Touch upon this storyCommentAdd to your saved storiesSave
AMMAN, Jordan — Israel on Sunday launched strikes in northern and southern Gaza, hitting densely populated areas the place it says Hamas militants are hiding, and squeezing civilians into smaller patches of territory as choices dwindle for a whole bunch of hundreds of Palestinians in search of refuge.
Casualties seemed to be heaviest within the already hard-hit north, the place recent strikes on the Jabalya refugee camp got here Sunday as residents have been nonetheless reeling from a barrage the day earlier than, in keeping with native information studies. In the meantime, Israel signaled a widening of floor operations with new evacuation warnings within the southern hub of Khan Younis, the place Palestinians already displaced from the north had been instructed to maneuver.
“The Israeli military is constant and increasing the bottom operation in opposition to the Hamas presence in each a part of the Gaza Strip,” Israeli army spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari stated at a briefing Sunday.
Earlier, the top of the Israel Protection Forces, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, instructed reservists with the Gaza Division that the battle in opposition to Hamas was shifting south — and that the combat can be simply as fierce because it was within the north. “Simply as we did it strongly and totally within the northern Gaza Strip, we’re additionally doing it now within the southern Gaza Strip,” he stated.
However assist companies and fleeing Palestinians say the scattered strike areas and blended messages from Israel about the place to go have sown panic and confusion, leaving households no clear path to security amid intense bombardment and a dire humanitarian disaster.
The Gaza Well being Ministry on Sunday counted not less than 316 individuals killed and a further 664 wounded previously 24 hours, including that the quantity was more likely to rise as our bodies have been retrieved from the rubble. Greater than 15,500 individuals have been killed and greater than 41,000 wounded in Gaza because the battle started, the ministry stated Sunday.
Why information shops and the U.N. depend on Gaza Well being Ministry for loss of life tolls
“We’re killed twice. As soon as due to bombing and destruction, and once more due to harsh residing circumstances, concern and terror,” stated Emad, a 56-year-old schoolteacher who declined to offer his final identify due to security issues. He stated his massive household, staying at a shelter in central Khan Younis, had already relocated 4 instances. “They instructed us to maneuver south, and we moved. Now there isn’t any farther than that. The place can we go?”
The place to go is the important thing query for Palestinians in Gaza, with an estimated 1.8 million individuals — or 80 p.c of the inhabitants — now internally displaced, in keeping with the U.N. Workplace for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Monitoring harm inside the Gaza Strip by way of maps
Underneath more and more public strain from the Biden administration and different Western allies over the excessive civilian toll, Israel posted maps on-line that it stated would higher assist Palestinians make their solution to a “safer” zone. However assist teams and displaced households say the grids lack specifics and direct individuals to areas which can be inaccessible, overcrowded or beneath assault.
Leaflets embody a QR code for extra info, however a lot of the enclave is working in near-blackout circumstances, with sporadic cellphone or web service.
“I can not overstate the concern, panic & confusion that these Israeli maps are inflicting civilians in #Gaza, together with my very own employees,” Melanie Ward, head of the reduction group Medical Help for Palestinians, posted on X, previously Twitter. “Individuals can not run from place to position to attempt to escape Israel’s bombs, nor does worldwide regulation anticipate them to. What’s being executed is unconscionable.”
Within the maps, Israel designated about 25 p.c of the Gaza Strip for evacuation, in keeping with OCHA. The help company stated one of many zones — a roughly 27-square-mile space east of Khan Younis — was dwelling to about 352,000 individuals earlier than the beginning of the battle.
In latest days, Biden administration officers have issued pointed requires Israel to do extra to keep away from civilian casualties within the almost two-month-old battle, which erupted Oct. 7 after Hamas militants killed not less than 1,200 individuals and kidnapped scores of others in a devastating assault inside Israel.
Israel responded with army operations which have turned Gaza into what U.N. Secretary Normal António Guterres has referred to as “hell on earth,” with ladies and youngsters representing about 70 p.c of the lifeless.
Israel laments the dimensions of the lack of civilian life in Gaza however holds Hamas chargeable for it, authorities spokesman Eylon Levy stated Sunday.
“The Israeli military has made each effort upholding our obligations beneath worldwide regulation to get civilians out of hurt’s manner,” he stated.
As Gaza loss of life toll soars, secrecy shrouds Israel’s focusing on course of
On Sunday, native journalists in Khan Younis posted footage displaying frantic efforts to retrieve casualties after strikes within the metropolis. The movies confirmed collapsed buildings and houses sheared of their facades. Males with bloodied, limp youngsters of their arms have been filmed racing towards an ambulance.
The top of the World Well being Group, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, referred to as the heavy bombardment “petrifying” in a put up late Saturday on X. A WHO workforce that visited Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, he wrote, discovered the ability packed to 3 instances its capability, with sufferers “receiving care on the ground, screaming in ache.”
In northern Gaza, too, bloody scenes adopted strikes on the Jabalya refugee camp and within the Shejaiya neighborhood east of Gaza Metropolis.
Al Jazeera reported that a complete residential block of the Jabalya camp was leveled Sunday, burying dozens of individuals. Footage from native journalists confirmed individuals on the camp, a frequent goal of strikes, selecting by way of the smoking wreckage for survivors or corpses.
In Shejaiya, residents and rescue staff have been nonetheless working to retrieve casualties from strikes Saturday that killed or injured a whole bunch, Palestinian officers stated. Israel stated it killed a neighborhood Hamas army commander, Wissam Farhat, within the assault, and stated Sunday that it will proceed operations there.
Reached by cellphone, Mohammad, a 43-year-old resident who requested to have his final identify withheld for safety causes, stated his aunt and her household have been among the many dozens feared lifeless in Shejaiya. He recalled listening to blasts so intense that his home “shook violently.”
After the strikes, Mohammad stated, he ran to assist and noticed that the three-story home the place his aunt was sheltering with about 40 different individuals was “totally beneath rubble.” Dozens of different houses have been destroyed, he stated, resulting in fears about lifeless or wounded individuals who stay beneath the particles.
“The scene was horrifying and terrifying — full destruction,” Mohammad stated. “Individuals started digging out the our bodies.”
Humanitarian officers for weeks have privately — and typically publicly — criticized the Biden administration for not leaning on Israel extra to curb assaults they describe as disproportionate, indiscriminate and a type of collective punishment, a violation of worldwide regulation. Lots of of recent deaths have been reported since combating resumed Friday after a quick pause for a captive launch deal.
Talking on the sidelines of talks with Arab leaders within the United Arab Emirates over the weekend, Vice President Harris stated, “Too many harmless Palestinians have been killed,” and she or he referred to as the scenes from Gaza “devastating.”
To some observers, U.S. acknowledgment of the steep losses is welcomed, if late.
“Lastly, the US says what it ought to have a lot earlier,” Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, tweeted Sunday. “The bombardment was indiscriminate from week 1.”
Balousha reported from Amman, Jordan; Berger from Jerusalem; and Allam from Cairo. Kareem Fahim in Beirut, Heba Farouk Mahfouz in Cairo and Rachel Pannett in Sydney contributed to this report.