CNN
—
Sunday: Hamas fighters and Israeli troops engaged in limited clashes in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, as the Israeli military stepped up airstrikes on Palestinian enclaves, raising what a government spokesman said was the “next step” in the war against the insurgents. In advance of the “phase”, airstrikes against Palestinian enclaves were intensified.
Hamas claimed that its fighters destroyed two Israeli bulldozers and a tank in an ambush near the Gaza city of Khan Younis, forcing Israeli forces to retreat without vehicles. The Israel Defense Forces confirmed that Israeli troops were active in the Gaza Strip during the incident and said that Israeli Defense Force tanks attacked insurgents who opened fire on Israeli forces.
The incident appears to be one of the first skirmishes between the two sides on the ground in the Strip since the war broke out after Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel on October 7, which killed more than 1,400 people. On October 13, the Israel Defense Forces announced that they had launched an assault on the Gaza Strip.
Sunday’s clashes were the latest in the Israeli Defense Forces’ preparation for a possible ground operation in Gaza, amassing huge numbers of troops on the border and bombarding the densely populated enclave with near-constant airstrikes for the past two weeks. It happened inside.
Officials at hospitals in Gaza said there were high casualties on Sunday, with one hospital describing it as a “bloody day” and others cutting back on dialysis treatment due to lack of electricity and fuel. said. More than 4,600 people have been killed in Gaza since Israeli retaliation for Hamas attacks began more than two weeks ago, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
A CNN reporter reporting from al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, said there had been five airstrikes in the neighborhood as of Sunday morning. Footage obtained by CNN showed a hospital receiving more than a dozen bodies wrapped in shrouds and grieving families identifying them.
It is a common practice for parents in Gaza to write their children’s names on their feet so they can be identified in case they or their children are killed. CNN journalists filmed an infant and three children killed with their names written in Arabic on their calves. All four were seen lying on stretchers on the floor of the crowded room. It is unclear whether their parents were also killed.
The hospital’s morgue is full, some bodies are lying in the surrounding grounds, and the hallways are lined with injured people, including children.
The U.S. government has pressured Israel to delay ground operations in Gaza in order to free Hamas hostages and provide more aid to Gaza, two sources briefed on the talks said. Friday’s release of two Americans held by Hamas suggested that more of the approximately 200 people believed to have been abducted after the militants’ deadly attack two weeks ago may be freed.
Israel has not provided a timeline for a possible ground attack on Gaza, but military officials have repeatedly told troops that an invasion is imminent.
“We will intensify our attacks and minimize the risk to our troops in the next phase of the war, starting today,” Israeli Defense Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari said on Saturday. Hagari added that the Israeli military “continues to destroy terrorist targets and is focused on preparing for the next phase of the war.”
An Israeli Defense Force soldier was killed and three others wounded during preparations for a ground operation in Gaza, an Israeli defense spokesman said on Sunday.
The United States and its allies have called on Israel to be strategic and objective in its ground operations in Gaza, warning of a prolonged occupation and placing particular emphasis on avoiding civilian casualties.
The leaders of Spain and the Netherlands met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, reiterating their support for Israel but calling for restraint.
“Within the bounds of international law, we once again condemn Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel and its right to self-defense against it,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said in a statement previously known as Twitter. Posted on X.
“Israel must do everything possible to prevent civilians from becoming victims of the fight against Hamas,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte wrote on X. “Regional escalation must also be avoided at all costs. All of this also requires restraint on the Israeli side in the use of force.”
Independent UN experts have warned that Israel’s actions in Gaza could amount to “crimes against humanity”. “The complete siege of Gaza, with unenforceable evacuation orders and forced population movements, is a violation of international humanitarian law and criminal law. It is also unspeakably cruel,” the experts said in a statement on Thursday. Stated.
Violence too Explosion in occupied West Bank. The IDF launched airstrikes on Sunday against the al-Ansar Mosque in Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank, which it claimed was being used by militants to plan an “imminent terrorist attack.” It was the first fighter jet attack in the West Bank in nearly 20 years, but officials did not say whether the attack was carried out by a jet.
IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conrics told CNN that the military had received information “suggesting an imminent attack by joint Hamas and Islamic Jihad forces,” and that the force was in a basement in the basement of a mosque. He said he was making preparations at the command center.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said in a statement on Sunday that three people were killed in the Israeli attack. Two people were killed in clashes in the West Bank cities of Toubas and Nablus, officials said.
Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces also announced on Sunday that an Israeli tank “accidentally opened fire and collided with an Egyptian post” near the border between the two countries. Egypt said some of its border guards suffered minor injuries. The IDF apologized for the incident in the Kerem Shalom area and said it was investigating the matter.
Kerem Shalom is one of two border crossings between Israel and Gaza. It has been closed since Israeli forces “completely surrounded” the enclave. The area also came under attack on October 7, when Hamas militants bulldozed the Gaza border and carried out a killing spree against civilians.
Since the outbreak of the war, Israeli authorities have placed additional restrictions on the movement of Palestinians living in the West Bank, leading to a surge in attacks by Israeli forces and settlers. At least 90 people have been killed in the occupied Palestinian territories since October 7, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
In pictures: Deadly clashes between Israel and Gaza
The Israeli Defense Forces have distributed flyers written in Arabic in Gaza City warning residents to evacuate south or they could be considered “partners of a terrorist organization,” according to a CNN translation. I warned you.
In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces acknowledged dropping the leaflets, but said: “We do not intend to consider people who have not been evacuated from combat zones as members of terrorist groups.”
The IDF “does not treat civilians as such and does not target them,” the statement added.
Israeli warplanes attack Gaza, leveling entire neighborhoods, including schools and mosques. Israel has attacked Hamas targets and claims Hamas used civilians as human shields.
As of Sunday, Israeli airstrikes had killed 4,651 people in the Gaza Strip, including more than 1,900 children and 1,023 women, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza. It added that more than 14,245 people were injured.
In northern Gaza, more than 1 million residents have been ordered by Israel to leave their homes and move to the south.
Israel has also ordered the evacuation of more than 20 hospitals in northern Gaza where thousands of patients are being treated, an order that could amount to a death sentence, according to the United Nations and the Palestinian Red Crescent. It is said that there is.
The IDF says it did not target hospitals, but the United Nations and Médecins Sans Frontières say Israeli airstrikes have damaged medical facilities, including hospitals and ambulances.
CNN witnessed at least 14 relief trucks sponsored by the Egyptian Red Crescent Society and the United Nations enter the Gaza Strip from Egypt through the Rafah crossing late Sunday night.
A Palestinian Red Crescent official in Gaza told CNN that the truck was allowed to enter the country and its contents were offloaded for a UN storage facility in Gaza.
However, UNRWA spokeswoman Juliet Touma said the trucks did not bring fuel, which is essential for operating hospitals and treating water in isolated areas.
Delivery will be made according to default settings convoy of 20 trucks Saturday to deliver food, water, medicine, and medical supplies.
“God willing, I will enter the intersection now or in the next few minutes. “God is willing to deliver this aid and get us in and out safely, God willing,” he said to Gaza. Ali Shousha, one of the drivers waiting to cross, told CNN.
But aid workers and international leaders have warned that more needs to be done to combat the “catastrophic” humanitarian situation in the enclave, home to more than two million people.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stressed that the “needs are far greater” than the aid people in Gaza are receiving.
The Gaza Ministry of Health said the first aid convoy covered “only 3% of the daily health and humanitarian needs that were entering the Gaza Strip before the invasion.”
A UN official warned on Sunday that the UN’s fuel supplies in Gaza will run out within three days. “Without fuel, there will be no water, there will be no functioning hospitals and bakeries,” said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). “Without fuel, aid will not reach many civilians who desperately need it.”
Citing severe shortages of food, water, electricity and medical supplies that are pushing civilian life in Gaza “to the brink of ruin,” the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) has announced an emergency response plan to sustain the emergency response in Gaza. said it urgently needs $74 million over the next 90 days.
The Israeli military has warned other regional actors against getting drawn into the conflict as it prepares for the next phase of the war.
IDF spokesman Conricus said on Sunday that Lebanese militant group Hezbollah was playing a “very dangerous game” that could drag Lebanon into “a war in which nothing is gained.”
Conricus said Hezbollah has been attacking Israeli military positions near the Lebanese border, causing casualties among both civilians and military personnel.
In response, the IDF attacked various Hezbollah infrastructure using tanks, drones, artillery and infantry, as well as Hezbollah squads deploying anti-tank missiles, he added.
On Sunday, the Israeli Ministry of Defense and the Israel Defense Forces announced the expansion of a state-funded evacuation plan to an additional 14 communities in the northern region near the border with Lebanon.
Voluntary evacuations were initially implemented in 28 communities on Monday. As of Friday, approximately 123,000 civilians had been evacuated from their homes in northern and southern Israel.
