- LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
- Militants and residents report intensified fighting across the Gaza Strip
- Hamas' armed wing says it is bombing Tel Aviv, Israelis are fleeing to shelters
- Palestinians in the West Bank answer the call for a global strike
GAZA/CAIRO, Dec 11 (Portal) – Fighting between Israel and Hamas intensified across the Gaza Strip on Monday, stoking fears expressed by the United Nations over the weekend of a breakdown in public order and a mass exodus of Palestinians to Egypt.
The narrow coastal strip has been under a complete Israeli blockade since the conflict began more than two months ago, and the border with Egypt is the only other way out.
Most of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been forced from their homes and residents say it is impossible to find refuge in the densely populated enclave as around 18,000 people have already been killed and the conflict is escalating.
Since the collapse of a week-long ceasefire, Israel launched a ground offensive in the south last week and has since advanced from the east into the heart of the major city of Khan Younis, with warplanes attacking an area to the west.
On Monday, militants and some residents said fighters prevented Israeli tanks from advancing further west through the city, and there were also fierce clashes in parts of the northern Gaza Strip, where Israel has said its tasks were largely completed.
After new warnings of rocket fire from Gaza, Israelis fled to emergency shelters, including in Tel Aviv. Hamas' armed wing said it was bombing the city in response to “the Zionist massacres of civilians.”
In Jabalia, northern Gaza, Palestinians fled smoke bombs fired near tents and other homes.
Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee made a new call on X on Monday for Gazans to evacuate Gaza City and other areas in the north and Khan Younis in the south.
“Residents of the Gaza Strip, the IDF is using force against Hamas and terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip, particularly in the Khan Yunis area and the north of the Strip,” it said, calling on civilians to leave the Gaza Strip for their own safety.
UN officials say 1.9 million people – 85 percent of Gaza's population – are displaced, describing conditions in the southern areas where they are concentrated as hellish.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who unsuccessfully pushed for a ceasefire in Gaza, said on Sunday the enclave was collapsing.
“I expect that public order will soon completely collapse and an even worse situation could develop, including epidemic diseases and increased pressure for mass displacement to Egypt,” he told an international conference in Qatar.
ISRAEL denies trying to evacuate Gaza
Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general of UNRWA, the U.N. agency responsible for the welfare of Palestinian refugees, said Gazans driven from their homes were being pushed ever closer to the border.
“The developments we are witnessing suggest attempts to bring Palestinians to Egypt, whether they remain there or are relocated elsewhere,” Lazzarini wrote in the Los Angeles Times.
The border with Egypt is heavily fortified, but Hamas militants blasted holes in the wall in 2008 to break a tight blockade. Gazans crossed the border to buy food and other goods but quickly returned without anyone being permanently displaced.
Egypt has long warned that it would not allow Gaza residents into its territory this time, fearing they would not be able to return.
Jordan, which welcomed the majority of Palestinians after Israel's creation in 1948, accused Israel on Sunday of trying to “liberate Gaza from its people.”
Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy called the accusation “outrageous and false” and said his country was “defending itself against the monsters who carried out the October 7 massacre” and bringing them to justice.
According to Israeli sources, Hamas armed forces killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostages in this surprise attack on October 7th. Israel has vowed to destroy the militant Islamist group that has ruled Gaza since 2007 and has vowed to destroy Israel.
According to Gaza health authorities, Israeli strikes have killed around 18,000 people and injured 49,500. About 100 of the Israeli hostages were freed during a week-long ceasefire that ended on December 1.
Israel says the instructions for the move are a far-reaching measure to protect the local population. It accuses militants from Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, of using civilians as human shields and stealing humanitarian aid, which Hamas denies.
The Israeli military said its troops in Jabalia found weapons in a UNRWA bag and rocket launchers near a school, and distributed a video showing explosive devices next to a bag marked “UNRWA.” Portal was unable to independently verify the footage.
It also distributed a video purportedly from the Shejaia district of Gaza City that purportedly shows Hamas gunmen beating people and accepting help.
WORLDWIDE CALL FOR STRIKE
Palestinian activists called for a global strike on Monday to pressure Israel into a ceasefire.
Palestinians observed the attack in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, but it was unclear whether the operation would resonate globally or have any impact on Israel's war plans.
The Gaza Health Ministry said 32 Palestinians had been killed and 15 others injured in Khan Younis since early Sunday evening.
Militants and residents said fighting was also intense in Shejaia, east of central Gaza City, in the northwestern district of Sheikh Radwan and in the town of Jabalia further north. Militant groups said they inflicted casualties on Israeli soldiers without providing evidence.
In the central Gaza Strip, where Israel advised people on Monday to move to “known shelters in the Deir al-Balah area,” health officials said the Shuhada Al-Aqsa Hospital admitted 40 dead overnight.
Medics said an Israeli airstrike killed four people at a house in Rafah, one of two places near Egypt where Israel says Palestinians should seek refuge.
Israel said it would halt military activities on humanitarian grounds at the refugee camp in Rafah, one of several in the enclave that house refugees and their descendants from the fighting before, during and after Israel's founding in 1948.
Reporting by Bassam Masoud in Gaza and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo; Additional reporting by Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem and Tom Perry, Claudia Tanios in Cairo; writing by Richard Cowan, Lincoln Feast and Philippa Fletcher; Editing by Diane Craft, Michael Perry and Sharon Singleton
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