Residents of the Gaza Strip scrambled to find safety Wednesday on morning, as Israeli warplanes hammered neighborhood after neighborhood in the tiny coastal enclave, as it ramps up retaliatory moves for the deadly weekend attack by Hamas militants.
Humanitarian organisations urged for the development of corridors to send help into Gaza, warning that hospitals overrun with injured patients were running out of supplies, as Gazans crammed into UN schools and a decreasing number of secure neighbourhoods.
Food, gasoline, and medical supplies can no longer be imported into Gaza by Israel, while the only route from Egypt was closed on Tuesday as a result of airstrikes near the border crossing.
Following an extraordinary onslaught in which militants killed residents in their homes, on the streets, and at a large outdoor music festival while hauling men, women, and children into captivity, Israel appears prepared to destroy Hamas’ grasp on Gaza.
Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza hold about 150 soldiers and civilians hostage, according to Israel.
A looming question is whether Israel will launch a ground assault into Gaza — a 40-kilometer-long (25-mile) strip of land wedged among Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea that is home to 2.3 million people and has been governed by Hamas since 2007.
Africa Today News, New York reports that Israel on Tuesday stepped up its offensive as it expanded the mobilization of reservists to 360,000. Israel’s military said it had regained effective control over areas Hamas attacked in its south and of the Gaza border.
New exchanges of fire over Israel’s northern borders with militants in Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday pointed to the risk of an expanded regional conflict.
In a new tactic, Israel is warning civilians to evacuate neighborhood after neighborhood, and then inflicting devastation, in what could be a prelude to a ground offensive. On Tuesday, the military told residents of the nearby al-Daraj neighborhood to evacuate. New explosions soon rocked it and other areas, continuing into the night.
Fighter jets returned multiple times to another neighborhood, al-Furqan, striking 450 targets in 24 hours, the Israeli military said.
One blast hit Gaza City’s seaport, setting fishing boats aflame.
“There is no safe place in Gaza right now. You see decent people being killed every day,” Gaza journalist Hasan Jabar said after three Palestinian journalists were killed in the Rimal bombardment. “I am genuinely afraid for my life.”
Rescue officials in Gaza said “large numbers” of people were still trapped under the remnants of leveled buildings, with rescue equipment and ambulances unable to reach the area.
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Palestinian Civil Defense forces pulled Abdullah Musleh out of his basement together with 30 others after their apartment building was flattened.
‘I sell toys, not missiles,’ the 46-year-old said, weeping. ‘I want to leave Gaza. Why do I have to stay here? I lost my home and my job.’
On Tuesday afternoon, Hamas fired barrages of rockets toward the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon and Tel Aviv. There were no immediate reports of casualties. On Tuesday night, a group of militants entered an industrial zone in Ashkelon, sparking a gunbattle with Israeli troops, the military said. Three militants were killed, and troops were searching the area for others.
The Israeli military said more than 1,200 people, including 155 soldiers, have been killed in Israel. In Gaza, 900 people have been killed, including 260 children and 230 women, according to authorities there; Israel says hundreds of Hamas fighters are among them. Thousands have been wounded on both sides.
U.S. President Joe Biden said Tuesday at least 14 U.S. citizens were killed in Hamas’ attack and that Americans are among those being held hostage in Gaza. Biden, who spoke earlier in the day with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said ‘there is no justification for terrorism.’
Biden added an apparent warning to Hezbollah, saying, ‘To any country, any organization, anyone thinking of taking advantage of the situation, I have one word: Don’t.’
The State Department announced that Secretary of State Antony Blinken would travel in the coming days to Israel to deliver a message of solidarity and support.
Hamas responded to Biden, saying his administration should ‘review its biased position’ and ‘move away from the policy of double standards’ over Palestinian rights to defend themselves against Israeli occupation.
The bodies of roughly 1,500 Hamas militants were found on Israeli territory, the military said. It wasn’t clear whether those numbers overlapped with deaths reported by Palestinian authorities.
In Gaza, more than 200,000 people have fled their homes, the U.N. said, the most since a 2014 air and ground offensive by Israel uprooted about 400,000. The vast majority are sheltering in schools run by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees. Damage to three water and sanitation sites have cut off services to 400,000 people, the U.N. said.