Israeli Forces Unleash Strikes Across Gaza Strip, Hospital Suffers Devastating Blow
- As another good sign, the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza opened for aid trucks on Sunday for the first time since the war started, according to officials.
- But Israeli officials said they were going to keep fighting to get rid of Hamas, which has been in charge of Gaza since 2006 and has sworn to destroy Israel.
Israeli forces killed many people in attacks across the Gaza Strip on Sunday. They hit a refugee camp in the north, a hospital in the south, and a teenage girl who had lost her leg in an earlier attack, according to Palestinian officials, the media, and witnesses.
A spokesman for Gaza’s health ministry told Reuters that 90 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza on Sunday. News from Hamas Aqsa radio said that 24 people were killed in another missile attack on a house owned by the Shehab family.
An official from the group Islamic Jihad told Reuters that one of the dead was the son of Dawoud Shehab, who is a spokesman for the group and a supporter of Hamas.
A medic said that dozens of people had been killed or hurt in the Shehab family home and other buildings nearby.
“We believe the number of dead people under the rubble is huge but there is no way to remove the rubble and recover them because of the intensity of Israeli fire,” he said by phone.
Twelve Palestinians were killed and dozens were hurt in Deir al-Balah, which is in the middle of Gaza. At least four people were killed in Rafah, which is in the south, when Israel attacked a house from the air.
A lot of people rushed to the building to help the people who were stuck under the rubble. Mahmoud Jarbou, who lives nearby, told Reuters that the explosion’s sound was “as strong as an earthquake.”
The Israeli government said that the operation was against militants and that great care is taken to make sure that no civilians are hurt.
People who live in Khan Younis in the southern part of Gaza said they could hear Israeli tanks and planes bombing and shelling, as well as the sound of rocket-propelled grenades being fired by Hamas.
They said they killed seven militants in an airstrike on Khan Younis and found parts for making rockets and three tunnel shafts near a school that was being used as a shelter.
Ashraf Al-Qidra, spokesman for the Gaza health ministry, said that an Israeli tank shell hit the maternity building in Khan Younis and killed a 13-year-old girl named Dina Abu Mehsen.
Al-Qidra said that Abu Mehsen had lost her father, mother, two siblings, and one of her legs when a house in Khan Younis’s Al-Amal neighborhood was shelled a few weeks ago.
About 19,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7, when Israeli authorities say Hamas militants killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostages in a surprise raid. This is according to Gaza health officials.
121 Israeli soldiers have died since the ground campaign began on October 27. That’s when tanks and infantry started to move into the cities and refugee camps in Gaza.
On Saturday, a source said that Israel’s spy chief had talked to the prime minister of Qatar on Friday. This raised hopes for another ceasefire and the release of hostages in exchange for a week-long ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners.
Two security sources from Egypt, which is also a mediator, said on Sunday that both Israel and Hamas were open to a new ceasefire and the release of hostages, but they had different ideas about how to make it happen.
“We are willing to work with anyone to stop Israel’s aggression.” When asked to comment on the Egyptian statement, Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said, “This is the ground for any discussion.”
As another good sign, the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza opened for aid trucks on Sunday for the first time since the war started, according to officials. This will allow twice as much food and medicine to get to Gazans.
But Israeli officials said they were going to keep fighting to get rid of Hamas, which has been in charge of Gaza since 2006 and has sworn to destroy Israel.
An Israeli military spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, “It is important for me to make clear that the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) is determined to finish the task of dismantling Hamas.”
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin went to Kuwait on Sunday to offer his condolences on the death of Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Sabah, Kuwait’s emir. He will now be in Israel later to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials.
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