Israeli forces battled Hamas militants and bombed more targets in the devastated Gaza Strip on Tuesday as the UN General Assembly was due to vote on a new demand for a ceasefire.
More than two months into the war sparked by the October 7 attack, the visiting chief of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, likened Gaza to “hell on earth”.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry charged on Tuesday that Israeli forces were raiding a hospital in Gaza City, the biggest urban centre, in the north of the coastal territory.
“Israeli occupation forces are storming Kamal Adwan hospital after besieging and bombing it for days,” ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra said, accusing troops of rounding up men in the hospital courtyard, including medical staff.
Israel has accused the Islamist militant group of using hospitals, schools, mosques and tunnels beneath them as military bases, claims Hamas has denied. The UN humanitarian agency OCHA said earlier that “the hospital remains surrounded by Israeli troops and tanks, and fighting with armed groups has been reported in its vicinity for three consecutive days”.
It said two mothers were killed in a strike on the maternity ward and that about 3 000 internally displaced people were trapped in the facility amid reports of “extreme shortages of water, food and power”.
The war began with Hamas’s October 7 attacks that killed 1200 people, according to Israeli figures, and saw around 240 hostages taken back to Gaza.
Israel has responded to the unprecedented attacks with an offensive that has reduced much of Gaza to rubble and killed at least 18200 people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
UN agencies and aid groups fear the Palestinian territory will soon be overwhelmed by starvation and disease and are pleading with Israel to boost efforts to protect civilians.
Air and artillery strikes again rained down on multiple targets in Gaza, a day after Defence Minister Yoav Gallant claimed significant progress in the over two-months-old war.
“Hamas is on the verge of dissolution, the IDF is taking over its last strongholds,” said Gallant, referring to the Israel Defense Forces.
The war has deepened the suffering in Gaza, whose devastation the EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell has compared to that of Germany during World War II. The UN estimates 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced by the war, half of them children.
Israeli air strikes killed at least 12 people in Rafah near the border with Egypt, where tens of thousands are seeking shelter, official Palestinian news agency Wafa said.
One strike left a deep crater and gutted surrounding buildings. Teenagers were salvaging belongings from the rubble with their hands, a young girl retrieving some notebooks.
“There are still people under the rubble,” said local resident Abu Jazar, 23.
“We call on the Arab people and the world to put on pressure to stop the strikes on Gaza.”
At Rafah hospital, bereaved father Abu Jamaa was holding the body of his young daughter Sidal, who was killed by shrapnel.
He said there had been strong explosions overnight and that he only found she was dead when he tried to wake her in the morning.
“Even if I live 100 years, I will never find another like her,” he said, crying.
“May God have mercy on her, oh Lord. May God have mercy on her.”
Israel’s military on Tuesday said that it had struck a rocket launch site in Jabalia near Gaza City from where missiles had been fired at the town of Sderot in southern Israel.
The army said it had also raided a Hamas compound and found hundreds of shells and rocket propelled grenade launchers, and struck as separate weapons factory.
The Israeli military said later on Tuesday that 105 soldiers had died in the Gaza war, including 13 killed by friendly fire and others in accidents.
Fighting and heavy bombardment in the south, where Israel had previously urged civilians to seek safety, have left people with few places to go.
In central Gaza, Al-Aqsa hospital was inundated with victims Monday, including dozens of screaming children, after Israeli strikes on the Al-Maghazi refugee camp.
In Gaza City, thousands of Palestinians set up camp at a UN agency headquarters after nearby homes and shops were destroyed by Israeli strikes.
Both the Islamic and adjacent Al-Azhar universities had been reduced to rubble, as had the police station.
“There is no water. There is no electricity, no bread, no milk for the children, and no diapers,” said Rami al-Dahduh, 23, a tailor.
Cape Times