Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Saturday the war against the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas has “entered a new phase,” three weeks into a war sparked by the deadliest attack in Israel’s history.
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The United Nations has said it fears an “avalanche of human suffering” in the Gaza Strip, where some 2.4 million residents live crowded together without water, food or electricity and have had no communications or internet since Friday.
Since October 7, the Israeli army has been relentlessly shelling the small Palestinian territory in retaliation for the Hamas attack that killed more than 1,400 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to local authorities.
Hamas, which controls Gaza, said 7,703 people, mostly civilians, were killed in Israeli bombings, the highest number since Israel withdrew from Palestinian territory in 2005 after 38 years of occupation.
The Israeli army bombed the Gaza Strip continuously on Friday night and carried out a ground attack covering an area of about 360 m2.
In total, “150 underground targets” were attacked in northern Gaza, where Hamas controls its operations from a gigantic network of underground tunnels, according to the army.
It reported “several Hamas terrorists killed,” including a leader “who was involved in organizing the October 7 massacre,” which deeply traumatized Israeli society.
According to Gaza Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal, “hundreds of buildings and houses were completely destroyed” during the nighttime raids.
The heaviest bombings, according to witnesses, were concentrated in the area around two hospitals, al-Shifa in Gaza City and another in the Jabaliya area of the northern Gaza Strip.
“We used to call our loved ones to see how they were doing, but last night that wasn’t possible. “People have become lifeless bodies on the streets,” said Jihad Mahdi, a resident of Gaza City.
“Everywhere was bombed”
The bombings caused significant damage in the Shati refugee camp within the borders of Gaza City.
“What happened in Chati is worse than an earthquake,” 54-year-old resident Alaa Mahdi told AFP. “There was bombing everywhere, from the navy, artillery and aircraft. Who do they meet, the resistance? No, poor people.”
Bombings against Gaza continued on Saturday after attacks on southern Israel rocked the city of Ashkelon, near Gaza, according to AFP journalists.
Smoke and an acrid smell of burning filled the air in Ashkelon and Sderot at sunrise, while warplanes continued to fly at low altitudes and explosions were heard from Gaza.
During the night, Hamas, which said it was “ready” to face an Israeli ground offensive that had been announced for days, reported clashes between its fighters and soldiers in Beit Hanoun (north) and al-Boureij (center) and fired volleys of rockets Hamas from Israel.
After announcing a “significant” intensification of its attacks on Friday evening, the army confirmed on Saturday that its troops had “entered Gaza and expanded their operations there” after two attacks with armored vehicles in the previous two nights had.
“We will continue to bomb from the air and from the sea,” said army spokesman Daniel Hagari.
“Fear” of the hostage families
At the end of a “night of immense suffering,” the families of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, mostly Israelis, said they were “concerned” about their fate and demanded explanations from the government.
According to the army, nearly 230 people, Israelis, dual citizens or foreigners, were kidnapped on October 7 by Hamas, which has since released four women. The Islamist movement, which had threatened to execute hostages, estimates the number of hostages killed in the bombings to be “nearly 50.”
These attacks “are something that puts the hostages in danger,” said Mr. Rubinstein, spokesman for the Forum of Families of Hostages and Disappeared Persons.
On Saturday, a senior Hamas official, Moussa Abou Marzouk, said in Moscow that his movement was trying to determine the whereabouts of eight hostages with dual Russian and Israeli citizenship in order to free them.
Unlike the United States, the European Union and Israel, Russia does not consider Hamas a “terrorist” organization.
The bombings coincided with a communications and internet blackout in Gaza.
NGOs and UN agencies have reported losing contact with their teams in Gaza.
Humanitarian operations and hospital activities “cannot continue without communication,” said Lynn Hastings, a U.N. official.
EU diplomacy chief called for “pause in hostilities”
“Serve as cover”
On October 9, Israel imposed a “total siege” on the Gaza Strip, cutting off water, electricity and food supplies, while the Palestinian territory had already been under an Israeli land, air and sea blockade for more than 16 years.
“Many more” people will soon die as a result of the siege, said the head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini.
Israeli spokesman Daniel Hagari said the army would allow “the entry of food, medicine and water for the population” into Gaza on Saturday.
According to the United Nations, 84 trucks carrying humanitarian aid have arrived through Egypt since October 21, with at least a hundred needed per day.
“Stop this madness”
In New York, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly called for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire,” a resolution welcomed by Hamas but rejected by Israel.
In retaliation for October 7th, Israel wants to “destroy” the Islamist movement. That day, in the middle of Shabbat, the weekly Jewish rest period, hundreds of Hamas fighters crossed from Gaza onto Israeli soil, where they carried out the deadliest attack in Israeli history.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday accused the West of being “the main culprit in the massacres in Gaza.”
The international community fears a regional conflagration, while Iran, backed by Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, has sent warnings to the United States, a close ally of Israel.
Tensions are also high in the West Bank, which has been occupied since 1967, where more than 100 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers since October 7th.
There are almost daily exchanges of fire between the Israeli army and Hezbollah on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon. The headquarters of the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon was hit by a shell on Saturday, said a spokesman for the peacekeeping force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).