Five thousand people have been killed or missing due to Israel’s siege of northern Gaza, with brutal attacks intensifying amid talks of a possible mediation deal between Israel and Hamas.
An additional 9,500 Palestinians were injured following the Israeli military operation in the north launched in early October, a medical source told Tel Aviv Tribune on Sunday.
The Gaza government’s media office on Sunday described the Israeli siege as “the most horrific form of ethnic cleansing, displacement and destruction” that has affected hundreds of thousands of people in the war-ravaged area.
Reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Tel Aviv Tribune’s Hind Khoudary said that northern Gaza is now a “ghost zone” of vast destruction and rubble, but that some people have managed to get there stay alive, refusing to leave.
“We see Palestinians being systematically targeted throughout the Gaza Strip. It doesn’t matter where you are – whether you are in a school, a shelter, a makeshift camp or even a hospital,” she said.
Kamal Adwan Hospital, the north’s most important health facility, was burned and destroyed by Israeli forces in late December as part of the siege, and the fate of its arrested director, Hussam Abu Safia, remains unknown.
While Israeli politicians and settler groups openly discuss the prospects of settlement construction in northern Gaza, the siege shows no signs of ending.
Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in the Mukhabarat area, north of Gaza City, witnesses said Sunday afternoon. Israeli drone fire then killed a young man in the Shati refugee camp.
During the night, heavy Israeli attacks took place in the northwestern areas of Gaza City. At least eight Palestinians were killed on Saturday when the Israeli army directly struck another school-turned-shelter in Jabalia, northern Gaza, calling it a Hamas “command and control center.”
At least 70 children killed in five days
Relentless attacks also target other areas of the enclave several times a day, with some of the latest hitting the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.
The Israeli army on Sunday issued a new forced evacuation order targeting people living in residential blocks in the northern part of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. Residents were told they risked being killed if they did not abandon the area.
Gaza Civil Defense announced on Sunday that the Israeli army had killed at least 70 children in the enclave in the last five days alone.
The intensification of Israeli attacks comes as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu authorized the heads of the Mossad and Shin Bet spy and security agencies to travel to Qatar with other senior representatives to advance negotiations on the release of captives held in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners.
US President Joe Biden spoke with Netanyahu on Sunday, the White House said, as US officials try to reach a captivity and ceasefire agreement in Gaza before Biden leaves office on the 20th. January.
Biden “stressed the immediate need for a ceasefire in Gaza and the return of hostages with an increase in humanitarian aid made possible by a cessation of fighting under the agreement,” it said. he.
Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday that the sides were “very, very close” to reaching an agreement, but needed to cross the finish line again.
But Israeli leaders have stressed that the war would not end even if a deal was reached, and that they would maintain military control of the enclave even as they continue to occupy the West Bank, much of Syria. and areas of southern Lebanon.
Despite another large-scale demonstration against the Israeli government and in favor of a deal in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening, far-right administration ministers remain opposed.
Netanyahu sought Sunday to ensure that Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir would not threaten the stability of his ruling coalition by abandoning it in the event of a deal.
The humanitarian situation in Gaza remains dire, as the Israeli military continues to block the entry of most aid while creating a dangerous situation that has allowed armed looting of humanitarian convoys.
Thousands of families are forced to brave the wilderness or shelter in dilapidated tents amid famine in Gaza as Israeli forces continue to attack hospitals and order them to evacuate.
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), almost all of Gaza’s 1.1 million children need mental health and psychosocial support amid ongoing Israeli bombardment, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). of repeated displacements and catastrophic living conditions in the winter cold.
The UN estimates that at least 19,000 Palestinian children have been orphaned since the start of the war on Gaza, now in its 16th month.
At least 203 journalists have been killed by the Israeli army since the start of the war, including several in the new year.
Israel has killed at least 46,565 Palestinians and injured 109,660 so far, including 28 killed in the past day, Gaza’s health ministry said on Sunday.
