Ground
forces with tanks flooded the northern half of Gaza and tightened an
encirclement of Gaza City, effectively splitting the territory in two, even as
thousands of civilians remained in the north despite Israeli evacuation orders.
Israeli forces have pushed on with intense strikes targeting Palestinians in Gaza as the
war neared
month and Gaza's death toll
approached 10,000 inside the besieged territory.
Determined to destroy Palestinian
resistance group Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed no letup
despite mounting international calls for a ceasefire.
Ground forces with tanks have
flooded the northern half of Gaza and tightened an encirclement of Gaza City,
effectively splitting the territory in two, even as hundreds of thousands of
civilians remained in the north despite Israeli evacuation orders.
Gaza-based Health Ministry said
more than 200 people had died in overnight strikes — a day after reporting a
total death toll of more than 9,770, mostly women and children.
"These are massacres! They
destroyed three houses over the heads of their inhabitants — women and
children," one resident, Mahmoud Mechmech, told AFP in Deir al Balah in
central Gaza.
"We have already taken 40
bodies out of the rubble," he said as crowds prayed around corpses wrapped
in white shrouds outside a nearby hospital.
Israel's ally the United States
has sent its top diplomat Antony Blinken on a whirlwind Middle East tour that has
been marked by strong condemnation of Israel, including on his latest stop in
Türkiye.
The Israeli army said on Monday
it had pounded Gaza with "significant" new strikes on 450 targets,
having earlier said it had already hit over 12,000.
It also reported seizing a Hamas
command post in central Gaza, where tanks were driving between the ruins of
buildings.
"We will take the fight to
Hamas wherever they are — underground, above ground," Israeli army
spokesperson Jonathan Conricus said, repeating calls for civilians to leave the
urban war zone.
"We will be able to dismantle Hamas, stronghold after stronghold, battalion after battalion, until we achieve the ultimate goal, which is to rid the Gaza of Hamas."
Calls for ceasefire
The heads of major United Nations
agencies issued a joint statement calling for a ceasefire inside the territory
of 2.4 million people where an Israeli siege has cut off most water, food and
fuel supplies.
"For almost a month, the
world has been watching the unfolding situation in Israel and the Occupied
Palestinian Territory in shock and horror at the spiralling numbers of lives
lost and torn apart," said the statement.
"We need an immediate
humanitarian ceasefire. It's been 30 days. Enough is enough. This must stop
now."
Israeli troops and Hamas fighters
have engaged in fierce house-to-house combat in densely populated Gaza, where
the war has sent 1.5 million people fleeing to other parts of the territory.
Netanyahu has remained firm on
his position, vowing on Sunday that "there won't be a ceasefire until the
hostages are returned".
Shortly before the latest barrage
of strikes, internet and telephone lines were cut, the army said.
Israel has distributed leaflets
and sent text messages ordering Palestinian civilians in northern Gaza to head
south, but a US official said on Saturday at least 350,000 civilians remained
in the worst-hit areas.
Blinken on his regional tour —
which has taken him to Israel, Jordan, the occupied West Bank of Palestine,
Greek Cypriot Administration and Iraq — has called for "humanitarian
pauses" while rejecting Arab countries' demands for a ceasefire.
0 comments: