Residents of Jabalia in northern Gaza say Israeli tanks reached the heart of the camp amid a siege and a telecommunications blackout.
Israeli strikes across the besieged Gaza Strip have killed at least 39 Palestinians, medical sources told Tel Aviv Tribune, with most casualties reported in the northern part of the enclave where Israeli forces have stepped up their ground attacks.
Residents of Jabalia in northern Gaza said Friday that Israeli tanks reached the center of the refugee camp, using heavy air and ground fire, after passing through suburbs and residential neighborhoods.
They added that the Israeli army destroyed dozens of homes daily from the air and on the ground and by placing bombs in buildings and then detonating them remotely.
Videos verified by Tel Aviv Tribune showed thick smoke enveloping a badly damaged building in Jabalia and chaotic scenes of people running for cover amid intense Israeli bombardment.
At least 20 of those killed Friday died in Jabalia as Israel continues its crippling siege of northern Gaza, including Beit Hanoon and Beit Lahiya.
There were also reports of a telecommunications outage as Israeli military vehicles and large numbers of troops advanced toward the Jabalia refugee camp from several directions.
The Israeli army announced Friday that it had sent another military unit to support its forces operating in Jabalia after renewing its ground offensive two weeks ago.
Jabalia is the largest of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps and has suffered repeated Israeli bombardments. It has also been the scene of several ground attacks since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October last year.
Residents of Jabalia and nearby towns said outages in communications and internet services had disrupted rescue operations by ambulance teams and the ability of people affected by Israeli attacks to seek help.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, said the clashes in Jabalia were “raging.”
The camp “was denied access to essential products – medical and humanitarian supplies – by the Israeli army,” Azzoum said.
He cited witnesses saying the camp was undergoing “genocide.” “Families were killed in their homes in Jabalia. … The vast majority of hospitals are overwhelmed with injured people.”
Exhausted medical staff
The United Nations estimates that 400,000 people are trapped in northern Gaza and have been unable to leave due to intense bombardment, Israeli snipers and ground troops.
Since the last incursion, northern Gaza has been sealed off. Israeli troops did not allow any food, drink or medicine. Local authorities said people were starving.
Also on Friday, health officials requested that fuel, medical supplies and food be immediately sent to three hospitals in northern Gaza, overwhelmed by the number of patients and injured.
At Kamal Adwan Hospital, doctors had to replace children in intensive care with more critical cases of adults seriously injured by Israeli airstrikes on a school housing displaced Palestinians in Jabalia.
This attack on Thursday killed 28 people. Israel said it targeted fighters holed up in the compound – something Hamas vehemently denied.
Kamal Adwan’s director, Hussam Abu Safiya, said in a video sent to media that the children had been moved to another division of the facility, where they were well taken care of.
Doctors at Kamal Adwan as well as al-Awda and Indonesian hospitals repeatedly called for a humanitarian corridor and refused to leave their patients despite evacuation orders issued by the Israeli army.
Abu Safiya said medical staff were exhausted and hospital supplies, including food, were severely depleted.
Health officials said more than 450 people had been killed in the Israeli attack in northern Gaza over the past two weeks.
At least 42,500 Palestinians have been killed so far in the ongoing Israeli offensive.