MONITORING (SW) – “Intense” fighting is ongoing between Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters in “most areas” in the Gaza Strip, and rockets continue to be fired into Israel while Israel blasts the Palestinian enclave from air, land and sea, the UN said.
Along the eastern border, the Israeli military continues its artillery shelling campaign, destroying more residential buildings in the eastern part of Khan Younis, Rafah, as well as the central area and the northern part of Gaza, Al Jazeera reports.
It is all consistent with the efforts of clearing the entire eastern area and preparing it for a buffer zone. It follows the narrative of making that area completely out of service in terms of schools and health facilities and eventually uninhabitable… eventually squeezing people into a small area and finally into expulsion.
As the Israeli military pounded central and southern Gaza by land, sea and air, Palestinian authorities reported scores of casualties and the United Nations health agency said thousands of people were trying to flee the widening offensive.
Residents in the central Gaza Strip said that with nightfall, Israeli tank shelling intensified on Wednesday east of the already overcrowded Bureij, Maghazi and Nuseirat refugee camps where tanks have been trying to force their way through.
Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari said that additional reinforcements have been sent into the southern part of the Palestinian territory on the outskirts of Khan Younis.
Israeli forces were pressing on with their operations in the northern part of the enclave, leaving hundreds of thousands of fleeing Palestinians with no safe place left to shelter.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) said its staff had seen thousands of people fleeing heavy strikes in Khan Younis on foot, on donkeys or in cars. Makeshift shelters were being built along the road.
“WHO is extremely concerned this fresh displacement of people will further strain health facilities in the south, which are already struggling to meet the population’s immense needs,” said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the occupied Palestinian territories.
“This forced mass movement of people will also lead to more overcrowding, increased risk of infectious diseases and make it even harder to deliver humanitarian aid.”
Latest casualty figures
According to the latest situation report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), 195 Palestinian people were reported killed and 325 injured in Israeli attacks between Tuesday and Wednesday.
During the same period, 22 Israeli soldiers were killed in Gaza, bringing the death toll for Israeli forces to 162 with almost 900 wounded since the invasion of the Palestinian territory began two months ago.
Gaza
Killed: 21,110
Injured: 55,243
Missing: More than 7,000
Occupied West Bank
Killed: 313
Injured More than 3,450
Israel
Killed: 1,139 on October 7
Israeli soldiers killed: 167 (since the ground invasion of Gaza on October 31)
Injured: 898 wounded soldiers
Figures reported by the Palestinian Health Ministry, the Israeli army and the Israeli social security agency.
Under the rubble: The missing in Gaza
More than 7,000 people are reported missing in Gaza, including 4,900 children and women. The missing are believed to be trapped under bombed buildings, according to Hamas officials in Gaza.
As the war continues, finding and rescuing them is becoming increasingly difficult.
So far, 10 raids have taken place in the cities of Ramallah, al-Bireh, Hebron, Halhul, Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarem and Jericho. The raid in Jenin is still ongoing.
ENDS
