Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 35 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, medical sources told Tel Aviv Tribune, as hospitals warn that children are at risk of dying due to fuel shortages.
Among Monday’s casualties were 13 people killed by Israeli forces in Gaza City.
At least nine of them were killed in an airstrike targeting a group of Palestinians in the UN-run Shati refugee camp in western Gaza City, Tel Aviv Tribune Arabic reported.
Meanwhile, earlier in the day, four other people were killed in an Israeli bombing of a civilian car in the az-Zarqa neighborhood, north of Gaza City, according to the Palestinian Information Center (Palinfo).
Palinfo also reported that Israeli warplanes were firing on homes in the Sabra neighborhood in southern Gaza City.
Meanwhile, in northern Gaza, Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, told Tel Aviv Tribune that “11 sick children in the intensive care and critical care units are at risk of dying in the coming hours due to fuel shortages” that threaten to close the facility.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Hind Khoudary, reporting from Gaza, said Abu Safiya warned that children, some of them infants, were in danger until fuel entered northern Gaza.
“We know that the World Health Organization has a convoy full of fuel and medicine heading to the northern part of the Gaza Strip, but so far they are still at the checkpoint waiting for the green light from the Israeli forces to cross,” Khoudary reported.
“So there is no guarantee that they will be able to reach the hospital.”
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, at least 33 health facilities have been out of service since October 7. The remaining hospitals need “at least 4,000 liters (1,056 gallons) of fuel per day to continue operating,” Khoudary added.
“The health sector has collapsed”
In Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Khalil al-Degran, spokesman for Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, said the facility is experiencing a severe shortage of medical supplies, with the Rafah border crossing with Egypt closed for more than 200 days.
Hospital staff cannot provide “the most basic medical needs” to injured patients, “a clear signal that the entire health sector has collapsed in Gaza,” he said.
He added that Israeli forces “continue to target and shell unsuspecting residents” in civilian areas.
“Yesterday, official Israeli forces targeted a residential building. In this building, seven members of the same family were killed – six children, as well as their mother,” he said.
Israeli forces clearly intend to commit “genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population,” al-Degran added.
On Monday, Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari confirmed an expansion of the ground offensive on Khan Younis in southern Gaza and the outskirts of Deir el-Balah.
The army released aerial footage showing a 1.5-kilometer-long tunnel being demolished. It also said Israeli soldiers had killed an unknown number of Palestinian fighters and found weapons in Khan Younis.
Khoudary reported that Israeli forces killed at least six Palestinians and wounded 15 in western parts of Khan Younis.
“We see the presence of tanks in Hamad, where evacuation orders have been given to Palestinians to evacuate that area, but whoever tries to evacuate, the Israeli quadcopters are shooting directly at those Palestinians,” she said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv on Monday to discuss progress toward a ceasefire in the war. Since October, Israeli attacks have killed more than 40,100 Palestinians in Gaza, according to health officials in the Strip.