The Israeli military escalated its airstrikes in Gaza on Sunday, November 5, reportedly splitting the territory in two. Ongoing clashes in northern Gaza are worsening the humanitarian crisis, resulting in numerous casualties and displacements. According to Hamas, several hospitals have been targeted and bombed.
The Israeli army is stepping up its strikes in Gaza, reportedly dividing Gaza in two. The ongoing fighting in northern Gaza is exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in the region, with thousands of deaths and displaced civilians. According to Hamas, several hospitals have been bombed.
The Israeli army announced on Sunday evening that it was carrying out “significant strikes” that “will continue over the coming days” in the Gaza Strip, adding that it had cut the Palestinian territory in two.
“Significant strikes are now underway and will continue tonight and in the coming days,” said army spokesman Daniel Hagari, claiming that Israeli forces operating in the territory had cut it in two: “southern Gaza and northern Gaza.”
Shortly before, the Hamas government had reported “intense shelling” around several hospitals in the north of the Gaza Strip, where internet and telephone lines had been cut.
According to the same source, shelling took place in the vicinity of al-Shifa Hospital, the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip.
After 30 days of war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement, the encirclement of the northern part of the territory and its de facto separation from the southern Gaza Strip is an important stage in the operation led by the Israeli forces, stressed Hagari.
“We are still allowing passage for civilians from northern Gaza and Gaza City to the south,” he added, stating that between 300,000 and 400,000 people are still living in the north of this cramped territory of 2.4 million inhabitants, where the humanitarian situation is considered catastrophic.
Since mid-October, Israel has ordered civilians to evacuate from the north of the territory, where fighting is most intense, toward the south. On Sunday, the Israeli army once again scattered messages to this effect in the skies over Gaza.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, during a visit to the occupied West Bank on Sunday, warned against the “forced displacement” of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip as part of its offensive launched in retaliation for the bloody Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.
According to the Israeli authorities, at least 1,400 people died on the Israeli side, most of them civilians killed on the same day as the Hamas attack. In the Gaza Strip, the latest Hamas death toll on Sunday was 9,770 people, including 4,800 children and 2,550 women, killed since October 7 in retaliatory bombardments by Israel, which claims to want to annihilate Hamas.
Khalil Wakim, with AFP
