Israel on Monday expanded its offensive against Hamas in the besieged Gaza Strip as international concern grows over the rising civilian death toll in the war sparked by the Oct. 7 attacks.
The return to open warfare after the end of the ceasefire had a domino effect in a region that was on the brink of a major conflagration.
Since the ceasefire expired on Friday, there has been renewed fighting in Gaza between Hamas fighters and Israeli soldiers, as well as rocket fire on Israel and air strikes on Palestinian areas.
The Israeli army reported a number of rockets fired from Gaza on Sunday, most of which were intercepted.
The Hamas-controlled Gaza government and the official Palestinian agency Wafa said an attack hit the entrance to Kamal Adwan Hospital in the territory’s north.
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Wafa said several people died at the site, while Hamas accused Israel of a “serious violation” of humanitarian law.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) did not initially comment on the alleged attack when contacted by AFP.
Israel claims that Hamas is using hospitals and other civilian infrastructure for military purposes, something the Islamist group denies.
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“The IDF continues to expand its ground operation against Hamas’ main fronts in the Gaza Strip,” Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said.
“Wherever there is a Hamas stronghold, the IDF operates there,” Hagari added on Sunday.
According to Israeli authorities, Israel has vowed to dismantle Hamas in retaliation for the Oct. 7 attacks that left about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, dead and 240 kidnapped.
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According to the Ministry of Health in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, more than 15,500 people have died in the territory since that date, more than half of whom are women and children.
Under a Qatar-brokered ceasefire with support from Egypt and the United States, 80 Israeli hostages were released in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinian prisoners.
More than two dozen other hostages from Gaza, mostly Thais living in Israel, were also released.
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Fighting between the two sides resumed on Friday as the ceasefire expired without an extension despite international pressure.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced that Israeli negotiators had withdrawn from Qatar “after an impasse in negotiations” to renew the ceasefire.
With 137 hostages still in Gaza, according to the Israeli military, Hamas has ruled out further releases until a permanent ceasefire is agreed.
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The IDF said Sunday it had carried out about 10,000 airstrikes since the start of the war.
“In the last few hours, only 316 dead and 664 wounded were rescued from the rubble and taken to hospital, but many more still lie under the rubble,” Hamas Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said in a statement.
The rising death toll in Gaza has deepened international dismay over Israel’s conduct in the war to root out Hamas.
On Sunday, hospitals in southern Gaza were overwhelmed with the dead and wounded, some screaming in pain.
“I am at a loss to describe the horrors that children are experiencing here,” said James Elder, spokesman for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), in a video recorded at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis.
“This is the worst bombing in the war in southern Gaza. I see massive child sacrifice,” he added in the video uploaded to X, formerly Twitter.
Huda, 9, arrived with a head wound in a Red Cross caravan bringing victims from the northern Gaza Strip.
“She no longer responds to me,” her father, Abdelkarim Abu Warda, said, crying.
The United States, which provides billions of dollars a year in military aid to Israel, has increased its calls to protect civilians in Gaza.
“Too many innocent Palestinians have died,” Vice President Kamala Harris told reporters at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai.
Eylon Levy, an Israeli government spokesman, blamed Hamas for the deaths and said the victims would be “alive” if the Islamist group had not carried out the Oct. 7 attacks.
Fearing a regional conflagration, a U.S. destroyer shot down multiple drones over the Red Sea while supporting merchant ships targeted by attacks from Yemen, U.S. Central Command reported.
Houthi rebels in Yemen, who are backed by Iran, said they attacked two of the ships. They have also fired a number of drones and missiles against Israel in recent weeks.
In Iraq, an airstrike on Sunday killed at least five pro-Iranian fighters, according to Iraqi security sources, a day after Baghdad warned Washington of “attacks” on its territory.
There were also clashes on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.
The Israeli military said it launched artillery strikes in response to cross-border shelling and that its warplanes hit several targets linked to Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement.
The Iran-backed Hezbollah group said it had carried out several attacks on Israeli positions, including a rocket attack on a military vehicle.
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