Israel continues to expand its land, sea and air incursion into Gaza as part of the “new phase” of the war against the Islamist group Hamas that began this weekend. The bombings on the Strip have been the most intense in memory since the outbreak of the conflict on October 7. In parallel, the Israeli Army sent more troops to Gaza this Sunday to “expand ground activity” in the Palestinian enclave.
“Ground fighting in the northern Gaza Strip continues, we are advancing the stages of the war according to the plan, we are gradually expanding ground activity and the reach of our forces. Activity from the ground is complex and also includes risks for our forces,” said Army spokesman Daniel Hagari.
Over the past day, Israeli troops attacked more than 450 Hamas military targets in different parts of Gaza. Among the bombed targets, according to the Army, were barracks of the Palestinian group, as well as observation posts and anti-tank firing positions of the Islamists.
Likewise, Israeli forces have dropped leaflets from the air over Gaza in which they have urged Hamas militants to surrender before the entry of their troops. “Hamas leaders are exploiting you. They and their families are in safe places while you will die in vain,” you can read in these messages.
The ballots indicate that, to surrender, combatants must abandon their military equipment, raise their hands and, if they can, wave a white paper. “Hamas leaders started a lost war,” they say. Those who want to surrender, the message adds, must follow the instructions of the Israeli soldiers and must not bring with them water or food, which will be provided by the Army.
For its part, the Ministry of Health of the Gaza Strip reported this Sunday “hundreds” of deaths in the last day as a result of the Israeli offensive.. “The magnitude of the massacres committed by the Israeli occupation is unprecedented and has left hundreds of martyrs and wounded,” said the ministerial spokesperson, Ashraf al Qudra, through social networks.
After 22 days of war, Israel's continued bombing of Gaza has already left 8,005 Palestinians dead, according to the latest count by the Gaza Ministry of Health.. 40% of these fatalities (3,342) are children and adolescents, a figure “greater than the number of minors who died in armed conflicts around the world in the course of a year” in twenty countries, reported the NGO Save the Children.
Looting of UN warehouses
Under a scenario of constant bombings, the situation of the Gazan population reached a new level of desperation this weekend never seen before.. Thousands of people broke into the warehouses and distribution centers that the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has in the Strip to obtain wheat flour and other “survival” items such as hygiene kits, a “worrying sign.” that civic order is beginning to break down,” UNRWA Affairs Director in Gaza, Thomas White, warned this Sunday.
One of the looted warehouses, in Deir al Balá, served as accommodation for the limited humanitarian aid that arrived from Egypt in recent days.. “People are terrified, frustrated and desperate. Tension and fear worsen due to cuts in telephone and internet lines. “They believe they have been abandoned to their fate,” lamented the spokesperson.
The UN Secretary General, António Guterres, also spoke of desperation this Sunday, assuring that “the situation in Gaza becomes more desperate with every passing hour.”. “I regret that instead of a critically necessary humanitarian pause, supported by the international community, Israel has intensified its military operations,” he said.
After a day and a half without internet or telephone service—vital to know where attacks are taking place, call rescue services or stay in contact with relatives in other parts of the enclave—connections were reestablished early on Sunday.
The limited humanitarian aid, paralyzed on Saturday, also resumed with the arrival of a total of 24 trucks loaded with food, water and medical supplies through the Egyptian Rafah crossing, which represents the largest convoy of this type to enter the Palestinian enclave since Israel allowed its controlled access last week.
Bombings next to a hospital
Israel's ultimatums to the population of the north and center of the Strip have once again caused tensions this Sunday after the order for the immediate evacuation of the Gazan Al Quds hospital, a notice seen as a “threat” to the Palestinian Red Crescent and which It has also been condemned by the World Health Organization (WHO). “We reiterate that it is impossible to evacuate hospitals full of patients without endangering their lives,” said the organization's director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Despite this, the area around the hospital was bombed this Sunday, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.. “They are deliberately and constantly launching rockets near the hospital to force staff, displaced people and patients to evacuate,” they said.
For the United Nations, population displacements represent a violation of International Humanitarian Law. However, Israel defends that it is under these hospitals that Hamas hides: “They use people as human shields and hospitals as headquarters and fuel depots,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday.