An apparent Israeli airstrike on a school-turned-shelter in southern Gaza killed at least 25 Palestinians on Tuesday, while heavy shelling in the north forced the closure of medical facilities.
Israel’s new ground attack on the largest city in Gaza appears to be the most recent effort by the Israeli Army to fight Hamas militants, who are regrouping in areas that the Israelis had previously said were virtually clear. The Israeli Army did not give new statements on the matter.
After nine months of combatmuch of Gaza City and surrounding urban areas have been razed or converted into desolate landscapes. Most of the population fled at the beginning of the war, but thousands of Palestinians remain in the north.
“The fighting has been intense”said Hakeem Abdel-Bar, who fled the Tuffah district of Gaza City to relatives in another part of the city. He stated that fighter jets and Israeli drones were “attacking everything that moved” and that the tanks had moved to the central districts.
The attack at the school entrance killed at least 25 people, according to an AP journalist who counted the bodies at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis. Hospital spokesman Weam Fares said the dead included at least seven women and children and the number was likely to rise.
There was no immediate word on the victims. Families whose relatives were injured or trapped called for ambulances, but rescuers could not reach most of the affected districts due to Israeli operations, said Nebal Farsakh, spokesman for the Palestinian Red Crescent.
“It’s a dangerous area,” Indian.
Earlier attacks in Gaza killed at least 14 people, including a woman and four children, according to two hospitals that received the bodies.
“We don’t know where to go”
After Israel asked on Monday for evacuation of the eastern and central areas of Gaza City, Staff at Al-Ahli hospitals and the Patients’ Friends Association rushed to transfer patients and close them, according to the United Nations. Farsakh said all three Red Crescent offices in Gaza City had closed.
Dozens of patients were taken to the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, which was also the scene of intense fighting early in the war. “We don’t know where to go. There is no treatment or basic necessities”said Mohammad Abu Naser, who was receiving treatment there. “We are dying slowly”.
The Israeli military said Tuesday that it had told hospitals and other medical centers in Gaza City that they did not need to evacuate. But Gaza hospitals have frequently closed and transferred patients at any sign of possible Israeli military action, for example. fear of raids.
Over the past nine months, Israeli troops have occupied at least eight hospitals, causing the deaths of patients and medical workers, as well as the massive destruction of facilities and equipment. Israel has claimed that Hamas uses hospitals for military purposes, although it has provided only limited evidence.
Only 13 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are functioningand only partially, according to the UN humanitarian office.
