The Israeli military said it had struck more than 600 targets in recent days and continues to expand ground operations in the Gaza Strip, where Palestinian civilians are in urgent need of fuel, food and water. “IDF troops killed dozens of terrorists who barricaded themselves in buildings and tunnels and tried to attack our forces,” the Israeli military said. Airstrikes targeted areas near Shifa and Al-Quds hospitals in Gaza, and Palestinian fighters clashed with Israeli forces in a border area east of the town of Khan Younis, according to Palestinian media.
Hundreds of patients are stuck in hospitals in northern Gaza and cannot physically move to the south of the enclave, says the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in the territory, Tom White, quoted by the BBC. One of the hospitals is Al-Quds in northern Gaza, warned by Israel to evacuate people due to shelling.
The UN representative says that not only the patients, but the entire population of the northern Gaza Strip cannot leave there because they have no means of transport: “They are hungry, thirsty and very scared.”
Meanwhile, the Israeli army (IDF) is expanding its ground operation in the Gaza Strip, IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari says, adding that fighting is ongoing, quoted by The Times of Israel. “Overnight, troops eliminated dozens of terrorists who barricaded themselves in buildings and tried to attack forces advancing in their direction. We are conducting an extensive ground operation in the Strip… the forces are moving towards the terrorists, the terrorists are barricading themselves in the fields and we are also attacking them from the air,” Hagari said.
A large number of rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel on Monday morning, a sign that Hamas is still capable of retaliating with attacks despite being constantly hit by more than three weeks of intense bombardment by the Israeli military, CNN reports. A CNN crew in Ashkelon, southern Israel, heard two barrages of rockets, at least six in total, before midday local time on Monday.
According to local media, one of the rockets fell on the Ashkelon industrial complex. The rest appeared to have been intercepted by the Iron Dome system. The Israeli command has issued thousands of strike warnings from Gaza since Hamas launched the October 7 terror attack. Most were intercepted by Iron Dome, but a few managed to wreak havoc in several cities across Israel. The Israeli military says destroying the infrastructure that allows Hamas to launch rockets into Israel is one of its priorities in the ground operation in Gaza.
Issam Abdallah, the Reuters journalist killed on October 13 in southern Lebanon, died after being “targeted” from the direction of the Israeli border, the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) organization reported on Sunday, in an investigation cited by the Reuters and AFP agencies. , based on preliminary findings. “According to the ballistic analysis carried out by the RSF, the shots came from the east of where the journalists were sitting; from the direction of the Israeli border,” the quoted organization said. “Two shots in the same place in such a short time interval (a little over 30 seconds), from the same direction, clearly indicate precise targeting,” RSF also conveys, without making the Israeli army categorically responsible, AFP reports, while Reuters mentions that the RSF report does not establish who launched the strikes against the journalists.
The number of people killed in airstrikes in Gaza since October 7 has risen to 7,950, the Palestinian health ministry in Ramallah said on Sunday, using information from the Hamas-controlled enclave, according to CNN. Around three-quarters of those killed are vulnerable populations, including children, women and the elderly, the Palestinian Authority report said. More than 20,000 people were injured in the bombings. In an earlier update, the ministry also said 24 hospitals in northern Gaza, with a combined capacity of 2,000 beds, had been told to evacuate their patients.