The Israeli army intends to expand its operations in the Gaza Strip this Monday, its spokesperson, Daniel Hagari, declared the evening before. “The army operates wherever Hamas has strongholds,” he justified. Israeli soldiers have been engaged in a ground offensive since October 27 in northern Gaza, where they have taken control of several sectors. Since fighting resumed Friday following the expiration of a week-long truce with Hamas, the army had mainly focused on air raids.
During the night, a strike on an entrance to the Kamal Adwan hospital, located in the north of Gaza, left several people dead according to the Palestinian Wafa agency. In a statement, the Hamas government accuses the Israeli army of a “serious violation” of international humanitarian law. Israel accuses Hamas of installing infrastructure in or under hospitals and using civilians as human shields.
End of the truce
The Hamas Health Ministry said on Sunday that 15,523 people, 70% of them women and children, have been killed since the start of Israeli bombardments on the Gaza Strip, carried out in response to the bloody October 7 attack. of the Palestinian Islamist movement against Israel.
“During the past hours, only 316 dead and 664 injured were able to be taken out of the rubble and brought to hospitals, but many others are still under the rubble,” said ministry spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qidreh. A toll that has increased since the end of the truce. In Israel, the attack launched by Hamas commandos on October 7 left 1,200 dead, mostly civilians, according to the authorities. The army reported on Monday five soldiers killed, including three on Sunday, since fighting resumed on Friday.
Other operations in the West Bank
In the south of the Gaza Strip, strikes have targeted massively since Friday the large city of Khan Younes and its surroundings, where every day now the army warns in leaflets dropped on certain neighborhoods that a “terrible attack is imminent” , and orders the inhabitants to leave. On Sunday, residents fled the city, on foot, piled into carts or by car, their belongings piled on the roof.
Early Monday, the Israeli army also launched operations in different sectors of the occupied West Bank, notably in Jenin, where around thirty military vehicles are deployed, according to the Palestinian Wafa agency.