Israeli military attacks on Gaza overnight killed at least 19 Palestinians, medics said Saturday, as forces continued to push deeper into the Jabaliya area, where international relief agencies say thousands of people are trapped. .
Residents said Israeli forces continued to attack Jabaliya from air and ground, which is in the north of the enclave and is the largest of the enclave’s historic refugee camps.
There was no new comment from Israel, but the army had recently said that forces operating in Jabaliya and surrounding areas had killed dozens of militants, recovered weapons and destroyed military infrastructure.
The operation in the area began a week ago and the army said then that its aim was to fight against Hamas militants and prevent Hamas from regrouping.
Palestinian health officials put the death toll in Jabaliya last week at around 150.
Israeli attacks on Friday targeted four homes in Jabaliya, killing about 20 people and wounding dozens, medics said. The Israeli military has sent troops to the nearby towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya as well as Jabaliya and ordered residents to evacuate their homes and move to safer areas in the south of the enclave.
Palestinian and UN officials say there is no safe zone in Gaza. He also expressed concern over serious shortages of food, fuel and medical supplies in northern Gaza, saying there was a risk of famine.
The Health Ministry said the safety of patients and medical staff was at risk due to Israel’s threat to forcibly evacuate three hospitals operated there.
Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, aimed at eliminating the governing group Hamas, has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians since it began a year ago, according to Gaza’s health ministry, and left the enclave in ruins.
The war began after a Hamas-led attack on southern Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli data.
In a statement on Saturday, Hamas said Israel’s “genocide against civilians” was intended to punish residents of Jabaliya for refusing to leave their homes. It also said it was a sign of Israel’s military failure to defeat the group.
Israel has denied that it targets civilians.
Hamas’s armed wing, Islamic Jihad, and smaller other factions said their fighters attacked Israeli forces in Jabaliya and surrounding areas with anti-tank rockets and mortar fire.
polio vaccination
UN officials said on Friday that the Israeli offensive in northern Gaza and evacuation orders could impact the second phase of a polio vaccination campaign set to begin next week.
The region’s health ministry announced on Saturday that the campaign would begin in central Gaza Strip areas on Monday and last for three days before moving to other areas.
Aid groups launched an initial round of vaccinations last month after a child was partially paralyzed by type 2 poliovirus in August, the first such case in the region in 25 years.
Like the first phase, a humanitarian pause in the fighting in Gaza is planned to reach hundreds of thousands of children.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
