Gaza ministry says dozens killed in Israeli strikes on 99th day of war
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All Internet and telecommunications services in Gaza were cut on Jan 12, the main telecom operator said.
PHOTO: AFP
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GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories - Health officials in Gaza said on Jan 13 that Israeli strikes overnight killed at least 60 people in the besieged territory, which was also grappling with a telecommunications blackout on the war’s 99th day.
Fears of the conflict widening have grown after United States and British forces struck pro-Hamas Houthi rebels in Yemen on Jan 12,
Witnesses reported Israeli bombardment of Gaza in the early morning.
An AFP journalist said on Jan 12 that strikes and shelling had hit areas between Gaza’s southern cities of Khan Younis and Rafah, crowded with people who have fled from the north.
“I was visiting my sister, and when I returned I found my house was bombed,” said 60-year-old Samir Qashta, a resident of Rafah. “Is my house hurting Israel in any way?”
The Israeli army said its forces had struck dozens of rocket launchers that were “ready to be used” in central Gaza, and eliminated four “terrorists” in air strikes on Khan Younis.
Dr Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesman for the Gaza Health Ministry, reported “more than 60 martyrs” in Israeli air strikes and artillery fire, with dozens more wounded.
At Rafah’s Al-Najjar hospital, mourners gathered and prayed around the bodies of slain relatives. One man held the body of a child, wrapped in white cloth, ahead of burial.
All Internet and telecommunications services in Gaza were cut on Jan 12 as a result of Israeli bombardment, the main operator Paltel said.
“Gaza is blacked out again,” it said in a post on social media platform X.
The Palestinian Red Crescent posted that the disruption was increasing the challenges in “reaching the wounded and injured promptly”.
Israel’s relentless bombardment of Gaza has killed at least 23,700 people, according to the latest Health Ministry figures.
The current war in Gaza began when Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct 7
Hamas also took some 240 people hostage, around 100 of whom were released during a week-long truce in late November
‘Systematic’ aid blocking
The head of United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for the occupied Palestinian territories said on Jan 12 that Israel was constantly blocking humanitarian aid convoys into northern Gaza.
Mr Andrea De Domenico said: “They have been very systematic in not allowing us to support hospitals, which is something that is reaching a point of a level of inhumanity that for me is beyond comprehension.”
The Health Ministry said in central Gaza that a lack of fuel forced the shutdown of the main generator of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah city.
Health Ministry spokesman Qudra accused Israel of “deliberately targeting hospitals... to put them out of service”, warning of “devastating repercussions”.
Hospitals, protected under international humanitarian law, have repeatedly been hit by Israeli strikes in Gaza since the war erupted.
The Israeli military accuses Hamas of having tunnels under hospitals and using the medical facilities as command centres, a charge denied by the armed group.
Fewer than half of Gaza’s hospitals are partly functioning, the World Health Organisation says.
Winter rains have exacerbated the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, where the UN estimates 1.9 million – nearly 85 per cent of the population – have been displaced.
“It was a harsh and difficult night,” said Ms Nabila Abu Zayed, 40, who now lives in a tent at Al-Nasser hospital in Khan Younis.
“The rain flooded our tent... We spent the night standing with hundreds of displaced people like us in the corridors of the maternity ward,” she told AFP.
“It was very cold and we had no winter clothes or blankets. All of my children are sick.”
“There was bombing through the night,” said Ms Abu Zayed. “Where will we go?”
But the war did not stop a couple from getting married in Rafah, near the border with Egypt.
The groom’s uncle, Mr Ayman Shamlakh, said: “The house where the groom was supposed to live was destroyed, and as the war persisted, we thought it best for them to get married.
“We are all living through the same tragedy. However, we must continue to live, and life should go on.”
Mr Mohamed Gebreel, the father of the bride, said he had no doubts about going ahead with the ceremony.
“We are a people that love life despite death, murders and destruction,” he said.
Medicines deal
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Jan 12 a deal had been negotiated with Qatar to get medicine to hostages still being held in Gaza.
The deal “will allow the entry of medicines for the hostages held by the Hamas terrorist organisation in Gaza”, Mr Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
Israeli campaign group Hostages and Missing Families Forum released a report this week saying the captives were in poor health, some with complex illnesses, others with injuries.
A diplomat familiar with the negotiations said that both sides had expressed a willingness to allow the delivery of medicine.
“The mediators are now in the process of finalising the details” of the type and quantities of medicine required, as well as the conditions for their delivery, the source said.
A source close to Hamas confirmed to AFP that talks had been held on allowing the entry of medicine, but that discussions were ongoing.
100 days
Israel criticised the UN human rights office for not reiterating its calls for the release of the hostages in a statement marking the looming 100th day of the conflict.
“A call for a ceasefire, without demanding the release of our hostages and the disarming of Hamas, is a call for terrorism to win,” its office in Geneva said.
The UN high commissioner for human rights, Mr Volker Turk, has called repeatedly for the hostages to be freed.
In the occupied West Bank, Israeli troops killed three people after they attacked a Jewish settlement, the army said.
It said there had been a “terrorist infiltration” in the Adora settlement, some 20km west of Hebron, and soldiers had come under fire.
The soldiers searched the area and “three assailants were identified and neutralised by the security forces”.
When questioned by AFP, the Israeli army confirmed the death of the three assailants, while the Palestinian agency Wafa identified them as a 19-year-old and two 16-year-olds.
Since the war in Gaza broke out, violence in the occupied West Bank has also surged, with at least 337 people killed by Israeli troops or settlers, according to the Health Ministry in Ramallah. AFP
