Israel paralyzes Gaza City as the war rages… and imposes a siege on hospitals
Intense fighting continued in the city of Gaza, which Israel is trying to isolate from the world, having cut off fuel, communications and the internet and forced many of its residents, including journalists and media institutions, to leave south. The most violent clashes occurred between the Israeli army and the “Al-Qassam Brigades” in the Al-Shifa and Al-Quds hospitals in Gaza City, despite Israeli drones targeting anyone moving in the city, causing paralysis almost complete in the environment. city, which is the center of Hamas government.
On the 38th day of the war, near the hospitals that the Israeli army is trying to empty of patients, wounded and medical staff, the clashes have intensified and have now lasted for 3 days, involving all the hospitals in northern Gaza. Strip completely out of order.
The Gaza Ministry of Health announced that all hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip were out of service and that premature babies and patients in the intensive care unit of Al-Shifa hospital had died due to the power outage, bombings and the strict siege.
Al-Shifa is the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip, and Israel says Hamas and Al-Qassam leaders are based in the offices and tunnels below, making it one of the war’s most important targets and transforming it in a hospital something like a mass grave.
The civil defense service in the Gaza Strip said hundreds of bodies were abandoned near the Al-Shifa and Al-Quds hospitals, near which the tanks were advancing. The director general of the Gaza Ministry of Health, Munir Al-Bursh, confirmed that 100 bodies were decomposing in the courtyard of the Shifa Complex, while the spokesman of the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Ashraf Al-Qudra, said that at least 32 patients from the he Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza had died in the last three days, including three premature babies.
Israel surrounds Al-Shifa hospital with drones while tanks are hundreds of meters away from it, unlike Al-Quds hospital, which has tanks in front of the gates and has begun evacuating all its patients and staff . 23 out of 35 hospitals have stopped functioning completely, all in the northern region.
As the 38th day of the war ends, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the end of the war is not near. Netanyahu stressed during a visit to Israeli soldiers at the Gaza border: “This is not just an operation, it is a war, and there will be no ceasefire now. We will work to return the hostages, we will restore complete security for the residents “. of the enclave, and we will finish (Hamas).”
Netanyahu’s statements about continuing the war came despite Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen’s assertion that political time for fighting in Gaza is running out. Cohen said: “We realize that increasing pressure has begun on Israel. “I estimate there are two or three weeks before strong international pressure begins.”
According to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, after October 7, Israel got the green light for open war, but the traffic light is now at the limit of orange, before reaching red.
In an attempt to exploit the remaining time, Israel intensified attacks, and Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said that the army assassinated the commander of the Khan Yunis Brigade’s anti-tank system, Yaqoub Ashour, former head of military intelligence of Hamas. , Muhammad Dabbash and Tahseen Muslim, Commander of the Military Support Company. In Beit Lahia, Jihad Azzam, investigative officer of Hamas military intelligence in the Zaytoun area, and Munir Harb, head of the Rafah Brigade’s propaganda system.
The Israeli army also announced that it had killed a cell operating in the vicinity of Al-Quds hospital, raided the outskirts of Al-Shati camp and found large-scale explosive materials containing flammable materials and numerous explosive devices. explosives, pieces of weapons, combat equipment and operational plans. He also entered the house of an official of the “Jihad” organization “Al-Islami”, and many weapons were found in his house and in the city of Beit Hanoun, a tunnel opening, secret services materials and weapons were found .
The Israeli military also announced that it had discovered dozens of weapons and combat equipment above and below the surface of the sea, including inflatable boats, explosive belts, explosive devices, types of ammunition and more.
But Hamas said the occupation is trying to market imagined progress in Gaza and wage psychological warfare against its residents. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said: “The resistance is constant and increasing, and is managing the battle with full awareness, understanding and skill, and is controlling the management of the camp.”
He added: “The presence of occupation tanks in specific locations does not mean that they control the camp.” The resistance carries out qualitative and creative operations around the clock, destroying enemy tanks and armored vehicles and killing its soldiers on all fronts of the fighting.”
The “Al-Qassam Brigades” confirmed in separate statements that they had destroyed tanks, vehicles and troop transport vehicles in various locations, that they had also attacked soldiers barricaded in buildings and that they had wounded a soldier with a sniper. The Brigades said their fighters were engaged in violent clashes on several fronts north and south of Gaza City.
With the siege imposed on Gaza’s hospitals, the deployment of tanks in the streets, the disruption of communications and the siege of hospitals, updates on casualties have largely stopped.
The Palestinian Red Crescent appealed to the international community to “ensure safe access for ambulance crews to the wounded and martyrs in the Gaza Strip, particularly in Gaza and northern Gaza.” The association said in a statement that civil protection teams and ambulances were unable to reach besieged citizens in Gaza city, families stuck in their homes or under rubble and dozens of bodies and wounded, because the occupation forces prevented ambulances from approaching and targeted everyone. who tried to move.
Israel has bombed various areas of the Gaza Strip, including areas in the south, which it said were safe. The Palestinian Ministry of Health said the number of victims as a result of the Israeli aggression has risen to 11,240, while the number of injured has reached 28,200. The Ministry of Health said in a statement that “among the martyrs were 4,609 children, 3,100 women and 678 elderly people.”
According to the Ministry of Health, these numbers do not include Monday’s toll “due to the difficulty of gathering information with the loss of communication”, but specified that “3,250 citizens are still missing or under the rubble, including 1,700 children”.