Even almost eleven weeks after the start of the war, there is no sign of an end to the fighting in the Middle East. Israel ordered an evacuation in Khan Yunis in the south – and shelled the north. There were rocket attacks on Tel Aviv.
Fighting in the Gaza Strip has increased again with one of the heaviest Israeli bombardments since the start of the war. Explosions and black smoke were observed in the morning, especially over the northern part of the area, as reported by the Reuters news agency.
According to the United Nations, Israel ordered the evacuation of around a fifth of the area of the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. After the outbreak of war, many people from the north of the coastal strip fled there. According to the UN, more than 110,000 people lived in the area before the fighting began. According to the UN, there are also 32 emergency shelters there with more than 140,000 internally displaced people, most of them from the north of the Gaza Strip.
Gray areas: Built-up areas in the Gaza Strip. Hatching: Israeli army
Missile alarm in Tel Aviv
According to the terrorist organization Hamas, four people were killed in an Israeli air strike in Rafah. Among them is Bassam Ghaben, who is responsible for the Kerem Shalom border crossing on the Palestinian side, according to Hamas and the health authority under its authority. The attack took place near the border crossing. The Israeli army said it was “not familiar with the incident.”
Hamas fired rockets at Tel Aviv. The sirens wailed in the economic metropolis. The Israeli anti-aircraft defense destroyed the projectiles. The news site ynet reported that around 30 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip. Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, claimed responsibility for the attacks. In a statement, the Qassam Brigades spoke of a “response to the Zionist massacres of civilians” in the Gaza Strip.
Army apparently finds tunnel system
The Israeli military said it had discovered a “massive Hamas tunnel system” in Gaza City. On Wednesday, Israeli reporters were led by soldiers to Palestine Square in the heart of the city, described to them as the center of the underground tunnel network. The tunnel rooms were 20 meters underground and had elevators, stairs and their own water and electricity shafts as well as command rooms and apartments for the Hamas leadership, said army spokesman Peter Lerner.
Weapons, water supplies and food were stored for longer stays. According to the information, one of the rooms was a kind of hall with a diameter of 150 meters. The military also released videos from underground offices. Military spokesman Daniel Hagari said Hamas members routinely used the extensive underground infrastructure “during emergencies and also at the start of the war on October 7.” The tunnels extended throughout the city of Gaza and into major hospitals.
Conflict parties as a source
In the current situation, information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by the Palestinian and Israeli conflict parties cannot be directly verified by an independent body.
WHO: None functioning Clinic more in the north
The situation for the civilian population in the north of the Gaza Strip remains dramatic. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are no longer any functioning hospitals there. Patients are not dying just because of a lack of medical care, said WHO relief coordinator Sean Casey. “They are starving and dying of thirst,” he reported in a video link from Rafah. According to WHO representative Richard Peeperkorn, only nine of the 36 health facilities in the entire Gaza Strip are still partially operational.
The WHO reiterated calls for a ceasefire to provide essential supplies to health facilities and for the immediate transfer of patients to Egypt.
Netanyahu: “War until the end”
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu initially rejected international calls for a ceasefire on Wednesday. “We will continue the war until the end,” he emphasized in a video message. “It will continue until Hamas is destroyed, until victory. Anyone who thinks we will stop has no connection to reality.”