Civilian Casualties Rise as Israeli Bombardment of Gaza Intensifies
International outcry over Jabalia refugee camp bombing
Israeli intensive aerial bombardment struck Jabalia refugee camp twice causing massive civilian casualties, destroying an entire residential sector in the camp.
Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry said the second Israeli bombing raid in two days had killed and wounded many civilians at the territory’s biggest refugee camp.
It said there were “dozens of martyrs and injured in a bombing by the occupation (Israel) planes,” a day after the IDF acknowledged the first strikes, saying they targeted a top Hamas commander.
The United Nations decried the strikes.
“This is just the latest atrocity to befall the people of Gaza where the fighting has entered an even more terrifying phase, with increasingly dreadful humanitarian consequences,” Martin Griffiths, the UN humanitarian chief, said in a statement.
He said “the world seems unable, or unwilling, to act,” adding, “this cannot go on. We need a step change.”
The conflict in Gaza rages for a 27th day after the Hamas massacre, where Hamas combatants killed 1,400 people and kidnapped more than 240, according to Israeli officials, in the deadliest attack in the country’s history.
According to Israel, the second airstrike on the Jabalia refugee camp killed a Hamas commander involved in the October 7 attacks.
Israel also said its warplanes had hit a “vast” tunnel complex at the site, killing “many Hamas terrorists,” including local battalion commander Ibrahim Biari.
Hamas said seven hostages, including three foreign passport holders, died in the bombings, a claim impossible to verify.
Suhain Idais, a volunteer nurse at the Indonesian hospital, told The Media Line that “most of the casualties are children, we are receiving an overwhelming number of … children.”
Mohammad Najib, who moved from the north of Gaza, told The Media Line that he had lost several members of his family to an Israeli air strike.
They are martyrs, all, my mother, my wife and two children. May they rest in peace.
“They are martyrs, all, my mother, my wife and two children. May they rest in peace.”
The health sector in the coastal areas are in dire need of medical aid; with a lack of the basics, hospitals are unable to provide the most rudimentary treatment to wounded Palestinians.
Israel has refused to allow the further delivery of fuel, claiming Hamas puts its hands on it.
The strikes came as Israeli forces pressed deeper into the region and Hamas reported fierce fighting between the two sides. Meanwhile, Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry says more than 8,500 Palestinians have been killed since Israel’s relentless aerial bombing campaign began after October 7.
The air strikes have displaced thousands of people who are now living in makeshift shelters.
The World Health Organization says it fears an imminent public health catastrophe.
Great damage has been inflicted on the water purification treatment plans and the sewage system, threatening epidemic-level health hazards.
The infrastructure in Gaza has been all but destroyed.
Internet and phone networks were down again across Gaza, the Paltel telecommunications agency said, the second such cut in days.
Global network monitor Netblocks confirmed a new blackout, saying it would mean “a total loss of telecommunications” for most of the territory’s 2.4 million residents.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue Israel’s war on Hamas “until victory” despite “painful losses” inside Gaza after a day in which the army said 15 soldiers were killed in ground fighting.
“Calls for a cease-fire are calls to surrender to Hamas,” said Netanyahu.
Jordan said it would send home its ambassador to Israel in protest.
“Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi decided to immediately recall Jordan’s ambassador to Israel,” the Foreign Ministry said, adding that the move was “to condemn the Israeli war that is killing innocent people in Gaza.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will hold talks in Israel Friday then visit other regional powers as Washington seeks “urgent mechanisms” to reduce regional tensions over the Israel-Hamas war, the State Department said.
US President Joe Biden and Jordan’s King Abdullah II discussed ways to “stem violence and calm rhetoric,” and also agreed it was “critical to ensure that Palestinians are not forcibly displaced outside of Gaza,” the White House said.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said he was dismayed by the casualty numbers from the Israeli strike, urging both parties to “balance their right to self-defense” with the “obligation to spare civilians to the greatest extent possible.”
“Building on the EU Council’s clear stance that Israel has the right to defend itself in line with international humanitarian law and ensuring the protection of all civilians, I am appalled by the high number of casualties following the bombing by Israel of the Jabalia refugee camp,” Borrell said in a statement on social media.
“Laws of war and humanity must always apply, including when it comes to humanitarian assistance. With the unfolding tragedy in Gaza, the European Union has been calling since last week for humanitarian corridors and pauses for humanitarian needs,” he added.
