Israel’s military said today it has sent another unit to support its forces operating in Jabalia, the largest of eight historic refugee camps in the Gaza Strip, where residents complain that tanks have blown up roads and homes.
Residents of Jabalia, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, indicated that Israeli tanks reached the center of the camp, heavily shelling the area from the air and land.
They added that the Israeli army destroys dozens of homes every day, either by bombing them or placing bombs and detonating them from a distance.
Israel’s military said its forces, which have been operating in Jabalia for two weeks, killed dozens of militants in hand-to-hand fighting on Thursday, launched airstrikes and destroyed military infrastructure.
According to the Israeli Armed Forces (IDF), operations in Jabalia aim to prevent Hamas fighters from regrouping and launching new attacks.
Residents said Israeli forces had effectively isolated Beit Hanoun, Jabalia and Beit Lahia in the northern Palestinian enclave, preventing the movement of civilians except families who are allowed to obey evacuation orders and leave the three towns.
Health authorities today called for fuel, food and medical supplies to be sent immediately to three hospitals in northern Gaza as they are overwhelmed with wounded and sick people.
At Kamal Antoine Hospital, doctors were forced to place children and adults seriously injured by Israeli airstrikes on a school in Jabalia, where displaced people had taken refuge, in the intensive care unit. These attacks killed 28 people.
The children were transferred to another part of the hospital.
“All these incidents are critical and require immediate medical intervention,” said Hussam Abu Shafiya, director of Kamal Atouan, in a video he sent to the press.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), told X that the attack on this school was the third against UNRWA infrastructure this week.
He added that 231 UNRWA members were killed in Israeli attacks over the course of a year.
Abu Safiyyah highlighted that the hospital’s 300 medical and nursing staff, who have been working continuously for 14 days, are exhausted mainly due to the hospital’s inability to provide them with enough food as supplies are running low.
Doctors at Kamal Antouan, al-Awda and Indonesian hospitals refuse to abandon their patients, despite orders from the Israeli army at the start of its operations in Jabalia to evacuate them.
Northern Gaza, where more than half of the enclave’s 2.3 million inhabitants live, was heavily bombed during the first phase of Israel’s military operations last year, after Hamas attacked Israeli territory.
Source: AMPE