Israeli aircraft dropped leaflets on southern Gaza on Saturday showing a photo of slain Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar with the message “Hamas will no longer rule Gaza”, matching language used by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Is.
Palestinian health officials said the move came after Israeli military attacks killed at least 35 people in the Gaza Strip and its forces set up a siege around hospitals in Jabaliya, north of the enclave.
“Anyone who gives up weapons and hands over the hostages will be allowed to go and live in peace,” the leaflets, written in Arabic, read, according to residents of the southern city of Khan Yunis and images circulated online.
The words of the leaflet were taken from a statement by Netanyahu on Thursday, after Sinwar was killed by Israeli troops operating in Rafah in the south, near the Egyptian border on Wednesday.
According to Israeli figures, Sinwar planned the October 7 attacks on Israeli communities a year ago, which killed about 1,200 people, while another 253 were dragged back to Gaza as hostages.
Gaza health officials say Israel’s subsequent war has devastated Gaza, killing more than 42,500 Palestinians, while an uncounted 10,000 others remain buried under debris.
In the central Gaza Strip camp of al-Maghzai, an Israeli attack on a house killed 11 people, while another attack on the nearby camp of Nussirat killed four others.
Medics said five other people were killed in two separate attacks in the southern Gaza cities of Khan Younis and Rafah, while seven Palestinians were killed in the Shati camp in the northern Gaza Strip.
Later Saturday, an Israeli strike in Nussirat, central Gaza, killed three Palestinians, medics said.
Late Friday, medics said 33 people, mostly women and children, were killed in Israeli strikes that destroyed at least three homes in Jabaliya, and 85 others were wounded.
The Israeli military said it was unaware of that incident.
It said the army was continuing operations against Hamas across the region, killing several gunmen and destroying military infrastructure in Rafah and Jabaliya. Palestinian medics said five people were killed in Jabaliya on Saturday.
withdrawal order
Residents and doctors said the Israeli army tightened its siege on Jabaliya, the largest of the enclave’s eight historic camps, which it surrounded by sending tanks to the nearby towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya and issuing evacuation orders to residents. Have taken.
Israeli officials said that the evacuation orders were intended to separate Hamas fighters from civilians and denied that there was any systematic plan to evacuate civilians from Jabaliya or other northern areas.
In Jabaliya, residents said Israeli forces attacked several shelters housing displaced families before surrounding them and detaining dozens of people. Footage circulating on social media, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed dozens of Palestinian men sitting on the ground next to a tank, while others were led by a soldier to a gathering place.
Residents and medical officials said Israeli forces were bombing homes and surrounding hospitals, preventing medical and food supplies from entering in an attempt to force them to leave the camp.
Health officials said they refused orders by the Israeli military to evacuate the hospital or leave the patients, many of whom were in critical condition, unattended.
“The Israeli occupation has intensified its targeting of the health system in the northern Gaza Strip by besieging and directly targeting the Indonesian Hospital, Kamal Adwan Hospital and Al-Awda Hospital during the past hours and insisting on putting them out of service.” “The Gaza Health Ministry said.
It said two patients in intensive care at an Indonesian hospital died “as a result of the siege of the hospital and cuts to electricity and medical supplies”.
Israel’s military said troops operating in the area “were briefed on the importance of minimizing harm to civilians and medical infrastructure”.
“It is emphasized that the hospital continued to function without any disruption and at full capacity and that the fire was not deliberately set,” it said.
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