On Thursday, over 61 people were killed overnight and early in a barrage of attacks on the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, according to local health officials. In Jabalia in northern Gaza, an Israeli strike on al-Tawbah medical clinic killed at least 15 people and wounded several others, the health ministry said.
Israel’s army also attacked three hospitals in north and south Gaza: al-Awda hospital in Jabalia, the Indonesian Hospital in Khan Younis, and the European hospital, which Gaza’s Health Ministry says is now out of service, Al Jazeera reported.
Also read: UN chief slams Gaza aid plan proposed by Israel and US
Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah, described “another bloody day” in Gaza, as Israel intensified its air attacks on residential areas.
“Israeli warplanes directly targeted nine houses without any warning in the city of Khan Younis,” he said, adding that entire families were “completely wiped out”.
He described the situation as chaotic, with civilians fleeing repeated forced evacuation orders. “The Israeli military targeted civilians while they were asleep,” launching 13 air raids on the Jabalia refugee camp and nearby areas. Civil defence teams, he added, were overwhelmed and struggling to rescue those trapped under the rubble, due to a lack of equipment.
Abu Azzoum said the strikes reflect a “pattern of attacks not aimed at military targets, but at systematically destroying Gaza’s social fabric”.
Hamas said in a statement that Israel was making a “desperate attempt to negotiate under cover of fire” as indirect ceasefire talks take place between Israel and Hamas, involving US envoys and Qatar and Egyptian mediators in Doha.
Scenes of panic and fear were reported as residents packed their belongings and tried to escape the expected onslaught.
“We’re seeing families carrying their belongings and taking to the streets,” a reporter said. “The children and elderly are carrying whatever they’re able to carry … They don’t know where to go. There is no safe place for these people – the so-called shelters have already been destroyed by Israeli bombs.”
Speaking to Al Jazeera, displaced Palestinian Hasan Moqbel described the continuing assault as a war on civilians. “They have been bombing Gaza for 19 months. What’s left in Gaza? Innocent children are dying. There is no armed activity here. Most of them are elderly people who are dying,” he said.
