At least 50 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, Palestinian medics say, as Israeli tanks move into northern parts of the Khan Younis region of southern Gaza.
Medics said at least 20 people were killed and others injured in an Israeli attack Wednesday on a tent encampment in al-Mawasi, near Khan Younis. The Palestinian Civil Defense said the attack burned several tents sheltering displaced families.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, said the death toll was expected to rise.
Hospitalized patients “are expected to lose their lives simply because there is no medical care, medical supplies and insufficient medical staff,” Mahmoud said.
“This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this happen. There is growing frustration among the displaced population in the al-Mawasi evacuation zone,” he said. “In the first weeks of this genocidal war, the Israeli army ordered them to evacuate in order to avoid being bombed, but they repeatedly find themselves victims of these unpredictable attacks. »
At least ten people were killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit three houses in Gaza City, Civil Defense said. Many victims were still trapped under the rubble and rescue operations were underway.
Doctors said 11 people were killed in three airstrikes on areas of central Gaza, including six children and a doctor. Five of the dead were waiting in line outside a bakery, they said.
Nine other Palestinians were killed by tank fire in Rafah, near the Egyptian border, medics said.
“Extremely urgent”
Israeli forces also fired on Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza, for the fifth day in a row, hospital director Hussam Abu Safiya said. Three members of his medical staff were injured, one seriously, on Tuesday evening, he said.
“Drones drop bombs filled with shrapnel that injure anyone who dares to move,” Abu Safiya said. “This situation is extremely urgent.”
He said more than 100 patients inside the besieged hospital are at risk of death and Israeli forces are preventing access to the nearby al-Awda hospital.
Residents of the three main northern towns – Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoon – said Israeli forces had blown up dozens of homes.
Palestinians said the Israeli army was trying to drive people from Gaza’s northern edge by threatening that if residents did not flee they would risk death and by carrying out bombings to create a buffer zone. The Israeli army has besieged the area since launching a new ground offensive almost two months ago.
The siege has worsened an already dire humanitarian crisis amid looming famine.
Hamas said the bombing of houses in Beit Lahiya and the targeting of Kamal Adwan Hospital are “an emphasis on the ongoing war” and “genocide” in Gaza.
The group said in a statement that Israel is showing it plans to continue ignoring international law “in light of the shameful failure of the international system to end these horrific crimes.”
Hamas said Israeli actions “are being carried out under the full cover and protection of the US administration and certain Western capitals.”
In the Khan Younis area, residents told the Reuters news agency that Israeli tanks advanced a day after the army issued fresh evacuation threats, saying Palestinian groups had fired rockets since the region.
As shells fell near residential areas, families left their homes Wednesday and headed west toward al-Mawasi, designated by the Israeli military as a “safe zone” but which has since been the target of repeated attacks.
Palestinian and United Nations officials have said there are no longer any safe zones in Gaza and that almost all of its 2.3 million residents have been repeatedly displaced.
The Israeli military campaign has killed more than 44,500 Palestinians, injured many more and reduced much of the enclave to rubble since it began in October last year.
Israel agreed to a ceasefire with the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah last week, ending most fighting in a conflict that has been unfolding in Lebanon alongside the war in Gaza.
But the war in Gaza continued with only one ceasefire more than a year ago that lasted a week.
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