Israel continues its bombing of Gaza, including in areas where it has ordered civilians to flee
The main hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah has received the bodies of 71 people killed in bombings in the area over the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry said on Saturday morning.
RAFAH, Gaza Strip: Israeli warplanes pounded parts of the Gaza Strip with brutal bombardment overnight Saturday, including some of the dwindling swaths of land that Palestinians were forced to evacuate to in the south of the territory.
The latest attacks came a day after the United States vetoed a United Nations resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, despite it being backed by the vast majority of Security Council members and many other countries. The vote in the 15-member council was 13-1, with Britain abstaining.
“Attacks from the air, land and sea are intense, continuous and widespread,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said before the vote. Gaza residents “are told to move like human pinballs – bouncing between smaller and smaller pieces of the south, without any basis for survival.”
Guterres told the council that Gaza was at “a breaking point” and that the humanitarian aid system was at risk of complete collapse, and that he feared “the consequences could be devastating for the security of the entire region.”
Gaza’s borders with Israel and Egypt have been effectively sealed off, leaving Palestinians with no choice but to attempt to seek refuge within the territory. The total death toll in Gaza since the start of the war has surpassed 17,400, the majority of them women and children, according to the Ministry of Health in Hamas-controlled Gaza, which does not distinguish between civilians and fighters in its count.
Israel holds Hamas responsible for the civilian casualties, accusing the militants of using civilians as human shields and saying it has made significant efforts to keep civilians out of harm’s way with its evacuation orders.
On Saturday, Gaza residents reported airstrikes and shelling in the northern part of the strip, as well as in the south, including the city of Rafah, which is near the Egyptian border and where the Israeli army had ordered civilians to evacuate.
The main hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah has received the bodies of 71 people killed in bombings in the area over the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry said on Saturday morning. The hospital also received 160 injured people, the ministry said. In the southern city of Khan Younis, the bodies of 62 people and another 99 injured people were taken to Nasser Hospital in the past 24 hours, the ministry said.
Israel has been trying to secure the military’s grip on northern Gaza, where heavy fighting has underlined the fierce resistance of the area’s Hamas rulers. Tens of thousands of residents are believed to remain in the area despite evacuation orders, six weeks after troops and tanks poured in during the war sparked by Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attack on civilians in Israel.
About 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the Hamas attack, and more than 240 people were taken hostage. A temporary ceasefire saw the release of hostages and Palestinian prisoners, but it is believed that more than 130 hostages remain in Gaza.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, more than 2,200 Palestinians have been killed since the truce collapsed on December 1, about two-thirds of them women and children.
Despite mounting international pressure, the Biden administration remains opposed to an indefinite ceasefire, arguing that it would allow Hamas to survive and pose a threat to Israel. Officials have expressed doubts in recent days about the rising number of civilian casualties and the dire humanitarian crisis, but have not publicly urged Israel to end the war, now in its third month.
“We haven’t given Israel a hard deadline, not really our role,” deputy national security adviser Jon Finer told a security forum a day before the US veto at the UN Security Council. “That said, we do have influence, even if we don’t have ultimate control over what happens on the ground in Gaza.”
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant argued that a ceasefire would be a victory for Hamas. “A ceasefire is giving Hamas a prize, releasing the hostages held in Gaza and identifying terrorist groups around the world,” he said. “Engage Israel in our mission – we are fighting for our future, and we are fighting for the free world.”
A delegation of foreign ministers from Arab countries and Turkey was in Washington to push the Biden administration to drop its objections to an immediate ceasefire. Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said Friday ahead of a meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Israel’s bombardment and siege of Gaza is a war crime that is destabilizing the region.
When fighting resumed more than a week ago after a brief ceasefire, the US urged Israel to do more to protect civilians and allow more aid to the besieged Gaza Strip. The calls came as Israel expanded its blistering air and ground campaign into southern Gaza, especially the southern town of Khan Younis, causing tens of thousands of others to flee.
“It was a night of heavy gunfire and grenades, like every night,” Taha Abdel-Rahman, a resident of Khan Younis, said by phone early Saturday.
Gaza’s Ministry of Civil Protection said at least one person was killed and others injured in an airstrike on a family home late Friday in Rafah.
The department posted footage showing first responders and residents using flashlights and cell phone light to search the rubble of the home for possible survivors. A crane was seen removing rubble as rescuers cut iron poles through the collapsed concrete roofs.
Airstrikes were reported overnight in the Nuseirat refugee camp, where resident Omar Abu Moghazi said an attack hit a family home and caused casualties.
There were also airstrikes and shelling in Gaza City and other northern parts of the strip.
“It’s a routine,” Mohamed Abded, who lives in Gaza City’s Zaytoun neighborhood, said of the bombing. ‘You have only one option: leave, otherwise they will kill you. That is the case throughout the north.”
Israel has designated a narrow stretch of barren coastline in the south, Muwasi, as a safe zone. But the Palestinians who went there painted a grim picture of desperately overcrowded conditions with little shelter and poor hygiene.
“We haven’t seen anything good here at all. We live in severe cold here. There are no bathrooms. We sleep on the sand,” said Soad Qarmoot, a Palestinian woman who was forced to leave her home in the northern city of Beit Lahiya.
“I am a cancer patient,” Qarmoot said late Friday as children circled around a wood fire for warmth. “There is no mattress I can sleep on. I sleep on the sand. It is freezing.”
Imad al-Talateeny, a displaced man from Gaza City, said the area lacks basic services to house the growing number of displaced families.
“I miss everything to feel human,” he said, adding that he had a peaceful, comfortable life in Gaza City before the war.
“I’m not safe here,” he said. “Here I live in a desert. There is no gas, no water. The water we drink is polluted water.”
Magdy reported from Cairo and Becatoros from Athens, Greece.