At least 22 people have been killed in airstrikes in northern Gaza, as Israeli forces stepped up their campaign in the besieged Palestinian territory, even as fighting intensified in a new war in Lebanon.
On Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) renewed orders to evacuate Palestinians. Although Gazabala residents say they cannot leave because of fighting and Israeli sniper fire.
IDF spokesman Avichay Adraee told PEOPLE that the attacks included parts of Gaza City's Sheikh Radwan neighborhood and the area around the urban refugee camp Jabaliya.
In a social media post, Atre asked residents to move south to al-Mawasi, a coastal region of southern Gaza where hundreds of thousands of people have already been displaced. A total of 84% of the territory is currently under evacuation orders, pushing civilians into ever-shrinking “humanitarian zones” that Israel bombards regardless.
An estimated 400,000 UN people have been trapped by the latest ground fighting and artillery attack centered on Jabaliya, which has now entered its second week.
“It's getting harder every day. The fear and the conditions are unspeakable,” said Badr al-Saharna, 25, from Gaza City. “I can't leave. I want to travel but I can't. The Rafah Crossing has been closed since May.
Gaza's health ministry warned on Friday that civilians hit by heavy shelling and airstrikes were running out to help medical teams evacuate the wounded and fuel supplies to the north's struggling hospitals. Food and water. Seven World Health Organization missions were blocked from accessing northern Gaza by Israeli forces this week, the UN body said. On Saturday, the World Food Programme, the UN The Food Agency reported that no food aid had reached northern Gaza since October 1, raising fresh fears about a 35% drop in food deliveries to families around the rest of Gaza. Severe hunger and famine have already affected Bark for a year.
The last food items – tinned food, flour, high-energy biscuits and nutritional supplements – have been distributed to shelters and health facilities in the north, and it is unclear how long they will last. Israel continues to refuse to block aid and food to Gaza.
Friday night's airstrikes in Jabaliya destroyed an entire building and severely damaged several others, according to medics and first responders who are still searching for missing people from the rubble and rubble created by the 20-meter-deep impact crater.
The dead included at least six women and seven children, the health ministry in the Hamas-run region said, adding that a strike in another part of Jabalia early Saturday killed two parents and wounded their child. A total of 49 bodies and 219 wounded have been reported to hospitals across Gaza in the past 24 hours.
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The IDF did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the recent strikes and civilian deaths in Gaza.
Israel has nominally controlled the northern part of Gaza since earlier this year, and has cut the territory in two with what it calls the Netzarim Corridor, which separates the once densely populated Gaza City from the rest of the region. However, it has frequently re-entered Gaza City and other areas in the north, where Hamas militants say they are regrouping.
In Lebanon, the health commission said 60 people had been killed and another 168 wounded in the past 24 hours, and the United Nations peacekeeping force operating along the Blue Line separating Israel and Lebanon said its headquarters in Naqora had been targeted for the second time. It was not immediately clear who caused the fire.
Israel stepped up its campaign against the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah last month, a year after Hamas's October 7 offensive and the ensuing war in Gaza.
The new war in Lebanon has increased the risk of regional escalation in Iran and the United States. Ceasefire talks to end fighting in Gaza have been stalled since July.
