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.