RAFAH: Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said Monday more than 5,000 people have been killed in the battered Palestinian enclave since Israel launched its withering bombing campaign just over two weeks ago.
Alarm has surged about the spiralling humanitarian crisis in Gaza as Israel struck back following the October 7 Hamas attacks which Israeli officials say killed more than 1,400 people who were shot, stabbed or burnt by the Islamist militants.
Israel also says the militants seized 222 hostages in the worst attack in the nation’s 75-year history.
With the military saying it had conducted more than 300 new strikes within 24 hours, Gaza’s health ministry said the death toll had surged over 5,000, including more than 2,000 children, in figures AFP has not been able to independently verify.
Thousands of buildings have been levelled and more than a million people displaced in the besieged territory that has been largely deprived of water, food and other basic supplies.
Twenty trucks carrying desperately needed aid arrived in Gaza through the Rafah crossing with Egypt on Monday, the UN humanitarian agency said, the third convoy in as many days.
Washington vowed a “continued flow” of relief goods into Gaza, which the UN says is facing “catastrophic” conditions and needs to receive 100 trucks of aid per day.
Overnight, Gaza’s Hamas-controlled government said “more than 60” people died in Israeli bombardments, including 17 in a single strike on a house in Gaza’s north and another 10 in the morning.
And with thousands more wounded, Gaza’s health ministry called on citizens “to immediately go to hospitals and blood banks to donate blood.”
The Israeli military said it had hit “over 320 military targets” including “tunnels containing Hamas terrorists, dozens of operational command centers” and other militant outposts.
It also said it thwarted a cross-border Hamas drone attack on Monday, shooting down two UAVs that were crossing at the Nir Oz and Ein HaBesor communities near southern Gaza.
In a post on social media, Hamas confirmed the drones had sought to attack Israeli military positions.
Overnight, the army said a 19-year-old Israeli soldier had been killed and three others wounded during an operation on the outskirts of Gaza “to dismantle terror infrastructure... and locate missing persons and bodies.”
Meanwhile in southern Gaza, children killed in an Israeli air strike on the town of Khan Yunis were laid to rest in a makeshift grave on Monday as anguished family members looked on.
And at a packed UN school in the town, where thousands of displaced Palestinians were seeking shelter, staffers tried to distract traumatized youngsters by organizing games, including one with a colorful silk parachute.
Figures from the Hamas government say more than 181,000 housing units have been damaged, of which 20,000 had been totally destroyed or rendered uninhabitable.
Around the world, Israel’s friends and foes alike have warned against the Gaza war spilling over into a full-scale regional conflagration, with fears focused on its northern border where there have been increasing cross-border incidents with Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Netanyahu on Sunday issued a stark warning to Hezbollah against opening a second front in the north, while Washington also fired a warning shot across the bows of any actors looking to inflame the conflict, saying it wouldn’t hesitate to act in the event of any “escalation.”
But the pace of evacuations has increased on both sides of the border, with the UN saying nearly 20,000 people had fled villages in south Lebanon due to the ongoing unrest.
At least 41 people have been killed in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally — mostly combatants but also at least four civilians, including a Reuters journalist. And four people have been killed in Israel, including three soldiers and a civilian.
Israel has also ordered the evacuation of thousands of people from a string of communities near its northern border but not everyone has left, with some refusing to go such as 62-year-old peach farmer Moshe Dadoush.
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t afraid. But I have to stay here and take care of my trees. If I don’t, there will be no fruit this year,” he told AFP.
“I wouldn’t leave for one simple reason: it’s here where I grew up. I have nowhere else to go but this country.”
At the weekend, Israel said it was stepping up its raids on Gaza and has massed tens of thousands of troops along the border ahead of a widely-expected ground invasion.
It has said its aim is to destroy Hamas, but has offered little detail about what would follow.
“One thing is clear: the Gaza Strip will not be ruled by Hamas once this war is over,” Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy told AFP.
But Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh on Monday accused Western nations of giving Israel a “license to kill,” saying Israeli plans for a ground invasion would mean “more crimes, atrocities and forced displacement.”
“We condemn the statements that constitute a license to kill and give Israel political cover to commit massacres and spread destruction in Gaza,” he said.
US President Joe Biden and other leaders including Britain’s Rishi Sunak and Germany’s Olaf Scholz have visited Israel in recent days and affirmed its “right to defend” itself while urging it to keep within international humanitarian law.
Sunak on Monday said Britain was sending an additional £20 million ($24 million) of aid to help Gaza civilians affected by the war, and France’s Emmanuel Macron was due in Tel Aviv on Tuesday for talks with Netanyahu.
Hamas says more than 5,000 killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza
https://arab.news/rdhbc
Hamas says more than 5,000 killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza
- Between 200 and 300 people have been killed each day in the besieged territory
- Thousands of buildings have been levelled and more than a million displaced
Volatile security blocks UN from Syria Daesh-linked camp
- Schmitt said: “UNHCR was able to reach Al-Hol for the past three days but has not yet been able to enter inside the camp due to the volatile security situation“
- A former employee said most associations withdrew on Tuesday “due to the deteriorating security situation“
RAQQA, Syria: Poor security at a camp in Syria housing thousands of suspected relatives of Daesh group militants has prevented UN agency staff from entering, days after Kurdish forces withdrew and the army deployed at the site.
Two former employees at the Al-Hol desert camp told AFP on Friday that some of its residents had escaped during an hours-long security vacuum.
Thousands of suspected militants and their families, including foreigners, have been held in prisons and camps in northeast Syria since 2019, when the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) defeated Daesh with the support of a US-led coalition.
This year, the SDF had to relinquish to Syrian government control swathes of territory they had seized during their fight against Daesh, and on Tuesday withdrew from Al-Hol.
In Raqqa province, Kurdish forces who formerly controlled a prison housing Daesh detainees were bussed out on Friday under a deal with the government, as a four-day truce neared expiry.
- Returning today -
Celine Schmitt, the UN refugee agency’s spokesperson in Syria, told AFP that “UNHCR was able to reach Al-Hol for the past three days but has not yet been able to enter inside the camp due to the volatile security situation.”
“UNHCR is returning to Al-Hol today, with the hope of resuming the bread delivery that had stopped for the past three days,” she said.
On Sunday, Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa announced a deal with SDF chief Mazloum Abdi that included a ceasefire and the integration of the Kurds’ administration into the state, which will take responsibility for Daesh prisoners.
A former employee of a local humanitarian organization that operated in Al-Hol told AFP on condition of anonymity that most associations withdrew on Tuesday “due to the deteriorating security situation.”
Some camp residents fled during the “security vacuum” between when the SDF withdrew and the army took control, they said, without providing a number.
A former employee at another organization working there said “escapes were reported, but the exact number is unknown.”
“The camp is fenced, but without security, anyone can easily cross it and flee,” they said, also requesting anonymity.
Both ex-employees said camp residents torched centers belonging to aid organizations operating in the camp, where humanitarian conditions are dire.
Before the turmoil, the camp housed some 23,000 people — mostly Syrians but also including around 2,200 Iraqis and 6,200 other foreign women and children of various nationalities, the camp’s former administration told AFP.
Roj, a smaller camp in the northeast still under Kurdish control, holds some 2,300 people, mostly foreigners.
The Kurds and the United States have repeatedly urged countries to repatriate their citizens but foreign governments have generally allowed home only a trickle.
- Al-Aqtan prison -
The SDF has withdrawn to parts of Hasakah province, its stronghold in northeast Syria.
A fresh four-day ceasefire was announced on Tuesday, while the following day the United States said it had launched an operation that could see 7,000 Daesh militant detainees moved from Syria to Iraq, with 150 transferred so far.
US envoy Tom Barrack, who has said the purpose of Washington’s alliance with SDF has now largely expired, held talks this week with Abdi and senior Kurdish official Elham Ahmad.
On Friday, Syria transferred Kurdish fighters away from the Al-Aqtan prison on the outskirts of Raqqa city.
An AFP correspondent in Raqqa saw buses and cars heading away from the Al-Aqtan prison, escorted by government vehicles.
Syrian state television reported the transfer came “after five days of negotiations” and that the fighters would go to the Kurdish-held city of Ain Al-Arab, also known as Kobani, on the northern border with Turkiye.
The SDF later said that with coalition support, all the fighters had been transferred “to safe locations,” while the interior ministry said authorities had taken control of the facility.
A government source told state television that around 800 SDF fighters were to leave, while Daesh detainees would be managed “according to Syrian law.”
The army said the Al-Aqtan transfer was “the first step in implementing the January 18 agreement.”
