At least 45 killed in new Israeli strikes on Gaza refugee camp; UN chief says many trapped
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A boy mourns near the body of his father, who was killed in an Israeli strike in central Gaza, on Oct 9.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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CAIRO – At least 45 people were killed in overnight military strikes on Gaza, as Israeli forces pressed on with a raid on the Jabalia refugee camp in the enclave’s north.
The Israeli military says the raid, now on its fifth day, is intended to stop Hamas fighters
It has repeatedly issued evacuation orders to residents of Jabalia and nearby areas, but Palestinian and UN officials say there are no safe places to flee to in Gaza.
The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said it received unconfirmed reports that dozens of Palestinians might have been killed in Jabalia and other areas in northern Gaza, but that it was unable to reach them because of Israeli bombardments.
“At least 400,000 people are trapped in the area,” Mr Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN Palestinian refugee Agency (UNRWA), posted on X on Oct 9.
“Recent evacuation orders from the Israeli authorities are forcing people to flee again & again, especially from Jabalia Camp. Many are refusing because they know too well that no place anywhere in #Gaza is safe,” he said.
Mr Lazzarini said some UNRWA shelters and services were being forced to shut down for the first time since the war began and that with almost no basic supplies available, hunger was spreading again in northern Gaza.
“This recent military operation also threatens the implementation of the second phase of the #polio vaccination campaign for children,” he said.
The Gaza Health Ministry said the Israeli army ordered three hospitals in northern Gaza to evacuate. Hundreds of patients and medics were trapped inside those facilities, it said.
“The lives of dozens of patients are at risk because of the Israeli siege around those hospitals,” the ministry said.
The war in Gaza is grinding on to a second year.
It began after Hamas broke out of Gaza and raided border towns in southern Israel
Israel tore across Gaza in response days later. In the 12 months since then, the Israeli military has pounded most of Gaza to rubble, leaving nearly 42,000 Palestinians dead in a war that has now become a wider conflict in the Middle East.
Exiled Hamas official Izzat El-Reshiq said in a statement Israel’s escalation in northern Gaza is meant to punish those who have refused to leave their homes.
He blamed the United States, which he said claims to have worked to end the war, for being partners with Israel in the “war of genocide” in Gaza.
Gaza medics said nine people from the same family were killed in an Israeli strike on a house in Shejaia, a suburb of Gaza City. Nine more died in overnight strikes in central Gaza. REUTERS
