israelis call “Iran-aligned groups” in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen, which have exchanged fire with Israel and its US ally, or targeted merchant shipping.
Bombardment has smashed houses, apartment blocks and businesses and put hospitals out of action. On Saturday, the Palestinian culture ministry said Israeli strikes had struck a medieval bathhouse. The old Great Mosque was hit earlier in the war.
‘Ceasefire now’
Ziad, a medic in Maghazi in central Gaza, was planning to flee with his family of three children. The only road still open for them was the coastal route running past Deir Al Balah, already crammed with the displaced.
But he said they would press on straight to Rafah, on the border with Egypt, fearing a new Israeli assault on Deir Al Balah. “We want a ceasefire now. Not tomorrow even. Enough, more than enough, already,” he said.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Friday troops were reaching Hamas command centres and arms depots. Pictures the military released showed soldiers moving across churned-up earth among ruins of destroyed buildings.
The Israeli military claimed it had destroyed a tunnel complex in the basement of one of the houses of the Hamas leader for Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, in Gaza City.
The US has called upon Israel to scale down the bombardment in coming weeks and move to targeted operations against Hamas leaders, although so far it shows no sign 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.
Hamas condemned the US approval of the $147.5 million sale of high-explosive artillery munitions and related equipment to Israel.
The United States announced the sale of the 155mm artillery munitions under an emergency provision that waives the normal requirement for a congressional review.
Hamas said the sale was “clear evidence of the American administration’s full sponsorship of this criminal war”.
President Joe Biden’s administration “conspicuously aligns itself with and actively supports all atrocities perpetrated” by Israel, the group said in a statement.
Israel said on Friday it had facilitated the entry of vaccines into Gaza in coordination with Unicef, the United Nations children’s agency, to help prevent the spread of disease.
The little aid reaching the enclave since the start of the crisis has come across the border with Egypt. Israel imposed a near total blockade on all food, medicine and fuel entering Gaza in October.
It has only allowed access to the south of the enclave, where it started ordering all Gaza civilians to leave their homes.
Aid agencies have said Israeli inspections have stopped all but a small fraction of needed supplies getting in.
An Israeli government spokesman said on Friday it does not limit humanitarian aid and the problem was with its distribution inside Gaza.
Al Bureij, Nuseirat and Khan Yunis are three out of eight Palestinian refugee camps in Gaza that in normal times receive services from the UN Relief and Works Agency. The agency cares for Palestinians who fled or were driven from their homes during Israel’s creation in 1948 and live in camps in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Journalist killed
A Palestinian journalist working for Al Quds TV was killed along with some of his family members in an air strike on their house in the Nuseirat camp, in 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 offensive.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said last week that the first 10 weeks of the Gaza crisis were the deadliest recorded for journalists, with the most journalists killed in a single year in one location.
Most of the dead journalists and media workers were Palestinian. The report by the US-based CPJ said it was “particularly concerned about an apparent pattern of targeting of journalists and their families by the Israeli military”.
Israel has previously said it has never and will never deliberately attack journalists and that it is doing what it can to avoid civilian casualties, but the high death toll has caused concern even among its staunchest allies.
Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2023
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