At least 10 people were killed and 30 wounded when Israeli shells hit a food distribution center in Jambaliya, in the northern Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian rescuers, noting that the victims included women and children.
The Israeli army announced that it is looking into this information. Rescue workers noted that an Israeli unmanned aerial vehicle opened fire on the site where dozens of residents had gathered to get food.
Jabaliya is the focus of an Israeli military operation that has now lasted for about 10 days. The Israeli army has completed the encirclement of the historic Palestinian refugee camp in the area and sent tanks to the nearby towns of Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun, saying its aim is to eliminate fighters from the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas who are allegedly trying to regroup there.
During the night, Israel bombed the courtyard hospital where refugees had taken shelter in tents and a school where, as the aid agency UNRWA complains, a polio vaccination for children was planned for today.
Another night of horror in the #Gaza Strip.
A strike hit a hospital courtyard, burning the tents where people were sleeping. Just before this, an @UNRWA school sheltering families was hit in Nuseirat.
That same school was going to be used as a #polio vaccination site today. pic.twitter.com/EZt07HuKol
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) October 14, 2024
The northern part of the Gaza Strip, home to more than half of the enclave’s 2.3 million people, was heavily shelled during the first phase of Israel’s offensive that began a year ago.
Hundreds of thousands of residents of the northern Gaza Strip fled their homes in the first months of Israel’s war against Hamas following Israeli evacuation orders and military ground operations in their areas, while about 400,000 people remained, according to UN calculations.
But months after intense ground fighting there, Israel sent its troops back to Jabalia because, it says, Hamas fighters were regrouping.
The armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said their fighters were firing anti-tank rockets and mortar shells at Israeli forces.
With the Israeli military calling on Palestinians to evacuate the area and head south as it steps up its pressure on Hamas, the last few days have resembled earlier stages of the war.
“They have been hitting us from the air and the ground, non-stop for a week, they want us to leave, they want to punish us for refusing to leave our homes,” said 26-year-old Marwa, who fled with her family to a school in her city Gaza.
People fear they will never be able to turn back if they go south, he noted.
Israeli plans
Others say they fear Israel is planning to empty Jabaliya and possibly the entire northern region of its inhabitants at the suggestion of retiring Israeli generals that northern Gaza be emptied of civilians and the remaining fighters besieged until they surrender.
Israel categorically denies such plans.
“We have not received such a plan,” army spokesman Nadav Soshani told reporters. “We are taking care to remove civilians from danger as we operate against these terrorist cells in Jambaliya,” he noted.
The proposal’s main sponsor, Giora Eiland, said his plan was aimed at pressuring Hamas to release the hostages by ending its control of the enclave and aid, rather than sending Israeli forces there to fight its militants. .
“What they are doing now in Jabalia is about the same,” Eiland told the army radio station on Sunday. “My plan doesn’t work.”
Bell from the UN
However, the UN describes the conditions for the remaining civilian population in Jabalia as dire.
“More than 50,000 people have been displaced from the cut-off region of Jabaliya, while others remain trapped in their homes amid increased shelling and fighting,” UN Humanitarian Coordinator Muhannad Hadi said yesterday.
“Recent military operations in northern Gaza have forced the closure of water wells, ovens, medical facilities and shelters, as well as the suspension of protection services, malnutrition treatments and temporary learning spaces. At the same time hospitals have seen an influx of injured people,” he added.
The Israeli army has not yet commented on the matter.
On Friday, the UN expressed concerns that fighting and evacuation orders in the northern Gaza Strip could affect the continuation of a campaign to vaccinate children against polio, the second phase of which begins today.
The first round of vaccinations took place last month after a baby was left partially paralyzed after contracting type 2 of the virus in August. The infant was the first case of polio in the Palestinian enclave in 25 years. The second round of vaccinations will begin in areas of the central part of the Gaza Strip, before moving to the south and later to the north of the Palestinian enclave.
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