Israel ordered the forced evacuation of one of the last barely operating hospitals in the besieged northern enclave and continued to pound Gaza overnight with deadly attacks targeting displaced people in two camps and a school. Ta.
The military launched a series of attacks on the so-called “safe zone” of Almahuasi in the south, with drone strikes setting refugee tents on fire and killing seven people, and also attacking civilian cars and vehicles carrying security personnel. Killed four others.
In another attack, the military targeted a school housing displaced people in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing one person when quadcopters and armored vehicles opened fire on the building early Monday.
The army also killed four people in an area north of the camp, according to Al Jazeera Arabic and the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
The attack capped a bloody 24 hours on the Strip, with medical officials telling Al Jazeera Arabic that a total of 50 people had been killed since early Sunday morning.
As the attacks continued, the military ordered the closure and forced evacuation of Beit Rahiya’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, endangering around 400 civilians, including infants in incubators.
The hospital is one of the few still functioning in the north, where thousands of people have been trapped under severe siege for nearly three months.
Wafa reported on Sunday that Israeli forces targeted the hospital with bombs, artillery shells and sniper fire, particularly the women’s, maternity and neonatal wards, killing three civilians.
The hospital’s director, Hassam Abu Safia, told Reuters that the military was directly targeting the fuel tank, which could cause “a large-scale explosion, causing mass casualties among the civilians inside.” He said there is.
He said it was “nearly impossible” to comply with closure orders because there were not enough ambulances to transport patients.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas said the military attack on Kamal Adwan and the threat of forcibly removing sick, injured and displaced people was a “crime of ethnic cleansing and forced displacement.”
Attacks on “safe” locations
Reporting from Deir El Bala in central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said: “We are currently in a situation where the designated evacuation zones are not safe for the displaced people, neither the evacuation zones in Almahuasi nor the schools nor the evacuation centers are safe,” not even the hospitals. ”
“Over the past month, we have seen repeated attacks against these specific designated areas,” he said. “What we’re seeing now is really highlighting the vulnerability of traumatized and displaced civilians in these areas.”
The charity Oxfam said on Sunday that Israeli authorities had allowed only 12 aid trucks into northern Gaza in the past two-and-a-half months.
Due to “deliberate delays and systematic obstruction” by the military, only 12 of the “only” 34 trucks allowed into the zone were able to distribute aid to starving Palestinians. It was just that.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations Office for Palestine Refugees, said on Sunday that Israel’s war on Gaza had “escalated” in the past 24 hours.
In a post on X, he reiterated his call for a ceasefire, saying, “The world must not become numb.”
#Gaza
Escalation in the last 24 hours.
More civilians are reported to have been killed or injured.Attacks on schools and hospitals are common.
The world must not be paralyzed.every war has rules
All those rules are broken.I can’t wait for the ceasefire
a…— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) December 22, 2024
