The Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip has killed 7,650 people, including 3,195 children, and injured about 19,450 others, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Another 1,650 people are missing. In the occupied West Bank, 111 people have died and 1,950 have been wounded by Israeli attacks.
On Saturday, Israeli forces continued their assault on Gaza. They also raided the West Bank, where they faced resistance from Palestinian fighters. Meanwhile, the Palestinian resistance launched missiles at Israeli cities and towns, triggering sirens in Ashkelon, north of Tel Aviv, and near Ben Gurion Airport.
Palestinian media reported: “Israeli occupation aircraft were dropping white phosphorus bombs (banned internationally) in the centre of Gaza City.”
The Israeli army claimed that its forces were conducting ground operations inside Gaza, but the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, said that they had foiled the invasion. In a recorded speech on Saturday, the spokesperson for the Al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Ubaida, said, “The occupation’s aggression and its perpetration of the holocaust and massacres are nothing but the result of the great pain it is experiencing. The enemy will taste a greater defeat than he expected or feared.”
Abu Ubaida added: “The time of Zionism’s defeat has begun. The time of the enemy’s alleged military and intelligence superiority has ended.” He also criticized the rulers of Arab and Islamic countries for failing to support the people of Gaza.
Abu Ubaida revealed that there had been contacts regarding the prisoners’ issue and that there was an opportunity to reach an agreement, “but the enemy was stalling.” He expressed Hamas’s readiness to end the prisoner issue all at once or in stages in exchange for the release of all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
The Palestinian Health Minister Mai Alkaila said on Saturday that last night was tragic and witnessed the heaviest bombing of Gaza. She noted that cutting off electricity and communication lines was a way to commit more massacres and hide them from the world.
She said that several massacres were committed by Israel against civilians in Gaza last night, under a complete blackout of electricity and communications. This prevented ambulance and rescue crews from reaching the bombing sites and disrupted the communication of medical teams, hospitals, and ambulance centres with each other.
Alkaila added: “What is happening in Gaza is genocide. The occupation kills citizens and health teams, destroys and bombs treatment centres and ambulances, prevents the fuel needed for hospitals to operate, prevents the entry of urgent health supplies, prevents the wounded and sick from leaving the Strip for treatment, and also prevents the entry of medical teams. On top of that, Israel escalated its aggression to completely separate the Strip from the world by cutting off all lines of communication.”
Meanwhile, the Civil Defence in the Gaza Strip reported that the Israeli strikes last night “completely destroyed” hundreds of buildings in Gaza. Mahmoud Basal, the Civil Defence Media Director, said: “Hundreds of buildings and homes were destroyed, and thousands of units were damaged. The intense bombing operations led to changing the features of Gaza and the north governorate.”
Mohamed Mansour, the head of the Middle East Department at the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that what is happening in Gaza has never happened in modern history and that there are a large number of victims under the rubble in Gaza. He added: “There is no place that can be described as safe in Gaza.”
In a positive development, Elon Musk, the owner of Starlink Communications, which specializes in providing internet and satellite communications services and is affiliated with the SpaceX group, announced that his company “will provide communication service to internationally recognized relief organizations in the Gaza Strip.” He made this announcement in a tweet on his page on X, a social networking site that he also owns.
However, the situation remains tense as Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi urged an end to the escalation in the Gaza Strip during a phone call with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. He also called for the implementation of an immediate humanitarian truce that preserves the lives of civilians and allows the entry of aid and relief to the Gaza Strip. The two leaders discussed the cooperation efforts between Egypt and the UN regarding the protection of civilians and the access to humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip through an agreed mechanism under UN supervision. Guterres praised Egypt’s vital role in this regard and its commitment to work towards peace and stability.
