The second Israeli airstrike in two days hits a refugee camp in Gaza, exacerbating growing anger

Gaza and Jerusalem
CNN
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The Israeli military has completely surrounded Gaza City, according to a spokesman, with the main UN relief agency in the isolated enclave accusing Israeli warplanes of fatally bombing UN-run schools housing civilians.

Nearly a week after Israel first began moving tanks, bulldozers, infantry units and combat engineering units into Gaza, Israel Defense Forces spokesman Admiral Daniel Hagari said Thursday that Gaza City is under siege. He added that the Israeli Army’s Engineering Corps is working to identify and neutralize underground infrastructure, explosives and other threats so that forces can move freely.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Refugees highlighted the civilian toll caused by the ongoing conflict, after agency head Philippe Lazzarini announced that Israeli warplanes had bombed several UN-run schools that were housing civilians. He added that more than 20 people were killed in the attacks.

“Over the past few hours, I have received reports that three of our schools, housing around 20,000 people, have been bombed. This has reportedly led to the deaths of more than 20 people in Jabalia, and also one person in Beach camp. An UNRWA statement said at the time Later, a fourth school that had been turned into a shelter was bombed. CNN asked the IDF for comment.

The chaos that followed the attack could be seen in a five-minute video posted on Telegram, which showed bloodied bodies strewn on the ground and people screaming at the UNRWA-sponsored Jabalia Primary School.

Lazzarini also said the agency’s fuel stocks – essential for transporting aid and running medical services – were “fully completed” after weeks of Israeli blockades on essential supplies entering Gaza. Independent UN experts had previously warned that the import blockade, which prevents the entry of fuel, water and food in sufficient quantities, would likely violate international law.

The few who can continue to flee Gaza. An Egyptian border official told CNN that 341 foreign nationals left the Strip on Thursday, following in the footsteps of infected Palestinians and foreigners who were allowed to cross into Egypt on Wednesday — the first mass exodus allowed since the Israeli blockade and siege began.

The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that Egypt is preparing to facilitate the evacuation of nearly 7,000 foreign citizens in Gaza from more than 60 countries through the Rafah crossing.

The political leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, proposed an immediate ceasefire that would include the exchange of prisoners and “opening the political path to establishing an independent Palestinian state.”

In a video statement on Wednesday, Haniyeh said he presented a “comprehensive vision” for ending the war with Israel, but claimed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “deceiving” his people by convincing them they can defeat Hamas in Gaza.

Weeks of Israeli bombing of Gaza have killed at least 9,025 people and injured more than 22,000, according to the latest figures from the Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah, drawn from sources in the Hamas-controlled enclave.

Civilian casualties continued to rise as Israel bombed large residential areas, schools and hospitals in Gaza, in what it says were military strikes on targets.

Amnesty International He said previously He. She Documented “Unlawful Israeli attacks” that “must be investigated as war crimes.” Human Rights Watch warned on Friday that the Israeli ground offensive “raises serious concerns for the safety of all civilians caught up in the fighting.”

The destruction caused by the strikes that are part of the Israeli strikes Expanded attack The attack on Gaza appeared to be a turning point in the war for a number of countries, which responded with diplomatic measures to condemn Israel’s actions in Gaza and the resulting humanitarian crisis.

Jordan on Wednesday became the latest country to recall its ambassador to Israel, after Chile and Colombia, over raids on Gaza. On Tuesday, Bolivia severed diplomatic relations with Israel due to “crimes against humanity committed against the Palestinian people.”

The strikes continue amid increasingly urgent calls for a ceasefire by the United Nations and relief organizations, and despite a UN General Assembly resolution supported by more than 100 countries calling for a “ceasefire.”A sustainable humanitarian truce.”

Israel also announced that more of its soldiers were killed in its attack, bringing the total number to 20 soldiers.

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Hospitals in Gaza say they are overwhelmed by the influx of dead and wounded, with staff working in constant fear of an air strike.

On Thursday, Israeli fighter planes bombed the vicinity of Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City, where doctors say up to 14,000 displaced people are being housed, according to the hospital director. Dr. Bashar Murad told CNN by phone that the strikes that began on Wednesday evening continued until Thursday morning and were “approaching the hospital.”

An airstrike on Wednesday in Jabalia killed at least 80 people and injured hundreds more, according to Dr. Atef Al-Kahlot, director of the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza. He told CNN that more bodies were being recovered from the rubble, and that the majority of the victims were women and children.

The Israeli army said that Wednesday’s attack targeted a Hamas command and control compound and “led to the elimination” of Hamas terrorists “based on accurate intelligence information.” The Israeli army added in a statement, “Hamas is deliberately building its terrorist infrastructure under, around and inside civilian buildings, deliberately endangering civilians in Gaza.”

A previous raid on the same camp also caused catastrophic damage, with survivors and eyewitnesses describing horrific scenes and family members being buried under the rubble. One eyewitness said: “It felt like the end of the world.”

“Children were carrying other injured children and running, and gray dust filled the air. Bodies were hanging on the rubble, many of them unrecognizable. Some were bleeding, others were burned,” Mohammed Al-Aswad told CNN by phone.

The Israeli military said the first strike killed a number of Hamas members, including Ibrahim Biyari, whom it described as one of the Hamas leaders responsible for the October 7 attack on Gaza. IsraelMore than 1,400 people were killed and hundreds were taken hostage. But Hamas strongly denied the presence of one of its leaders in the refugee camp.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said on social media that the attacks on Jabalia, the largest refugee camp in Gaza, “may amount to war crimes” given the “large number of civilian casualties and scale of destruction.”

Nearly half of Gaza’s hospitals are out of service due to bombing and fuel shortages, including the Strip’s leading cancer hospital, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah. It warned that Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest hospital in Gaza, would be forced to stop operating in less than one day.

Meanwhile, the main generator of the Indonesian Gaza Hospital — one of the few remaining hospitals serving the northern part of the coastal enclave — went out of service Wednesday night, Dr. Atef Al-Kahlot, the hospital’s president, told CNN on Thursday, exacerbating the problem. Concerns of patients in intensive care.

Al-Kahlot said that the hospital is considered the backbone of providing health services in northern Gaza, and the outage affected the ventilation systems in the operating rooms, which is the only oxygen station in the hospital, and the hospital’s morgue refrigerators.

On Wednesday, 55 humanitarian aid trucks belonging to the Egyptian Red Crescent headed to Gaza via the Rafah crossing, containing food, water, medicines and medical supplies. She added that a total of 272 aid trucks have crossed into Gaza so far – representing a drop in the ocean of needed aid – but fuel has not been allowed to enter.

This story is evolving and being updated.