GAZA STRIP: Gaza’s civil defense agency said Saturday more than 400 Palestinians were killed in the north of the territory over the past two weeks during an ongoing military assault Israel says is aimed at preventing Hamas militants from regrouping.
The Israeli military launched a sweeping air and ground assault targeting northern Gaza on October 6. Since then, it has tightened its siege, which has displaced tens of thousands of people.
“We have recovered more than 400 martyrs from the various targeted areas in the northern Gaza Strip, including Jabalia and its camp, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun, since the start of the military operation by the occupation army” on October 6, Gaza civil defense agency spokesman, Mahmud Bassal, told AFP.
“There are dozens of bodies scattered in the streets of Jabalia due to continuous shelling.”
The Israeli military press department when contacted by AFP said it was “checking” the reports.
Bassal said the death toll from the Israeli operation up to Friday was 386.
“In addition to that we had 33 martyrs from a massacre in Jabalia. So, the total is now more than 400 martyrs in northern Gaza,” he said, referring to an Israeli air strike on Jabalia refugee camp overnight Friday to Saturday.
Bassal said the dead included women, children and the elderly.
“They were all transferred to the northern Gaza Strip hospitals of Kamal Adwan, Al-Awda and Indonesian,” said Bassal.
“There are a number of pleas from families being bombed inside Jabalia camp... but it is difficult for our teams to reach the bombed sites,” Bassal said.
In several areas, communication and Internet networks have been cut off, making it difficult for rescue teams to reach those in need of help.
“This affects the ability of citizens to contact our teams and other medical services,” Bassal added.
On October 6, the Israeli military launched an intense assault on Jabalia, which it later expanded to other areas of north Gaza amid claims that Hamas was regrouping in the area.
So far, it has said “dozens of terrorists” have been killed in the operation, which aid agencies have warned was leading to a fresh humanitarian crisis in the territory.
“In the Jabalia area, IDF troops eliminated several terrorists in close-quarters encounters and IAF (air force) strikes,” the military said in a statement on Saturday.
The Israeli military has defended the campaign in northern Gaza, saying its forces were targeting “terrorists embedded inside civilian areas,” and accusing Hamas of preventing residents from fleeing.
Gaza rescuers say over 400 killed in two weeks of Israeli assault on territory’s north
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Gaza rescuers say over 400 killed in two weeks of Israeli assault on territory’s north
- “We have recovered more than 400 martyrs from the various targeted areas, Gaza civil defense agency spokesman, Mahmud Bassal, told AFP
- “There are dozens of bodies scattered in the streets of Jabalia due to continuous shelling“
Landmine explosion in Sudan kills 9, including 3 children
- “Nine people, three of them children, were killed by a mine explosion while they were in a tuk-tuk,” a medical source at Al-Abbasiya hospital said
KHARTOUM: A land mine explosion killed nine people in Sudan on Sunday, including three children, as they were riding in an auto-rickshaw along a road in the frontline region of Kordofan, a medical source told AFP.
The war between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which began in April 2023, has left Sudan strewn with mines and unexploded ordnance, though the explosive that caused Sunday’s deaths could also have dated back to previous rebellions that have shaken South Kordofan state since 2011.
“Nine people, three of them children, were killed by a mine explosion while they were in a tuk-tuk,” a medical source at Al-Abbasiya hospital said.
The vehicle was reduced to “a metal carcass,” witness Abdelbagi Issa told AFP by phone.
“We were walking behind the tuk-tuk along the road to the market when we heard the sound of an explosion,” he said. “People fell to the ground and the tuk-tuk was destroyed.”
Kordofan has become the center of fighting in the nearly three-year war ever since the RSF forced the army out of its last foothold in the neighboring Darfur region late last year.
Since it broke out, Sudan’s civil war has killed tens of thousands of people and forced 11 million to flee their homes, triggering a dire humanitarian crisis.
It has also effectively split the country in two, with the army holding the north, center and east while the RSF and its allies control the west and parts of the south.
