The Israeli army continued its aggression against the besieged Gaza Strip, for the second day after the end of a week-long truce. The death toll from the Israeli aggression climbed to 15,208 deaths, and 40,652 injuries according to the spokesperson for the Ministry of Health in Gaza, Ashraf Al-Qudra.
On Saturday, Israeli aircraft launched raids on various parts of the Gaza Strip and committed a new massacre in the Jabalia camp, resulting in the death of more than 100 Palestinians.
Al-Qudra said that Israel is deliberately strangling Gaza’s health system, by placing restrictions on the entry of medical aid and fuel into hospitals and preventing their access to hospitals in the north during the truce. He demanded that effective and urgent mechanisms be found to prevent the humanitarian catastrophe in the Strip.
Al-Qudra announced that the occupation arrested 4 paramedics who were heading from northern Gaza to its south on Saturday, calling on the United Nations and international medical institutions to pressure the occupation to release the detained medical teams.
On the field, the Palestinian resistance announced that it was engaged in clashes on several fronts and that it had directed missile strikes at Israeli areas, including Tel Aviv, Ashdod, and the Gaza Strip.
The Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), said in a statement that its fighters ambushed an Israeli occupation army foot force, which was stationed inside a building, in the Al-Tawam area, northwest of Gaza.
Al-Qassam added that its fighters targeted the Israeli force with anti-personnel devices, anti-fortified shells, and heavy machine guns, saying that members of the force were killed or injured.
Moreover, the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad movement, also announced the bombing of crowds of Israelis in the Kissufim forests with a barrage of mortar shells. The brigades added that since the early hours of dawn, its fighters have been engaged in “fierce clashes with enemy forces penetrating the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood and the Al-Taqaddim axis northwest and south of Gaza.”
At the same time, Israeli media said that sirens sounded in Ashkelon and the areas surrounding Gaza
In a press conference on Saturday, an Israeli army spokesperson said that the war in Gaza will be long and will not be time-bound, adding that the occupation forces “are still facing Hamas fighters in northern Gaza.” He pointed out that “several humanitarian trucks arrived in Gaza after the security clearance on the Israeli side of the border.”
In the meantime, the Israeli “Walla” website quoted sources in the Israeli occupation army, on Saturday, that “the intensive attack during the past 24 hours was aimed at damaging the infrastructure, especially those belonging to Hamas, in preparation for expanding the ground invasion,” indicating that the next stage It will include the cities of Khan Yunis and Rafah.
A senior official in the occupation army told the website that the soldiers will be asked to reach “vital areas in the southern Gaza Strip,” similar to government centres affiliated with the Gaza government, which the source described as Hamas rule centres.
In a related context, the office of the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced on Saturday that the Mossad team had been summoned from Qatar due to the stalemate in the negotiations regarding Gaza, claiming that the Hamas movement had not fulfilled its commitment to release all the children and women hostages included on the list that it had agreed to.
Over the past three days, delegations from Egypt, the US, Israel and Qatar met in Doha to discuss extending the humanitarian truce in Gaza, but talks have failed.
On the humanitarian matter, the World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the shipment of essential supplies to Gaza must urgently resume. He explained that “the delivery of basic supplies to Gaza must be resumed urgently and returned to the levels reached during the last ceasefire at least, but much more is needed.”
Ghebreyesus stressed that civilians in Gaza need protection, food, clean water, shelter, sanitation, and medicine. He pointed out that those infected need life-saving care, and healthcare workers need protection and supplies to provide the service.
He added: “As we have warned repeatedly, overcrowding resulting from the mass displacement of residents and unsafe living conditions increases the risk of disease.” The Director-General of the WHO stressed the need to end the violence, release the remaining detainees, and end the siege on Gaza.
