Fierce Israeli attacks shook the northern Gaza Strip on Friday evening. (File)
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Israel launched massive attacks in the northern Gaza Strip, reportedly the most intense since the war began on October 7. Hamas said the internet had been cut in Gaza. Contact with Gaza has reportedly been lost.
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The Israeli military said it had expanded its attacks on Gaza “in a very significant way,” as live footage from AFP news agency captured the intense bombardment of the territory’s north. “We will continue to strike in Gaza City and the surrounding area,” military spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a televised address.
The Hamas government said today that Israel had cut off “communications and most of the internet” across the Gaza Strip. The government media office accused Israel of taking the measures “to carry out massacres with bloody retaliatory strikes from the air, land and sea” as heavy attacks hit northern Gaza.
Rocket warning sirens blared in several Israeli cities during airstrikes in northern Gaza. The center of Tel Aviv was the target of rocket attacks today.
Hamas said today it had fired “barrels of rockets” at Israel following Israel’s intensive bombing of the Palestinian territory. “Rocket volleys towards the occupied territories (Israel) in response to the massacre of civilians,” Hamas’ armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said on its Telegram channel.
The UN chief warned today that Gaza is facing an “unprecedented avalanche of human suffering” due to lack of food, water and electricity. “I reiterate my call for a humanitarian ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages and the delivery of life-saving aid,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement.
The Israeli army accused Hamas of using hospitals in the Gaza Strip for military purposes. The claim was immediately rejected by Hamas, and the main United Nations agency operating in Gaza previously said it had mechanisms in place to prevent the diversion of aid.
“Hamas is waging war from hospitals” in Gaza, military spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters, adding that Hamas also used fuel stored in hospitals to carry out its operations.
Mr. Hagari specifically identified Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest in Gaza, as one from which Hamas men operated. “Terrorists move freely” in Shifa and other hospitals, he said.
“Hamas-ISIS is sick. They turn hospitals into headquarters of their terror. We just released intelligence that proves this,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a post on Military Use Hospital.
A senior member of Hamas’ political bureau, Izzat al-Rishq, immediately responded to the IDF’s allegations, calling them unfounded. “The enemy army spokesman’s statement is baseless,” Mr. Rishq said, accusing Israel of fabricating the allegations to “pave the way for a new massacre of our people.”
With contributions from AFP
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