;Resize=(620)&w=1024&resize=1024,0&ssl=1 "Israeli military kills at least 40 people in Gaza, Palestinian officials say, as tanks deepen raid on north")
Israeli military strikes reportedly killed at least 40 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, as Israeli forces tightened their grip around Jabaliya in the northern enclave, amid fierce battles with Hamas-led militants.
Palestinian health officials said at least 11 people were killed in an Israeli fire near Al-Falouja in Jabalia, the largest of Gaza's eight historic refugee camps, and 10 others were killed in Bani Suhaila in eastern Khan Younis in the south. when an Israeli missile hit the house.
Earlier on Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike destroyed three houses in the Sabra suburb of Gaza City, and local emergency services said two bodies had been recovered at the scene while the search was ongoing for 12 other people believed to be in the houses at the time of the strike.
Five other people were killed when a house was struck in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza.
Jabalia was subject to an Israeli offensive for more than 10 days, with soldiers returning to areas in the north that had been subjected to heavy bombardment in the first months of the year-long war.
Israeli troops appear to be 'cutting off' the northern Gaza Strip: UN
The operation has raised concerns among Palestinians and UN agencies that Israel wants to clear northerners from the crowded enclave, which it denies.
The U.N. Human Rights Office said Tuesday that the Israeli military “appears to completely cut off northern Gaza from the rest of the Gaza Strip.”
“As intense hostilities continue and evacuation orders continue in northern Gaza, families are facing unimaginable fear, loss of loved ones, confusion and exhaustion. People must be able to escape safely, without exposing themselves to further danger,” Adrian Zimmerman, ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) head of the subdelegation to Gaza, said in a statement.
“Many people, including the sick and disabled, cannot leave the country and remain protected under international humanitarian law. Every possible precaution should be taken to ensure that they do not suffer any injuries. Every displaced person has the right to return home safely,” he said.
Israel faces renewed criticism after airstrikes in Gaza killed scores of civilians, including those working at a U.N.-run school distributing polio vaccines. Meanwhile, there is anger in Lebanon after a deadly air attack in the north. Israel vowed to continue striking Hezbollah across the country.
The Israeli military has now surrounded the Jabalia camp and sent tanks into the nearby towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, with the stated goal of destroying Hamas fighters who are trying to regroup there.
The Israeli military ordered residents to leave their homes and go to safety in the southern Gaza Strip. Palestinian and UN officials say there is no safe place in Gaza.
According to UN estimates, about 400,000 people remain in the north
Israeli officials said the evacuation orders were aimed at separating Hamas fighters from civilians and denied that there was any systematic plan to remove civilians from Jabalia or other northern areas.
Hamas's armed wing said the fighters were involved in fierce battles with Israeli forces in and around Jabalia.
Zimmerman also pushed for protection of health care facilities in the North, saying hospitals there are struggling to provide medical services.
Gaza's health ministry said the army had ordered the evacuation of three hospitals operating there, but medical staff said they were determined to continue providing services even though they were overwhelmed by the rising death toll.
On Monday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the level of civilian casualties in the northern Gaza Strip.
Well over half of the territory's 2.3 million inhabitants live in northern Gaza, and hundreds of thousands of residents were forced from their homes by heavy bombing in the first phase of Israel's attack on the territory.
According to United Nations estimates, about 400,000 people remain.
Israel launched an offensive against Hamas after the attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, in which, according to Israeli data, 1,200 people were killed and approximately 250 were taken hostage in Gaza. According to Gaza's Ministry of Health, more than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in the offensive so far. Most of Gaza's 2.3 million inhabitants were displaced and much of the enclave was destroyed.
The polio vaccination campaign is underway
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization said Tuesday it was able to launch an anti-polio campaign in central Gaza and vaccinate tens of thousands of children despite Israeli strikes in a designated protected zone hours earlier.
Under an agreement between the Israeli military and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, humanitarian pauses in the year-long war in Gaza were to begin early Monday and affect hundreds of thousands of children.
However, hours earlier, the UN Humanitarian Aid Office reported that Israeli forces struck tents near Al-Aqsa Hospital, where four people were burned alive.
Hundreds of Palestinian children in central Gaza were vaccinated with a second dose of polio vaccine at the UNRWA Deir al-Balah health center.
The Palestinian UN refugee agency UNRWA reported that as many as 22 people died on the night from Sunday to Monday in one of the schools in Nuseirat in central Gaza, where vaccinations were to take place.
WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic he told a news conference in Geneva that more than 92,000 children were vaccinated on Monday, or about half of those scheduled to be vaccinated against polio in the central region.
“We received information from colleagues that yesterday's vaccination went without major problems and we hope it will continue like this,” he said.
Other aid agencies have previously expressed concerns about the feasibility of an anti-polio campaign in the northern Gaza Strip, where the Israeli offensive is ongoing.
Aid groups carried out the first round of vaccinations last month after a child was partially paralyzed by the type 2 polio virus in August, the first such case in the territory in 25 years.
