On Monday, Israeli troops were “expanding” their operation in Gaza, as Qatari mediators indicated they were getting closer to an agreement to rescue some of the 240 hostages held by Hamas terrorists.
Israel has issued evacuation orders for inhabitants of Gaza’s largest refugee camp, Jabalia, and a nearby coastal camp, as the military announced on Sunday that it was “expanding its operational activities in additional neighbourhoods… of the Gaza Strip.”
On Sunday, an AFP journalist in Gaza saw columns of smoke rising from Jabalia following heavy airstrikes.
According to a Hamas health official, around 80 people were killed in twin strikes on Jabalia on Saturday, including a UN school housing displaced people.
AFP authenticated social media footage showing victims covered in blood and dust on the floor of a building, where mattresses had been jammed under school tables.
According to the Israeli military, Jabalia is one among the regions of concentration as they “target terrorists and strike Hamas infrastructure.”
The Israeli army claimed “an incident in the Jabalia region” was being investigated without mentioning the strikes.
The alleged hit on the school was described as “horrifying” by UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk on Sunday, adding that “the horrendous events of the past 48 hours in Gaza beggar belief.”
According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, an Indonesian hospital near Jabalia has also been shelled.
‘Window Of Legitimacy’
Israel initiated its attack against Hamas following a wave of deadly cross-border incursions on October 7 that killed 1,200 people, the vast majority of whom were civilians.
According to the Hamas leadership, the dead toll from Israel’s aerial and ground operations in Gaza has risen to 13,000, with thousands of them being minors.
Six weeks into the conflict, Israel is under immense international pressure to defend its atrocities.
Officials in Israel have cautioned that a “window of legitimacy” for the war to demolish Hamas may be closing.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called for immediate action to halt the “humanitarian disaster” unfolding in Gaza on Monday.
“The situation in Gaza affects all countries around the world, questioning the human sense of right and wrong and humanity’s bottom line,” Wang told visiting diplomats from Arab and Muslim-majority nations.
Israel revealed proof on Sunday that Hamas terrorists exploited Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa, to hide foreign hostages and conceal underground tunnels.
The Israeli military allegedly published CCTV footage from October 7 showing two male hostages from Nepal and Thailand being taken to the hospital.
“We have not yet located both of these hostages,” army spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters.
In one video, five men, at least three of whom were armed, dragged a man in shorts and a pale blue shirt into an entrance hall.
In a second video, armed men wheel an injured man in his underwear onto a gurney while three others in blue hospital scrubs look on.
AFP could not immediately verify the footage.
Israel also accused the Palestinian terrorist group of killing Noa Marciano, a 19-year-old Israeli soldier, at Al-Shifa and showed photographs of a 55-metre-long underground tunnel beneath the hospital.
Israel has consistently claimed that Al-Shifa serves as a base for Palestinian militants, which Hamas and hospital officials reject.
The hospital has been designated as a “death zone” by the World Health Organization.
Hundreds of people fled Al-Shifa hospital on foot over the weekend as thunderous explosions rang out around the building.
Columns of sick and injured individuals were observed departing, accompanied by displaced persons, physicians, and nurses.
According to an AFP journalist, at least 15 bodies were strewn along the path, some of which were in advanced stages of decomposition.
The WHO announced on Sunday that thirty-one preterm newborns had been evacuated from the facility.
According to Al-Shifa’s head of surgery, Marwan Abu Sada, Israeli troops are still in the hospital, which is surrounded by tanks.
“I heard at least two explosions since this morning,” he said Sunday.
Other medics reported the army were searching for Hamas tunnels by going from building to building and detonating bombs on the ground floors and hospital basements.