Gaza situation turns from bad to worse

Israeli ground forces fought deadly battles with Hamas fighters inside Gaza yesterday and sent tanks to the outskirts of the biggest city while air strikes kept raining down on the besieged Palestinian territory.

The intensifying military campaign since the October 7 Hamas attacks has sharply heightened fears for the 2.4 million civilians trapped inside Gaza, where the health ministry says more than 8,300 have died.

Concern has surged about the widening humanitarian crisis and the fate of hospitals in the war zone where, according to the World Health Organisation, many patients cannot be safely moved despite Israel’s evacuation order.

On Sunday, the White House told Israel that it must protect innocent Gaza residents by distinguishing between Hamas and civilians, as world leaders stepped up calls for desperately needed humanitarian aid to reach the war-torn Palestinian territory.

Meanwhile, The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan yesterday warned that blocking humanitarian aid from entering Gaza could constitute a crime.

The October 7 Hamas incursion set off the bloodiest-ever Gaza war, marked by weeks of withering aerial bombardment by Israel and three continuous nights of ground operations mainly centred on northern Gaza.

In heavy clashes overnight, the Israeli army said it had killed dozens of militants hiding “inside buildings and tunnels”.

Columns of Israeli tanks and armoured bulldozers were seen churning through the sand, and Israeli snipers took positions inside emptied residential buildings, in footage released by the army.

Dozens of Israeli tanks advanced for more than an hour into the southern fringes of Gaza City and blocked the main north-south highway, “firing at any vehicle that tries to go along it”, an eyewitness told AFP by phone.

Air strikes also cratered the road and brought down buildings, residents said, before the tanks pulled back from the area.

The Israeli land forces were supported by heavy fire from fighter jets, drones and artillery that the army said had struck more than 600 targets within 24 hours, up sharply from 450 a day earlier.

Hamas said it had fired anti-tank missiles at two Israeli armoured vehicles.

It also charged Israel was trying to present a “false image that its soldiers are present in the Gaza Strip interior, even though blows delivered by the resistance have prevented them”.

Hamas also released a video of what it said were three women hostages, seated against a tile wall, although the time and place of the recording could not be verified.

One woman was heard calling in an agitated tone for Netanyahu to agree to Hamas’ proposed exchange of the hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

The more than 230 hostages — aged between a few months and above 80 — are believed to be held in a giant network of underground tunnels where Hamas has hidden its military infrastructure from Israeli surveillance and air attacks.

Fear and desperation have spiralled in Gaza, under weeks of siege that have cut off water, food, fuel and other essentials to the long-blockaded territory.

The United Nations reported Sunday that civil order was starting to break down after “thousands of people” ransacked its warehouses looking for tinned food, flour, oil and hygiene supplies.

According to the UN, all 10 hospitals in northern Gaza have received evacuation orders — despite sheltering thousands of patients and about 117,000 of the displaced. Among those being treated are intensive care patients, infants and elderly people on life support systems.

The head of the World Health Organization said calls to evacuate Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City were “deeply concerning”.

“We reiterate — it’s impossible to evacuate hospitals full of patients without endangering their lives,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X.

Israel describes Al-Shifa hospital as a de facto Hamas “command centre” and headquarters.

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