Flames can be seen after an Israeli airstrike on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip Photo: SAID KHATIB / AFP
In a series of airstrikes on the morning of this Sunday, the 29th, Israeli warplanes bombed an area near Shifa Hospital, the largest health building in the Gaza Strip. The site is currently overcrowded with patients and tens of thousands of Palestinians seeking shelter. Israel claimed that the Hamas terrorist group’s leadership had a command post under the hospital, although no substantive evidence was provided.
These attacks came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a “second phase” in Israel’s ongoing conflict with Hamas, three weeks after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7. Israeli ground forces entered the Gaza Strip over the weekend as Israel attacked the area by air, land and sea.
The bombing, which Gazans say is the worst of the conflict, disrupted most communications in the region on the night of Friday 27 and isolated the besieged enclave’s 2.3 million residents from the rest of the world. According to local telecommunications companies, communications were partially restored this Sunday morning.
Residents reported that recent airstrikes also destroyed most of the roads leading to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. The hospital is in the northern part of the coastal enclave and Israel had ordered people to leave the area.
Israeli forces claim that most residents have fled to the south of the Gaza Strip, but many Palestinian civilians continue to live in the north. Tens of thousands of people are seeking shelter in Shifa, where there are already many patients injured in the attacks.
Mahmoud alSawah, who is sheltering in the building, told the AP that “the route to the hospital is becoming increasingly difficult. It seems they want to isolate the area.” Another Gaza City resident, Abdallah Sayed, described Israeli attacks in the last two days as “the most violent and intense” since the start of the war.
Israeli military officials did not comment on reports of attacks near Shifa Hospital. Recently, the Israeli military released computergenerated images showing Hamas facilities in and around Shifa Hospital. Israel has made similar allegations before without providing any substantive evidence.
(Estadão content with AP information)
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