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Tuesday 24 Dec 2024
LOCAL EDITION
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LOCAL EDITION
Israeli troops have pushed deeper into northern and central Gaza, as the UN and medical staff warned that air strikes are hitting closer to hospitals where tens of thousands of Palestinians have sought shelter alongside thousands of wounded.
Video released on Monday by the military showed armoured vehicles moving among buildings and soldiers taking positions inside a house.
Another video showed an Israeli tank and bulldozer in central Gaza blocking the territory's main north-south highway, which the Israeli military earlier told Palestinians to use to escape the expanding ground offensive.
When asked whether forces had positioned on the road, Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said that “we expanded our operations" but would not comment on specific deployments.
Hagari said additional infantry, armoured, engineering and artillery units had entered Gaza and the operations would continue to “expand and intensify,” though Israel has stopped short of calling its operations an all-out invasion.
The military said on Monday that overnight its troops had killed dozens of fighters who attacked from inside buildings and tunnels. It said that in the last few days, it had struck more than 600 "Hamas targets", including weapons depots and anti-tank missile launching positions. The reports of targeting could not be independently confirmed.
Hamas' military wing Qassam Brigades said its fighters clashed with Israeli troops who entered northwest Gaza with small arms and anti-tank missiles. Palestinian fighters have continued firing rockets into Israel, including toward its commercial hub, Tel Aviv.
The Israeli advances put their forces on both sides of Gaza and the surrounding areas of northern Gaza, in what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a "second stage" of the war.
Casualties on both sides are expected to rise sharply as Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters battle in dense residential areas.
No longer be able to escape
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians remain in the north and would no longer be able to escape if the north-south highway is blocked. Around 117,000 displaced people are staying in hospitals in northern Gaza, alongside thousands of patients and staff, hoping they will be safe from strikes, according to UN figures.
Most residents heeded Israel's orders to flee to the southern part of the besieged territory, but many stayed in part because Israel has also bombarded targets in so-called safe zones.
Meanwhile, crowded hospitals in northern Gaza came under growing threat. Strikes hit near Gaza City's Shifa and Al Quds hospitals and the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza in recent days, the UN and residents said on Monday.
All 10 hospitals operating in northern Gaza have received evacuation orders in recent days, the UN's office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs said. Staff have refused to leave, saying evacuation would mean death for patients on ventilators.
Tens of thousands of civilians are sheltering in Shifa Hospital, the territory’s largest. Israel accuses Hamas of having a secret command post beneath the hospital but has not provided much evidence. Hamas denies the allegations.
Strikes hit within 50 metres of Al Quds Hospital after it received two calls from Israeli authorities on Sunday ordering it to evacuate, the Palestinian Red Crescent rescue service said. Some windows were blown out, and rooms were covered in debris. It said 14,000 people are sheltering there.
The death toll among Palestinians passed 8,000, mostly women and minors, the Gaza Health Ministry said. The toll is without precedent in decades of Israeli-Palestinian conflict. More than 1.4 million people in Gaza have fled their homes.
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Source: TRT
