GAZA/TEL AVIV (dpa-AFX) – According to the health authority controlled by the Islamist Hamas, at least 214 more people were killed and around 300 injured in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip. Many victims were still buried under rubble, the authority’s spokesman, Ashraf al-Kudra, said on Tuesday. At least 13 people were killed in an air strike in the hotly contested refugee settlement of Jabalia in the north of the coastal strip. Another 75 people were injured there. The information could not initially be independently verified.
The hospitals in the Gaza Strip that are still functioning are completely overwhelmed by the number of injured, said al-Kudra. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), only eight of what were once 36 hospitals are still functioning properly. The staff can hardly move even in the intensive care units because there are patients lying everywhere on the floor.
When asked, the Israeli army said it would take action against the “military and administrative capacities of Hamas” and take measures “to limit the damage to the civilian population.”
Jabalia has been fought over between the Israeli army and Hamas for days. The district is considered a stronghold of the Islamist terrorist organization, which attacked Israel on October 7th and carried out massacres among the civilian population. Israel suffered around 1,200 deaths.
According to Palestinian information, more than 19,600 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip so far as a result of Israeli air strikes and the ongoing ground offensive. The number of wounded was reported to be more than 52,500.
Israel had called on civilians shortly after the Hamas attack and again and again afterwards to go to the south of the Gaza Strip because of upcoming fighting in the north. However, there is now fighting there and air raids occur regularly. The humanitarian situation on site is devastating.
Al-Kudra also accused the Israeli army of trapping 240 people in Al-Awda hospital in Jabalia. They would have no clean water, food or medicine. Six members of the medical staff were taken away by soldiers.
When asked, the Israeli army said that people suspected of being involved in terrorist actions had been arrested. All those arrested would be treated in accordance with international law. Any violation of these rules will be investigated./stz/DP/jha