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Israeli Offensive in Gaza Kills Dozens 10/09 06:09
A large-scale Israeli operation in northern Gaza has killed and wounded
dozens of people and threatens to shut down three hospitals over a year into
the war with Hamas, Palestinian officials and residents said Wednesday.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) -- A large-scale Israeli operation in
northern Gaza has killed and wounded dozens of people and threatens to shut
down three hospitals over a year into the war with Hamas, Palestinian officials
and residents said Wednesday.
Heavy fighting is underway in Jabaliya, where Israeli forces have carried
out several major operations over the course of the war and then returned as
militants regroup. The entire north, including Gaza City, has suffered heavy
destruction and has been largely isolated by Israeli forces since late last
year.
The continuing cycle of destruction and death in Gaza, unleashed by Hamas'
Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, comes as Israel expands a weeklong
ground offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon and considers a major retaliatory
strike on Iran.
Residents of Jabaliya, a refugee camp dating back to the 1948 war
surrounding Israel's creation, said thousands of people have been trapped in
their homes since the operation began Sunday, as Israeli jets and drones buzz
overhead and troops battle militants in the streets.
"It's like hell. We can't get out," said Mohamed Awda, who lives with his
parents and six siblings. He said there were three bodies in the street outside
his home that could not be retrieved because of the fighting.
"The quadcopters are everywhere, and they fire at anyone. You can't even
open the window," he told The Associated Press by phone, speaking over the
sound of explosions.
Dozens have been killed and survivors fear displacement
Gaza's Health Ministry says it recovered 40 bodies from Jabaliya from Sunday
until Tuesday, and another 14 from communities farther north. The toll is
likely higher as there are bodies buried under the rubble and in areas that
can't be accessed, it said.
An airstrike in Jabaliya early Wednesday killed at least nine people,
including two women and two children, according to Al-Ahly Hospital, which
received the bodies. Strikes in central Gaza killed another nine people,
including three children, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir
al-Balah.
Residents of Jabaliya fear Israel's aim is to depopulate the north and turn
it into a closed military zone or a Jewish settlement. Israel has blocked all
roads except for the main highway leading from Jabaliya to the south, according
to residents.
The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said it was evacuating seven
schools that were being used as shelters and that only two of eight water wells
in the camp are still functioning.
"We are concerned about the displacement to the south," Ahmed Qamar, who
lives in Jabaliya with his wife, children and parents, said in a text message.
"People here say clearly that they will die here in northern Gaza and and won't
go to southern Gaza."
Hospitals are under threat
"The situation is tense," Fadel Naeem, the director of Al-Ahly Hospital in
Gaza City, told AP in a text message. "We declared a state of emergency,
suspended scheduled surgeries, and discharged patients whose conditions are
stable."
Israel's offensive has gutted Gaza's health sector, forcing most of its
hospitals to shut down and leaving the rest only partially functioning.
Naeem said three hospitals farther north -- Kamal Adwan, Awda and the
Indonesian Hospital - have become almost inaccessible because of the fighting.
The Gaza Health Ministry says the Israeli army has ordered all three to
evacuate staff and patients. Meanwhile, no humanitarian aid has entered the
north since Oct. 1, according to U.N. data.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to requests for comment on
the hospitals or the apparent suspension of aid delivery in the north.
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the military spokesperson, said late Tuesday that
Israeli forces were operating in Jabaliya "to prevent Hamas' regrouping
efforts" and had killed around 100 militants, without providing evidence.
Israel says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas
because it fights in residential areas.
Israel ordered the wholesale evacuation of northern Gaza, including Gaza
City, in the opening weeks of the war, but hundreds of thousands of people are
believed to have remained there. Israel reiterated those instructions over the
weekend, telling people to flee south to an expanded humanitarian zone where
hundreds of thousands are already crammed into squalid tent camps.
The war began just over a year ago, when Hamas-led militants stormed into
southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting
around 250. They are still holding around 100 hostages, a third of whom are
believed to be dead.
Israel's offensive has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to the
Gaza Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters. It has said
women and children make up over half of the dead. The offensive has also caused
staggering destruction across the territory and displaced around 90% of the
population of 2.3 million people, often multiple times.
Israel warns Lebanon that it could end up like Gaza
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to keep fighting until
"total victory" over Hamas and the return of all the captives.
On Tuesday, he warned that Lebanon would meet the same fate as Gaza if its
people did not rise up against Hezbollah, which began firing rockets into
Israel after the initial Hamas attack. That set in motion a cycle of escalation
that ignited a full-scale war last month.
"You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a
long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza,"
Netanyahu said, addressing the Lebanese people.
In recent weeks Israel has waged a heavy air campaign across large parts of
Lebanon, targeting what it says are Hezbollah rocket launchers and other
militant sites. A series of strikes killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah
and most of his top commanders.
So far, ground operations appear to be focused on a narrow strip along the
border, but Israel has warned people to evacuate dozens of cities and towns,
many of them north of a buffer zone declared by the United Nations after the
last war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.
Hezbollah's acting leader, Sheikh Naim Kassem, said in a televised statement
Tuesday that the group has replaced its slain commanders and was preventing
Israeli ground forces from advancing. The militants have extended their rocket
fire deeper into Israel, disrupting life but causing few casualties.
The Israeli military said Wednesday that Hezbollah has fired more than
12,000 rockets, missiles and drones at Israel since the start of the
hostilities last year.
Israel is meanwhile considering options for a strike on Iran that could
potentially escalate the war on yet another front. Iran, which supports
Hezbollah and Hamas, launched a wave of some 180 ballistic missiles at Israel
last week in retaliation for the killing of top militants from both groups.
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