GAZA: The Israeli army intensified shelling of northern Gaza and closed roads, preventing the delivery of aid, the Palestinian territory’s civil defence agency said on Wednesday.

At least 18 people were killed in overnight military strikes on Gaza, Palestinian medics said, as Israeli forces pressed on with a raid on the Jabalia refugee camp in the enclave’s north.

The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said it had received unconfirmed reports that several Palestinians may have been killed in Jabalia and other areas of northern Gaza, but is unable reach them because of Israeli bombardments.

“At least 400,000 people are trapped in the area,” Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN Palestinian refugee Agency (UNRWA), posted on X on Wednesday. The army, which said it surrounded Jabalia in northern Gaza at the weekend, issued new evacuation demands on Tuesday.

Four Palestinians killed in occupied West Bank raid

“Recent evacuation orders from the Israeli Authorities are forcing people to flee again & again, especially from Jabalia Camp. Many are refusing because they know too well that no place anywhere in #Gaza is safe.”

Lazzarini said some UNRWA shelters and services were being forced to shut down for the first time since the conflict began and that with almost no basic supplies available, hunger was spreading again in northern Gaza.

West Bank killings

Israeli police also confirmed killing of at least four Palestinians in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, Palestinian health authorities and Israeli security forces said.

The Palestinian health ministry reported in a statement Wednesday that “four martyrs shot by the occupation in Nablus have been transferred to Rafidia Government Hospital”. It later said the men were aged between 31 and 43 years old.

Nablus governor Ghassan Daghlas said that “the four martyrs are ordinary citizens who were among the people and were killed among the people in cold blood”. He called the killing “a cowardly and deliberate assassination”.

He added that one man was from Balata camp, while the remaining three were from the Askar camp in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967. Hisham Abu Aoun, head of the intensive care unit for the Friends of the Patient Hospital, said at least six children were evacuated to his hospital in Gaza City.

Amal Nasr, a resident of Jabalia, said her daughter Dana and husband Rami were both injured by gunfire while fleeing the area. “My daughter Dana was shot in the neck, and my husband was shot in his leg by the occupation forces”, she said, adding her daughter was taken to a Gaza City hospital and was now in stable condition.

“I was injured while we were leaving our house. I was shot in the neck and started to bleed”, Dana Nasr said from the Al Ahli Hospital. “There were many injured people in the streets of Jabalia,” she added.

Gaza’s hospitals are struggling with limited supplies. The health ministry appealed on Tuesday for international help, warning fuel shortages could force hospitals to close.

The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said “intensified military operations” in northern Gaza forced it to halt services. This included the evacuation of seven UNRWA schools used as shelters by displaced Gazans. The Israeli army on Wednesday said operations were ongoing “throughout Gaza”.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2024