Israel strongly intensified its attacks against the Gaza Strip, bombing the entire Palestinian enclave and killing hundreds of people in a new, more extensive phase of the war. This Friday, the army reported that it had attacked more than 450 targets in Gaza from land, sea and air in the last 24 hours, the most since the truce was broken last week and nearly double the daily figures usually reported since then.
This increases concern in the United States, since according to Washington contradicts Israeli promises to try to protect civilians. Furthermore, the main UN agency in the area stated that society is “on the brink of total collapse”, as the vast majority of displaced Gazans find themselves without access to aid, with overcrowded hospitals and without food.
Both residents and the Israeli military reported the heaviest fighting in areas of the north – where Israel said its troops largely completed their tasks last month – as well as in the south, where They launched a new assault this week.
The Gaza Health Ministry reported the deaths of 350 people on Thursday, bringing the death toll to more than 17,170 the number of deaths in the two-month Israeli campaign in Gaza, with thousands more missing and presumably buried under the rubble. On Friday morning, there were more shelling in Khan Younis in the south, Nusseirat countryside in the center and Gaza City in the north.
“When we have been campaigning in the south for almost a week (…) it remains imperative that Israel prioritize the protection of civilians“U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a press conference in Washington on Thursday. “And there remains a gap between (…) the intention to protect civilians and the actual results we are seeing on the ground,” he added.
Israel’s campaign to eliminate the Palestinian group Hamas
Israel began a campaign to annihilate the Hamas group after their October 7 incursion into Israeli territory, in which they killed 1,200 people and took more than 240 hostages, according to Israeli counts.
Since then, the vast majority of 2.3 million Gazans They have been expelled from their homes, many forced to flee three or four times, with only the belongings they can carry.
Now that fighting is spreading to both halves of the Gaza Strip at once, Gazans say it is almost impossible to find shelter. Israel says it is providing more details than ever about which areas are safe and how to reach them, and blames Hamas for the harm civilians suffer by operating among them, something Hamas denies.
Hamas reported that the Heaviest fighting with Israeli forces was in the northin the Shejaia district of Gaza City, as well as in the south, in Khan Younis, where the Israelis arrived on Wednesday in the heart of the enclave’s second largest city.
The Israeli army spokesman posted in Arabic on social media that troops were operating “vigorously against Hamas and terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip, especially in the Khan Younis area and in the north of the Strip.”
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Courtesy CNN.
With Israel moving to southern Gaza, no place is safe
All residents were to leave the areas of Jabaliya and Zeitoun in the north, as well as Shejaia and the old town of Gaza City, the defense forces said. In the south, residents seeking refuge should head to the coast, as the main north-south route through the spine of the enclave is now “a battlefield,” he said.
Much of northern Gaza is already rubble, so the Israeli army moved south in the last week and fighting broke out in the streets and buildings of Khan Yunis, the main city. Now that the fighting is spreading in all directions, the places they can go There are fewer and fewer civilians fleeing.
Source: Ambito
