By NAJIB JOBAIN and SAMY MAGDY (Associated Press)
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli forces battled Palestinian militants in Gaza’s two largest cities on Monday, with civilians nonetheless trapped within the preventing even after a whole lot of 1000’s have fled to different components of the besieged territory.
Israel has pledged to maintain preventing till it removes Hamas from energy, dismantles its army capabilities and returns the entire hostages taken by terrorists throughout Hamas’ Oct. 7 shock assault into Israel that ignited the warfare. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist group by the United States, Canada and the European Union.
The U.S. has supplied unwavering diplomatic and army assist for the marketing campaign, even because it has urged Israel to reduce civilian casualties and additional mass displacement. The warfare has killed 1000’s of Palestinian civilians and pushed practically 85% of the territory’s 2.3 million individuals from their houses.
Residents mentioned there was heavy preventing in and across the southern metropolis of Khan Younis, the place Israeli floor forces opened a brand new line of assault final week, and battles have been nonetheless underway in components of Gaza City and the city Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, the place massive areas have been diminished to rubble.
In central Gaza, an Israeli airstrike in a single day flattened a residential constructing the place some 80 individuals have been staying within the Maghazi refugee camp, residents mentioned.
Ahmed al-Qarah, a neighbor who was digging by the rubble for survivors, mentioned he knew of solely six individuals who made it out. “The rest are under the building,” he mentioned.
Several of the lifeless have been dropped at a close-by hospital, the place their family members might be seen sobbing and holding funeral prayers.
In Khan Younis, Radwa Abu Frayeh noticed heavy Israeli strikes in a single day across the European Hospital, the place the U.N. humanitarian workplace says tens of 1000’s of individuals have sought shelter. She mentioned one hit a house near hers late Sunday.
“The building shook,” she mentioned. “We thought it was the end and we would die.”
Hussein al-Sayyed, who fled Gaza City earlier within the warfare along with his three daughters, is staying in a three-story house within the metropolis with round 70 others. He mentioned they’ve been rationing meals for days. “I don’t know where to go,” he mentioned. “No place is safe.”
Hamas is believed to have suffered heavy losses, however on Monday it fired a barrage of rockets that set off sirens in Tel Aviv. One individual was calmly wounded, in keeping with the Magen David Adom rescue service, and Channel 12 broadcast footage of a cratered highway and harm to automobiles and buildings in a suburb.
FEARS OF PERMANENT DISPLACEMENT
With little or no support allowed into Gaza, Palestinians face extreme shortages of meals, water and different fundamental items. Some overtly fear that Palestinians will likely be pressured out of the territory altogether in a repeat of the mass exodus from what’s now Israel in the course of the 1948 warfare surrounding its creation. That gave rise to built-up and seemingly everlasting refugee camps like Jabaliya and Maghazi.
“Expect public order to completely break down soon, and an even worse situation could unfold including epidemic diseases and increased pressure for mass displacement into Egypt,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres advised a discussion board in Qatar on Sunday.
Eylon Levy, an Israeli authorities spokesman, known as allegations that Israeli intends to drive individuals en masse from Gaza “outrageous and false.” But different Israeli officers have mentioned such a state of affairs, elevating alarm in Egypt and different Arab international locations that refuse to just accept any refugees.
At the identical time, it’s not clear when or if Palestinians could be allowed to return to Gaza City and far of the north — house to some 1.2 million earlier than the warfare — the place complete neighborhoods have been flattened.
Palestinians in Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied West Bank noticed a normal strike on Monday known as by activists to demand a cease-fire, after the U.S. vetoed a United Nations Security Council decision calling for one on Friday. An analogous, nonbinding vote is deliberate within the General Assembly on Tuesday.
HARSH CONDITIONS IN THE SOUTH
Israel says it tries to keep away from harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas, saying it endangers residents by preventing in dense areas and positioning army infrastructure — together with weapons, tunnels and rocket launchers — in or close to civilian buildings.
The army mentioned 5 troopers have been killed in a battle in southern Gaza on Sunday, after militants fired at them from a college and set off an explosive machine. It mentioned the troops, backed by plane and tanks, returned fireplace and killed the militants.
Forces working in Jabaliya discovered a truck filled with long-range rockets close to a college, and a rifle, two rocket-propelled grenade launchers and explosives in a house, the military mentioned.
Israel has urged individuals to flee to what it says are protected areas within the south — and the preventing in and round Khan Younis has pushed tens of 1000’s towards the city of Rafah and different areas alongside the border with Egypt. But Israel has continued to strike alleged militant targets all through the territory.
Associated Press reporters noticed 9 our bodies dropped at a neighborhood hospital on Monday after an airstrike hit a house in Rafah in a single day.
The support group Doctors Without Borders mentioned individuals within the south are additionally falling in poor health as they pack into crowded shelters or sleep in tents in open areas.
Nicholas Papachrysostomou, MSF emergency coordinator in Gaza, mentioned “every other patient” at a clinic in Rafah has a respiratory an infection after extended publicity to chilly and rain.
“In some shelters, 600 people share a single toilet. We are already seeing many cases of diarrhea. Often children are the worst affected,” he mentioned.
With the warfare in its third month, the Palestinian demise toll in Gaza has surpassed 17,900, the bulk ladies and youngsters, in keeping with the Health Ministry within the Hamas-controlled territory. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths.
Some 1,300 individuals have died on the Israeli facet, principally civilians killed in the course of the Oct. 7 assault, by which Hamas and different terrorists additionally captured greater than 240 individuals, together with infants, ladies and older adults. More than 100 captives have been launched throughout a weeklong cease-fire late final month in exchanges for girls and minors held in Israeli prisons.
Israel says Hamas nonetheless has 117 hostages and the stays of 20 individuals who died in captivity or in the course of the preliminary assault. The Israeli toll contains 104 troopers who’ve died for the reason that begin of the Gaza floor offensive in late October.
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Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press author Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed.
Full AP protection at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Source: www.bostonherald.com”