Trapped Palestinians run out of safe refuges as Israel continues to pound Gaza
Israel says it is targeting Hamas militants wherever they may be in Gaza, and accused its leaders and fighters of taking shelter among the civilian population
Israeli jets pounded locations across the Gaza Strip early on Thursday (October 19), including parts of the south Tel Aviv had declared as safe zones, heightening fears among the over two million Palestinians trapped in the territory where no place seems safe.
In the nearly two weeks since the Hamas went on a killing spree in southern Israel killing around 1,400 people, mainly civilians, the Israeli military has relentlessly attacked Gaza in response.
Even after Israel told Palestinians to evacuate the north and head to “safe zones” in the south, air strikes continued overnight throughout the densely populated territory.
A residential building in Khan Younis, a city in southern Gaza where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fought shelter, was among the places hit on Thursday.
The Nasser Hospital said it received at least 12 dead and 40 wounded.
The bombardments came after Israel agreed on Wednesday to allow Egypt to deliver limited humanitarian aid to Gaza, the first crack in a punishing 11-day Israeli siege of the Hamas-administered strip.
Gaza crippled
Many among Gaza's 2.3 million residents are down to one meal a day and resorted to drinking dirty water.
The announcement of a plan to bring water, food and other supplies into Gaza came as fury over a Tuesday night explosion at Gaza City's al-Ahli Hospital raged in the Middle East.
There were conflicting claims of who was behind the blast, which the Hamas-run Health Authority said killed hundreds of Palestinian civilians.
Hamas officials in Gaza blamed an Israeli airstrike. Israel denied it was involved and released a flurry of video, audio and other information that it said showed the blast was caused by a rocket misfire by Islamic Jihad, another militant group. Islamic Jihad dismissed the claim.
US President Joe Biden, who visited Israel on Wednesday, said data from his Defense Department showed the blast was not likely caused by an Israeli airstrike. The White House later said an analysis of “overhead imagery, intercepts and open-source information” showed Israel was not behind the attack.
More than one million Palestinians, roughly half of Gaza's population, have fled their homes since Israel told them to evacuate. Most have taken shelter in UN-run school shelters or the homes of relatives.
Israeli attacks
The Israeli military said it killed a top Palestinian militant in Rafah, near the Egyptian border, and hit hundreds of targets across Gaza, including tunnel shafts, intelligence infrastructure and command centres.
It said it hit dozens of mortar launching posts, most of them immediately after they launched shells at Israel. Palestinians have been launching barrages of rockets at Israel since the fighting began.
Israel says it is targeting Hamas militants wherever they may be in Gaza, and accused its leaders and fighters of taking shelter among the civilian population, endangering the mass of Palestinians.
Israel has massed troops in the area and is expected to launch a ground invasion into Gaza.
The Gaza Health Ministry said 3,478 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began. More than 12,000 have been wounded, mostly women, children and the elderly. Another 1,300 people are believed buried under the rubble.
More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, mostly civilians slain during Hamas' deadly incursion on October 7. Roughly 200 others were abducted. They include both Israelis and foreigners.
Gaza aid
Violence between Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon has also flared in recent days amid fears the Hamas-Israel conflict could spread across the region.
US President Biden said Egypt's president had agreed to open the Rafah crossing to let in an initial group of 20 trucks with humanitarian aid. If Hamas confiscates aid, “it will end,” he said.
More than 200 trucks and some 3,000 tons of aid are positioned at or near the crossing, Gaza's only connection to Egypt.
Relatives of some of the people who were taken hostage and forced back to Gaza during the October 7 Hamas attack reacted with fury to the aid announcement.
“Children, infants, women, soldiers, men and elderly, some with serious illnesses, wounded and shot, are held underground like animals,” said a statement from the Hostage and Missing Families Forum. But “the Israeli government pampers the murderers and kidnappers”.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak arrived in Israel on Thursday in a trip aimed at showing solidarity after the Hamas attack and preventing the war from escalating.
(With inputs from agencies)
