KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Gaza City was hit by Israeli attacks overnight and into Sunday as ground troops battled Hamas militants near the territory’s largest hospital, where health officials said thousands of medics, Patients and displaced people are stranded without power and with dwindling supplies.
In a televised address on Saturday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected growing international calls for a ceasefire unless it included the release of all nearly 240 hostages taken by Hamas in the Oct. 7 rampage that sparked the war , and said Israel would bring its ceasefire “full force” into battle.
Israel has vowed to end Hamas’ 16-year rule in Gaza and weaken its military capabilities, while blaming the militants for the war’s heavy toll on the 2.3 million Palestinians trapped in the besieged territory . However, due to the plight of the civilian population, it is increasingly coming under international pressure.
In Gaza City, residents reported heavy airstrikes and shelling overnight, including in the area around Shifa Hospital. Without providing evidence, Israel has accused Hamas of hiding a command post inside and under the hospital grounds. Hamas and hospital staff denied these claims.
“We spent the night in panic, waiting for them to arrive,” said Ahmed al-Boursh, a resident who sought refuge in the hospital. “They’re outside, not far from the gates.”
HOSPITALS OUT OF OPERATION
The hospital’s last generator ran out of fuel on Saturday, leading to the deaths of three premature babies and four other patients in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, according to the health ministry. It is said another 36 babies are at risk of death because there is no electricity.
Health Ministry undersecretary Munir al-Boursh said Israeli snipers were stationed around Shifa and fired on any movement within the compound. He said airstrikes destroyed several houses next to the hospital and killed three people, including a doctor.
“There are wounded people in the house and we can’t reach them,” he told Al Jazeera television in an interview from the hospital. “We can’t stick our heads out the window.” It wasn’t clear whether he was related to the other man with the same last name.
The Israeli military said there was a safe corridor for evacuating civilians from Shifa to the southern Gaza Strip, but people sheltering in the hospital said they were afraid to go outside. The military said troops would help transport the babies on Sunday and were in contact with hospital staff.
It was not possible to independently determine the situation in and around the hospital.
According to the Health Ministry, 1,500 patients are still in Shifa, along with 1,500 medical staff and between 15,000 and 20,000 people seeking shelter. Thousands have fled Shifa and other hospitals, but doctors said it was impossible for everyone to get out.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Ambulance Service said another hospital in Gaza City, Al-Quds, was “no longer operational” because it had run out of fuel. Gaza’s only power plant was forced to shut down a month ago and Israel has banned all fuel imports, saying Hamas would use them for military purposes.
Nebal Farsakh, a Red Crescent spokesman, said 6,000 people, including displaced families, patients and medical staff, remained trapped in hospital.
With Shifa and other hospitals now inaccessible, people seeking shelter in Gaza City said they were cut off from emergency care. Heba Mashlah, who was sheltering at a U.N. compound along with thousands of families, said four people were killed and 15 wounded in an attack late Saturday.
“The wounded are bleeding and no one can help them,” she said, adding that the dead were buried at the site. The UN Development Program confirmed that one of its compounds had been hit. UN organizations have been unable to provide their services in the north for weeks.
NETANYAHU REJECTS US POST-WAR VISION
Netanyahu said responsibility for any damage to civilians lay with Hamas. Israel has long accused the group, which operates in densely populated neighborhoods, of using civilians as human shields.
On Saturday, Netanyahu began outlining Israel’s postwar plans for Gaza, which contrast sharply with the United States’ vision.
Netanyahu said Gaza would be demilitarized and Israel would retain the ability to freely enter Gaza to hunt militants. He also rejected the idea that the Palestinian Authority, which currently governs parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, would eventually control Gaza. In 2007, Hamas drove Palestinian Authority forces out of Gaza in a week of street battles.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. opposed an Israeli reoccupation of the Gaza Strip and envisioned a unified Palestinian government in both Gaza and the West Bank as a step toward a Palestinian state. Even before the war, Netanyahu’s government firmly rejected the establishment of a Palestinian state.
The war threatens to spark a wider conflict as Israel and Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon frequently exchange fire along the border. Hezbollah fired anti-tank missiles at Israel on Sunday, and Israel responded with artillery. The Israeli power company said workers repairing lines damaged in previous attacks were injured and video footage showed two vehicles burning.
Evacuation windows but no breaks
The U.S. has also pushed for temporary pauses that would allow for more widespread distribution of urgently needed aid to civilians in the besieged area, where conditions are becoming increasingly dire.
But Israel has agreed to only short daily periods during which civilians can flee the ground combat zone in northern Gaza and head south on foot along two main north-south roads. Israel is now also attacking allegedly militant targets in the southern Gaza Strip, often killing women and children.
Dozens of injured people, including children, were taken to a hospital in Khan Younis after an Israeli airstrike destroyed a building in the southern city. Hospital officials said at least 13 people were killed.
The war has displaced over two-thirds of Gaza’s population, with most fleeing south. Egypt has allowed hundreds of foreign passport holders and medical patients to leave the country through the Rafah border crossing, as well as the entry of some humanitarian supplies.
According to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilian and militant deaths, more than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, two-thirds of them women and minors. About 2,700 people were reported missing and believed to be trapped or dead under the rubble.
On the Israeli side, at least 1,200 people were killed, mostly civilians killed in the first Hamas attack. 46 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the ground offensive began.
About 250,000 Israelis have been forced to evacuate from communities near Gaza, where Palestinian militants are still firing rocket fire, and along the northern border with Lebanon.
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Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Amy Teibel in Jerusalem and Abby Sewell in Beirut contributed to this report.
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Complete AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.