Israeli forces stepped up bombardment of the Gaza Strip on Sunday, Palestinian doctors said, killing at least 23 people, with more than half of the deaths in the northern areas, where the army has tried to prevent Hamas from regrouping. A month long campaign has been conducted for this.
Palestinians said the new air and ground attacks and forced evacuations were “ethnic cleansing” aimed at emptying two northern Gaza towns and a camp of their populations to create a buffer zone. Israel denies this, saying it is fighting Hamas militants who carry out attacks from there.
Medics said at least 13 Palestinians were killed in separate attacks on homes in the city of Beit Lahiya and in Jabaliya, the largest of the enclave’s eight historic refugee camps and the focal point of the army’s new military offensive. The rest were killed in separate Israeli air strikes in Gaza City and southern areas.
Israel has not commented on its military action in northern Gaza on Sunday.
On Saturday, the Israeli army sent a new army division to Jabaliya to join two other operating battalions, a statement said. It said hundreds of Palestinian militants had been killed in “battles” since the raids began on October 5.
Meanwhile, COGAT, the Israeli military’s Palestinian civil affairs agency, said it helped launch the second round of a polio vaccination campaign in northern Gaza on Saturday and that 58,604 children have received doses.
The Gaza Health Ministry said Israel’s military offensive in northern Gaza is preventing them from vaccinating thousands of children in Jabaliya, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun.
It said that on Saturday, when parents brought their children to get anti-polio doses, a clinic came under Israeli fire, where four children were injured.
The head of the World Health Organization said in a statement that the incident occurred despite the two warring sides, Israel and Hamas, agreeing to a humanitarian pause to allow the vaccination campaign.
Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post, “A team from @WHO was on site just before. This attack, during a humanitarian pause, jeopardizes the sanctity of health protection for children and prevents parents from vaccinating their children.” ” X on Saturday.
He said, “These important humanitarian-sector-specific ceasefires must be fully respected. Ceasefire!”
The Israeli military has not commented on Tedros’ remarks.
A major ceasefire that would end the war and see the release of Israeli and foreign hostages held in Gaza, as well as Palestinians jailed by Israel, remains elusive due to disagreements between Hamas and Israel.
Hamas wants a deal to end the war permanently, rejecting recent offers of a temporary ceasefire, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the war can only end if Hamas is wiped out.
The war broke out after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli data.
Israel’s retaliatory attacks killed more than 43,000 Palestinians and reduced much of Gaza to rubble.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
