Fighting has escalated in Gaza’s second-largest metropolis of Khan Younis as Israeli air strikes rain down all through the enclave, forcing Palestinians to flee to more and more crammed pockets of the territory’s southern edge the place there isn’t any promised safety, because the conflict enters its third month.
“We are talking about a carpet bombardment of entire neighbourhoods and residential blocks,” Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Rafah in southern Gaza, mentioned on Thursday, following heavy in a single day shelling there.
The Israeli military “ordered with a threatening tone to move to Rafah because it is safe”, he mentioned, however residential properties “were destroyed”.
“[These strikes] are not concentrated in one area of Rafah … multiple locations were targeted, just sending waves of fear and concern that confirm what people have talked about and expressed before – there is literally no safe place in the Gaza Strip, including the areas Israel designated as safe.”
After greater than two months of conflict, beginning on October 7, Mahmoud mentioned that “the mood of these more than 60 days has been death, destruction and displacement”.
“We’re talking about more than 60 days of constant movement and running for their lives from one place to another, from the extreme northern part of the Gazan city of Beit Hanoon to the extreme south by Rafah, where many people are being packed and squeezed.”
‘Alarming levels of hunger’
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) mentioned that households in northern Gaza are “experiencing alarming levels of hunger”.
At least 97 p.c of households in northern Gaza have “inadequate food consumption”, with 9 out of 10 individuals going one full day and evening with out meals.
In the southern governorates, a 3rd of the households have reported excessive ranges of extreme or very extreme starvation, with 53 p.c experiencing average starvation.
“Palestinians lack everything they need to survive,” Mahmoud mentioned.
While pursuing its offensive within the south, Israeli armed forces have attacked a number of refugee camps, amongst them the Jabalia camp within the north and the al-Maghazi camp within the centre. The assault in Jabalia killed 22 kin of Al Jazeera journalist Momin Alshrafi, together with his father, mom, three siblings, and youngsters.
According to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, 60 p.c of the wounded require pressing medical therapy overseas, pointing to the collapse of the well being sector in Gaza.
“The occupation forces are deliberately arresting and abusing the sick and wounded, including paramedics from our crews, and we are on the cusp of a health and environmental catastrophe in the Strip,” an announcement mentioned.
When will it finish?
As the demise toll mounts amid the humanitarian disaster, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken informed officers in Israel’s conflict cupboard final week that the administration of US President Joe Biden believed the conflict ought to finish in weeks – not months, according to The Wall Street Journal,
Israeli officers, in flip, expressed an curiosity in a return to normalcy, particularly within the curiosity of financial stability, however didn’t make any ensures, the report mentioned.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has mentioned Israel may indefinitely occupy a part of the Gaza Strip to create a “buffer zone”, a transfer that may put him on a collision course with regional allies and the United States.
Conflicting stories have additionally emerged on whether or not Israeli troops have surrounded the home of Hamas’s chief in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, in Khan Younis.
Late on Wednesday, Netanyahu mentioned it was “just a matter of time until we get him” and that Israeli troopers had encircled his home.
Yet, navy spokesperson Daniel Hagari later mentioned Sinwar’s house is the whole “Khan Younis area”, giving no indication {that a} particular location had been surrounded.
Three names prime Israel’s most-wanted males, particularly Mohammed Deif, the pinnacle of Hamas’s navy wing, the Qassam Brigades; his second-in-command, Marwan Issa; and Sinwar.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/7/more-displacement-as-israeli-forces-press-deeper-into-south-gaza?traffic_source=rss
