Israeli troops press forward into Gaza City as Palestinians flee
Jerusalem: The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war surpassed 65,000 on Wednesday, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, as Israeli troops and tanks pushed deeper into Gaza City and residents fled the devastated area.
Israel’s military said that air force and artillery units had struck the city over 150 times in the last few days, ahead of ground troops moving in. The strikes have toppled high-rise towers in areas densely populated by tent camps where thousands of Palestinians are sheltering. Israel claims the towers are being used by Hamas to surveil troops.
Overnight strikes killed at least 16 people, including women and children, hospital officials reported. The death count in Gaza reached 65,062, with another 165,697 wounded, since Hamas’ Oct 7, 2023, attack, said the Health Ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government.
Israel’s offensive has destroyed vast areas of Gaza, displaced around 90% of the population and caused a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, with experts announcing famine in Gaza City.
The ministry does not say how many of the dead were civilians or militants. Its figures are seen as a reliable estimate by the UN and many independent experts.
Meanwhile, Palestinians streamed out of the city — some by car, others on foot. Israel opened another corridor south of Gaza City for two days beginning Wednesday to allow more people to evacuate.
More than half of the Palestinians killed in overnight Israeli strikes were in famine-stricken Gaza City, including a child and his mother who died in their apartment in the Shati refugee camp, according to officials from Shifa Hospital, which received the casualties.
In central Gaza, Al-Awda Hospital said an Israeli strike hit a house in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp, killing three, including a pregnant woman. Two parents and their child were also killed when a strike hit their tent in the Muwasi area west of the city of Khan Younis, said officials from Nasser Hospital, where the bodies were brought.
The Gaza Health Ministry, meanwhile, said that multiple Israeli strikes hit the Rantisi Hospital for children in Gaza City on Tuesday night.
It posted pictures on Facebook showing the damaged roof, water tanks and rubble in a hospital hallway.
The ministry said the strikes forced half of some 80 patients to flee the facility. About 40 patients, including four children in intensive care and eight premature babies, remained in the hospital with 30 medical workers, the ministry said.
“This attack has once again shattered the illusion that hospitals or any place in Gaza are safe from Israel’s genocide,” said Fikr Shalltoot, Gaza director for the aid group Medical Aid for Palestinians.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the strikes, but in the past it has accused Hamas of building military infrastructure inside civilian areas.
