Palestinian resistance group Hamas mentioned Thursday that Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip have killed nearly 50 of the hostages seized in shock cross-border assaults, because the United Nations warned “nowhere is safe” within the territory.
Hamas’ assertion got here after Israel despatched tanks, troops and armored bulldozers into the enclave in a “targeted raid” in a single day that the navy mentioned destroyed a number of websites earlier than withdrawing.
“(Ezzedine) Al-Qassam Brigades estimates that the number of Zionist prisoners who were killed in the Gaza Strip as a result of Zionist strikes and massacres has reached almost 50,” the group mentioned in a press release on its Telegram channel.
The Palestinian enclave is reeling from relentless Israeli air strikes that got here after a shock cross-border assault in opposition to Israel by Hamas on Oct. 7.
Palestinian authorities say greater than 7,000 Palestinians, largely girls and kids, had been killed in air strikes since then.
Israel says the Hamas operation killed some 1,400 individuals and a few 224 extra have been kidnapped.
The dying toll in Gaza is prone to rise considerably if Israeli troops massed close to the border thrust throughout.
The U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, Lynne Hastings, mentioned that regardless of the Israeli navy issuing warnings to individuals in Gaza to depart, “advance warnings make no difference.”
She mentioned in a press release that when evacuation routes are bombed, “people are left with nothing but impossible choices. Nowhere is safe in Gaza.”
Black smoke billowed into the sky after a blast within the grainy night-vision footage the Israeli navy launched hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared preparations for a floor battle have been beneath means.
The operation in northern Gaza got here in “preparation for the next stages of combat,” the navy mentioned.
The black-and-white video confirmed armored autos shifting close to Gaza’s border fence. Other footage appeared to point out an air strike and buildings being focused.
The raid got here after Netanyahu delivered a nationally televised handle to Israelis, telling them “we are in the midst of a campaign for our existence.”
‘Where is humanity?’
International alarm has elevated amid rising shock in regards to the scale of human struggling contained in the besieged Palestinian territory the place Israel has reduce off most water, meals, gas and different primary provides.
In southern Gaza, a grieving Umm Omar al-Khaldi instructed Agence France-Presse (AFP) how she noticed her neighbors being killed in an Israeli strike that diminished the home to rubble, with many feared buried beneath.
“We saw them getting bombarded – the children got bombarded while their mother was hugging them,” the girl mentioned, desperately pleading for assist from the surface world.
“Where are the Arabs, where is humanity?” she requested.
Amnesty International in a press release referred to as for a right away cease-fire to make sure “access to life-saving aid for people in Gaza amidst an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.”
The human rights group’s chief Agnes Callamard mentioned: “Serious violations of international humanitarian law, including war crimes, by all parties to the conflict continue unabated.”
Entire neighborhoods in Gaza have been razed, surgeons are working with out anaesthetic, and ice-cream vans have change into makeshift morgues.
In chaotic scenes, volunteers and neighbours have clawed, generally with their naked palms, by way of shattered concrete and sand to drag out civilian casualties.
All too typically they recuperate solely corpses which have piled up, wrapped in bloodstained white shrouds.
In Brussels on Thursday, European Union leaders debated calling for “pauses” within the battle so help can get in.
The 27-nation bloc has lengthy been break up between extra pro-Palestinian members similar to Ireland and Spain, and staunch backers of Israel together with Germany and Austria.
“What we want is the killing and the violence to stop so that humanitarian aid can get into Gaza, where innocent Palestinian people are suffering, and also to allow us to get EU citizens out,” Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar mentioned.
U.S. President Joe Biden, a powerful supporter of Israel, earlier joined the requires it to “protect innocent civilians” and to observe the “laws of war.”
French President Emmanuel Macron warned Wednesday that “a massive intervention that would put civilian lives at risk would be an error.”
And Jordan’s King Abdullah II mentioned anger on the struggling might “lead to an explosion” within the Middle East.
Source: www.dailysabah.com