2023-10-23 07:32:33
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli jets struck targets in several locations in Gaza on Monday, including areas where Palestinian civilians had been told to seek shelter, following another small shipment of aid in the besieged Hamas-ruled territory.
Israel is believed to launch a ground offensive in Gaza following Hamas’ brutal October 7 attack on towns in southern Israel. Tanks and troops are massing on the Gaza border, and Israel says it has stepped up its airstrikes to reduce the risk to its troops in the next phases of the conflict.
Fears of the war spreading were growing as Israeli warplanes attacked targets in the occupied West Bank, Syria and Lebanon in the coming days. The army has often crossed fire with the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, which has tens of thousands of rockets in its arsenal.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told forces in northern Israel on Sunday that if Hezbollah starts a war, “it will make the mistake of its life.” “We will paralyze him with a force he cannot even imagine, and the consequences for him and the Lebanese state will be devastating.”
More than 1,400 people have been killed in Israel, most of them civilians killed during the initial Hamas attack. At least 212 people were captured and forcibly taken to Gaza. Two Americans were freed on Friday, hours following the first shipment of humanitarian aid was sent.
More than 4,600 people have died in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry. That includes the disputed death toll in the hospital explosion.
Israel has carried out limited incursions into Gaza, and on Sunday Hamas said it had destroyed an Israeli tank and two armored bulldozers in the territory, which it has ruled since 2007. The Israeli military reported one soldier killed and three wounded by an anti-tank missile during an operation inside Gaza.
The military said the raid was part of efforts to rescue hostages kidnapped in the Oct. 7 attack. Hamas hopes to exchange the captives for Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
On Saturday, 20 trucks entered Gaza in the first delivery of aid to the territory since Israel imposed a complete siege at the start of the war. Israel allowed a second convoy of 15 trucks to enter on Sunday. Both entered from Egypt through the Rafah crossing, the only access to the strip that is not controlled by Israel.
COGAT, the Israeli defense agency responsible for Palestinian civil affairs, said aid had been allowed in at the request of the United States, and that the shipment included water, food and medical supplies. Everything was inspected by Israel before entering Gaza, he said.
In a phone call on Sunday, Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden “affirmed that there will now be a continued flow of this critical assistance to Gaza,” the White House said in a statement.
Aid workers said much more was needed to address the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where half of the 2.3 million residents have fled their homes. The United Nations humanitarian agency noted that the 20 trucks that entered on Saturday were equivalent to 4% of the average imports of a day before the war, and were “a fraction of what is needed following 13 days of total siege.”
The Israeli military said the humanitarian situation was “under control,” even following OCHA called for 100 trucks a day.
Israel has not allowed fuel into Gaza, where there has been a widespread blackout for more than a week and hospitals are trying to get fuel for generators to keep vital medical equipment and incubators for premature babies running. The World Health Organization said seven hospitals in northern Gaza had been forced to close due to damage from attacks, lack of power or Israeli evacuation orders.
The lack of fuel also affected water and sanitation systems. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians sheltered in UN-run schools and tent camps were running out of food and drinking dirty water.
Israel reiterated its warnings for people to leave northern Gaza, including dropping leaflets from the air. He estimated that 700,000 people had already left, but hundreds of thousands remained. That would pose the risk of huge civilian casualties in any ground offensive.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Israel might not return to the previous situation where Hamas controlled Gaza and might pose a threat, but that Israel had “absolutely no intention” of governing Gaza.
“You have to find something that ensures that Hamas can’t do this once more, but also doesn’t turn to Israeli governance of Gaza,” he said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “It is something that must be resolved even as Israel manages the current threat.”
Israel captured Gaza, along with the West Bank and East Jerusalem, in the 1967 Six-Day War. The Palestinians claim all three territories for a future state. Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005, but Israel and Egypt have imposed a blockade to varying degrees since Hamas seized power over the territory from rival Palestinian forces in 2007.
Intense Israeli air and artillery strikes continued overnight in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry. The shelling hit residential buildings in the town of Khan Younis and the Nuseirat refugee camp, both south of the evacuation line.
The Palestinian Red Crescent reported heavy airstrikes overnight near Al Quds hospital in Gaza City. In addition to the patients, the hospital was hosting more than 12,000 displaced people, the medical organization said.
The Israeli military says it does not target civilians. Palestinian militants have fired some 7,000 rockets into Israel since the start of the war.
The military said on Monday it had hit 320 militant targets in Gaza in the past 24 hours. It said it had destroyed anti-tank positions and other targets that might endanger forces preparing for “a maneuver in the Gaza Strip,” an apparent reference to a ground operation.
___
Magdy reported from Cairo and Krauss from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Amy Teibel in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
1698048096
#Israel #bombs #Gaza #allowing #small #aid #convoy #besieged #enclave
