Israeli tanks entered Gaza City today while IDF troops were pelted with stones in raids against Palestinian armed groups in the West Bank.
The signs that the Jewish state was stepping up its military operations in the region came as a UN official warned that the Gaza Strip was on the brink of social collapse as mobs ransacked food warehouses and families were forced to drink dirty water.
Fears for the more than 2.2 million people living in the small territory are growing rapidly as Israel continues the “second phase” of its war to destroy Hamas.
The Israeli military said it killed “dozens” of the terror group’s fighters in clashes in the Gaza Strip overnight. Hamas also said its fighters were engaged in “heavy fighting” with Israeli forces in northern Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the attack would be “protracted and difficult.”
Israeli tanks entered the outskirts of Gaza City today while IDF troops were pelted with stones in raids against Palestinian armed groups in the West Bank. In the picture: Numerous Israeli tanks are gathered in southern Israel on October 30th
In a video, Palestinians are seen throwing stones at Israeli armored vehicles in the West Bank
In a video posted online, IDF soldiers are seen conducting an operation in the West Bank
In response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel that killed at least 1,400 people, the IDF launched a relentless retaliatory bombardment that killed 8,000 civilians in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, according to the Health Ministry.
Gaza’s population in the territory’s north – about 1.1 million people – has been ordered to evacuate south in anticipation of Israel’s ground offensive, plunging the region deeper into a humanitarian crisis.
Israel is making “gradual progress according to plan” in the Gaza Strip, said chief military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari during a press conference on Monday.
Israeli tanks pushed into the outskirts of Gaza City, cutting off a key road from the north to the south of the war-torn Palestinian territory, eyewitnesses told AFP today.
“They shoot at any vehicle that tries to drive past,” one resident said, with footage appearing to show an Israeli tank destroying a car.
Witnesses also said tanks were seen in Zaytun district. “They have cut off Salahedin Street and are shooting at any vehicle that tries to drive on it,” one said.
There were also clashes in the West Bank, the Palestinian territory in eastern Israel. At least four Palestinians were killed there early Monday in clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinians in Jenin, where there have been repeated Israeli raids against gunmen.
As of Sunday, Israeli forces and settlers in the West Bank killed 115 Palestinians, including 33 minors, half of them in Israeli search and arrest operations, the United Nations said.
A video from the West Bank showed Palestinians throwing stones at Israeli armored vehicles, while another second clip showed IDF soldiers carrying out an operation.
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians remain in the north and would no longer be able to flee if the north-south highway were blocked.
Some 117,000 displaced people, along with thousands of patients and staff, are in hospitals in northern Gaza, hoping to be safe from strikes, according to the UN.
Most residents followed Israel’s orders to flee to the southern part of the besieged area, but many stayed in part because Israel had also bombed targets in so-called safe zones.
Thomas White, a senior UN official in Gaza, told the BBC that the situation on the ground was getting worse. “The social fabric of Gaza is beginning to break down,” he said on the channel’s Today program on Monday.
‘[This] “Not only can this be very dangerous for the people living here, but it also makes it very difficult for us to maintain our relief operation,” he said.
White, the UN Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRA) director for the territory, said large groups of people have occupied the warehouses we have in Gaza and have virtually looted those warehouses.
“I think this is an indication of how desperate people are,” he said.
In a photo shared by the Israeli military, an IDF tank is seen extending its ground offensive
A Palestinian sits with an injured girl at Nasser Hospital following Israeli attacks in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip October 30
Gaza is on the brink of complete social collapse, a UN official has warned, as mobs loot food warehouses and families drink dirty water. Pictured: People search buildings destroyed in Israeli airstrikes in the southern Gaza Strip on October 30
An image from Sderot, the city in southern Israel, shows smoke rising during the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip on October 30, 2023
An image from Sderot, the city in southern Israel, shows smoke rising during the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip on October 30, 2023
On Sunday, 33 trucks carrying water, food and medical supplies entered Egypt through the Rafah border crossing, the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said.
“This is the largest delivery of humanitarian assistance since October 21, when limited deliveries resumed,” OCHA said, stressing that much more is needed.
In particular, she called for fuel deliveries, the operation of medical equipment and water and sanitation facilities to be completely blocked.
A total of 117 trucks have entered the Gaza Strip so far since limited deliveries resumed to the impoverished Palestinian territory, which is under a near-total siege. Before the war, an average of 500 trucks arrived per day, UN figures show.
White said hundreds were needed to meet “basic humanitarian needs,” including “food, fuel for desalination plants and water.”
“Literally these life-saving interventions. “But what we’re really worried about now is that the public and private sectors are going to collapse,” he said.
While relief efforts in the south struggle with incredibly high population densities, the situation is even worse for those who remain in the north.
White said many who are still there can’t move to the relative safety of the south because they don’t have transportation. Many, he said, took refuge in UNRA schools and hospitals in the Gaza Strip.
“I was in one of the hospitals this week – there are hundreds and hundreds of patients who cannot be transferred and thousands of internally displaced people.”
“Civilians are housed in hospitals, they are housed in dedicated shelters that we operate, they are under a UN flag.” “They should and must be protected by international law,” he said.
Asked about Israeli allegations that Hamas terrorists use such facilities to set up checkpoints, using civilians as human shields, White said: “What I can tell you – there are some very hungry, very thirsty and very scared people seeking refuge “They must be protected as civilians in this conflict.”
IDF soldiers are seen on Israeli military vehicles near Gaza City
Fears for the more than 2.2 million people living in the small territory are growing rapidly as Israel continues the “second phase” of its war to destroy Hamas. Pictured: Women carry children as others check the damage after the Israeli bombing of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on October 29
A man is seen among the rubble of buildings destroyed in Israeli airstrikes in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis on October 29
A boy is seen among the rubble of buildings destroyed in Israeli airstrikes in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis on October 29
His comments came after the Palestinian Red Crescent said on Sunday that Israel had carried out repeated bombings around the Al-Quds Hospital in central Gaza, causing damage and endangering civilians.
In addition to the patients who are cared for in the facility, around 14,000 war refugees are also housed there, it was said.
The UN said there was also shelling near Shifa Hospital in Gaza City and the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza over the weekend, and that all 10 hospitals operating there had been ordered by Israel to evacuate in recent days .
Tens of thousands of civilians are housed in Shifa Hospital, the largest in the region. Israel accuses Hamas of having a secret command post beneath the hospital, but has not provided much evidence. Hamas denies the allegations.
The head of the World Health Organization said calls to evacuate Al-Quds Hospital were “deeply concerning.” “It is impossible to evacuate hospitals full of patients without endangering their lives,” wrote Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on X.
UNRA’s White told the BBC that there was not nearly enough food for the millions of people in the small 140 square mile area.
“We don’t have the food reserves we need to provide for these people, so for a lot of people it’s a piece of (round Arabic bread) and when we come in it’s canned goods,” he said on Sunday. They handed out canned cheese.
He added: “Our biggest concern is that people are drinking unpotable water, and if an infectious disease breaks out in Gaza, it will have devastating consequences.”
Israel’s siege has brought Gaza’s infrastructure to near collapse. With hospitals without central power for weeks, they are struggling to keep backup generators running to power incubators and other life-saving equipment.
The increase in aid trucks came after US President Joe Biden emphasized to Netanyahu “the need to immediately and significantly increase the flow of humanitarian assistance,” the US said.
Israel also opened two water pipelines in the southern Gaza Strip last week, according to the Israeli military authority, which is responsible for Palestinian civil affairs. The Associated Press could not independently verify whether any of the lines were working.
Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents were able to communicate again Sunday after more than a day without phone and internet services.
Rockets fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip are intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, seen from Sderot, October 30
Water tanks are transported by horse-drawn carriages in Khan Yunis, Gaza, October 30
A man stands outside his shop and looks at the destruction following an Israeli military attack on the Palestinian refugee camp Jenin in the Israeli-occupied northern West Bank October 30
A firefighter checks a damaged store after an Israeli military attack on the Jenin Palestinian refugee camp in the occupied northern West Bank October 30
Fears of a major conflict in the Middle East are also growing.
The Israeli military said on Monday it had also hit military infrastructure in Syria in response to rockets fired from there.
There were then further escalations along the Israel-Lebanese border, with Iran-backed Hezbollah claiming it had shot down an Israeli drone and saying Israel had killed one of its fighters.
Hamas militants in Lebanon said they fired rockets at Israel, with Israel saying it returned fire and carried out retaliatory air strikes.