Palestinians carry an injured woman after being rescued from under the rubble of a destroyed building following an Israeli airstrike in Bureij refugee camp, Gaza Strip. Photo / AP
Palestinians carry an injured woman after being rescued from under the rubble of a destroyed building following an Israeli airstrike in Bureij refugee camp, Gaza Strip. Photo / AP
The Israeli army has severed northern Gaza from the rest of the besieged territory and pounded it with airstrikes as it prepares for an expected push by ground forces into the dense confines of Gaza City and an even bloodier phase of the month-old war.
Already, the Palestinian death toll passed 10,000 people, the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said. The ministry does not distinguish between fighters and civilians. Some 1400 Israelis have died, mostly civilians killed in the October 7 incursion by Hamas that started the war.
The war has quickly become the deadliest Israeli-Palestinian violence since Israel’s establishment 75 years ago, with no end in sight as Israel vows to remove Hamas from power and crush its military capabilities.
Casualties are likely to rise sharply as the war turns to close urban combat. Troops are expected to enter Gaza City soon, Israeli media reported, and Palestinian militants who have had years to prepare are likely to fight street by street, launching ambushes from a vast network of tunnels.
“We’re closing in on them,” said Richard Hecht, an Israeli military spokesman. “We’ve completed our encirclement, separating Hamas strongholds in the north from the south.” The military said it struck 450 targets overnight and ground troops took over a Hamas compound.
Workers at a donation centre to support Israeli soldiers and the 200,000 Israelis evacuated from their homes in the north and south during the Israel-Hamas war, at the headquarters of the Brothers in Arms aid organisation in Tel Aviv, Israel. Photo / AP
Bombardment in north Gaza
Several hundred thousand people are believed to remain in the north in the assault’s path. The military says a one-way corridor for residents of Gaza City and surrounding areas to flee south remains available. But many are afraid to use the route, part of which is held by Israeli troops.
In recent days, airstrikes have hit UN facilities where thousands are sheltering, as well as hospitals, which have been overwhelmed by wounded and are running low on power and supplies.
Around 70 per cent of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have fled their homes since the war began. Food, medicine, fuel and water are running low, and UN-run schools-turned-shelters are beyond capacity. Many people are sleeping on the streets outside.
An injured Palestinian boy cries as rescuers try to pull him out of the rubble of a destroyed building following an Israeli airstrike in Bureij refugee camp, Gaza Strip. Photo / AP
Israel has so far rejected US suggestions for a pause in fighting to facilitate humanitarian aid deliveries and the release of some of the estimated 240 hostages seized by Hamas in its raid. Israel has also dismissed calls for a broader ceasefire from Arab countries.
After days of intense diplomacy around the Middle East, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrapped up his tour of the region. He said efforts to secure a humanitarian pause, negotiate the hostages’ release and plan for a post-Hamas Gaza were still “a work in progress” without pointing to any concrete achievements.
The war has also stoked wider tensions, with Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group trading fire along the border. In another sign of growing unrest, a Palestinian man stabbed and wounded two members of Israel’s paramilitary Border Police in east Jerusalem before being shot dead, according to police and an AP reporter at the scene.
Some 800,000 people have heeded Israeli military orders to flee to southern Gaza. But Israeli bombardments continue across the territory, and strikes in central and southern Gaza - the purported safe zone - have killed dozens of people. Israel blames civilian casualties on Hamas, accusing the militants of operating in residential neighbourhoods.
The Hamas-run Health Ministry said that 10,022 people have been killed in Gaza, including more than 4100 children and 2600 women. More than 2300 people are missing and believed to be buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings, the ministry said.
Thirty Israeli troops have been killed since the ground offensive began over a week ago. Hamas and other militants have continued firing rockets into Israel, disrupting daily life even as most are intercepted or fall in open areas. Tens of thousands of Israelis have evacuated from communities near the volatile borders with Gaza and Lebanon.
