Israel bombings near Gaza hospital stoke tensions amid ‘heavy fighting’ with Hamas
Israeli forces have stepped up bombings in the northern Gaza Strip as troops and tanks pushed forward in the besieged territory after ordering expanded ground incursions across its eastern border.
Israel’s self-declared “second phase” of its war against Hamas had initially been kept from public view, with forces moving under darkness amid a near-total communications and Internet blackout.
The IDF said ground forces killed a number of Hamas militants as they exited one of their extensive network of Gaza tunnels near the Erez crossing, which had been the sole pedestrian passageway into Israel before it was destroyed in the fighting.
IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari also said fighter jets had struck more than 450 military targets belonging to Hamas within 24 hours, including “military headquarters, observation posts and anti-tank firing positions”.
Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said on its Telegram account that their fighters were “engaged in heavy fighting with machine-guns and anti-tank weapons” in north west of Gaza, according to the AFP news agency.
Connection appeared to gradually return on Sunday after nearly 36 hours, but the disruption of communications severely impacted rescue operations as people hit by Israeli air strikes could not call for help.
The Palestinian Red Crescent (PRCS) said it had received warnings from Israeli authorities to immediately evacuate al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City, where 14,000 people are sheltering.
“Since this morning, there has been raids 50 metres away from the hospital,” the PRCS posted on X, formerly Twitter. It said some windows were blown out and rooms were covered in debris.
The head of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the report was “deeply concerning” and that it was “impossible” to evacuate hospitals full of patients without endangering their lives.
An Israeli military spokesman declined to comment when asked about the PRCS statement during a media briefing.
Israeli warplanes have carried out air strikes near Gaza’s largest hospital, al-Shifa, which is packed with patients and tens of thousands of Palestinians seeking shelter.
Residents said Israeli air strikes destroyed most of the roads leading to al-Shifa Hospital. “Reaching the hospital has become increasingly difficult,” Mahmoud al-Sawah, who is sheltering in the hospital, told the Associated Press.
The Israeli military has distributed a map asserting that the al-Shifa Hospital was the headquarters of Hamas’s leadership. Hamas has denied the claims.
Footage supplied by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) on Saturday appeared to show tanks entering Gaza and bulldozers clearing mountains of debris.
Israel has continued to tell civilians in the north of Gaza to evacuate south to avoid the fighting, but air strikes have continued to hit refuge areas including in Khan Yunis, where at least 13 people were killed after a two-storey house was struck with a missile.
The total death toll in Gaza has risen to 8,005, according to a statement released by the health ministry in Gaza on Sunday. The figure includes 3,324 children, the Hamas-run authority said.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan has urged Israel to use every means possible to distinguish between Palestinian civilians and Hamas in Gaza.
In an interview with CNN, Mr Sullivan also called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “rein in” extremist Jewish settler violence against innocent people in the occupied West Bank.
It comes after the uncle of a Palestinian man said his nephew was shot dead by a Jewish settler while harvesting olives near the West Bank city of Nablus on Saturday.
Since the outbreak of the war, more than 100 Palestinians, including civilians, have been killed in the West Bank, most during military raids and violent protests.
Meanwhile, aid agencies have renewed calls for a ceasefire.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has called for an immediate de-escalation of the conflict, of what it said was the “intolerable level of human suffering”.
Nebal Farsakh, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent, said no aid trucks entered Gaza on Saturday because of the communication blackout.
