By Bassam Masoud and Nidal al-Mughrabi
Israel bombed the Gaza Strip from north to south on Saturday in an expanded phase of its two-month war against Hamas, hours after the United States exercised its veto at the UN Security Council to protect its ally from a global demand for a ceasefire.
Thirteen of the 15 members of the Security Council voted on Friday in favor of the resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, blocked by Washington. Britain abstained.
Since the collapse of the truce last week, Israel has expanded its ground campaign to the southern half of the Gaza Strip with the assault on the main southern city, Khan Younis. Simultaneously, both sides have reported a significant increase in fighting in the north.
Residents of Khan Younis said on Saturday that Israeli forces were ordering people to leave another district just west of positions raided earlier in the week, suggesting a new attack could be imminent.
The vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have already been forced to flee their homes, and many have fled multiple times. Fighting is spreading throughout the territory, with residents and UN agencies claiming there is nowhere safe to go, although Israel denies this.
Israel has prevented Gazans from fleeing along the main north-south route along the narrow strip and instead diverted them towards the Mediterranean coast.
In Khan Yunis, the dead and wounded arrived at the overflowing Nasser hospital during the night. A doctor ran out of an ambulance with the limp body of a little girl dressed in a pink tracksuit.
Injured children cried and writhed on the tile floor as nurses rushed to comfort them on the spot. Outside, meanwhile, the corpses were lined up in white shrouds.
Nassar and another southern hospital, al Aqsa in Deir al-Ballah, reported 133 dead and 259 wounded in the past 24 hours, bringing the official death toll to nearly 17,500, with many thousands more missing and presumed dead.
There were no new death tolls and injuries on Saturday from other parts of Gaza, including the entire northern half, where hospitals have stopped functioning and ambulances often can no longer reach the dead.
“We believe that the number of martyrs under the rubble could be higher than those received in hospitals,” Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra told Reuters.
Fighting in the north has been most intense in areas of Gaza City and settlements on its northern edge, where huge explosions could be seen from the other side of Israel’s fence.
Families in northern Gaza posted messages online pleading with emergency teams to rush into the city to rescue loved ones still trapped there.
Israel launched its campaign to annihilate Hamas leaders in Gaza after fighters from the Iran-backed Islamist group stormed the Gaza border fence on October 7, killing 1,200 people and capturing 240 hostages in an assault on cities. Israelis.
Washington said it has called on Israel to do more than it has done so far to protect civilians in the next phase of the war. This week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said there was a “gap” between promises to protect civilians and the result on the ground.
But Washington has continued to support Israel’s insistence that a ceasefire would only benefit Hamas.
Ezzat El-Reshiq, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, condemned the US veto as “inhumane.” Meanwhile, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, said in a statement: “A ceasefire will only be possible with the return of all hostages and the destruction of Hamas.”
The White House said Friday that Israel could do more to reduce civilian casualties and that Washington shared international concern about the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
“Certainly, we all recognize that more can be done to try to reduce civilian casualties,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
Source: Ambito
