Israeli troops for the first time Monday pushed into areas of a central Gaza city where several aid groups are based, in what appeared to be the latest effort to carve up the Palestinian territory with military corridors.
Deir al-Balah is the only Gaza city that has not seen major ground operations or suffered widespread devastation in 21 months of war, leading to speculation that the Hamas militant group holds large numbers of hostages there. The main group representing hostages’ families said it was “shocked and alarmed” by the incursion and demanded answers from Israeli leaders, reports AP.
Gaza health officials said at least 18 people, including three women and five children, were killed in Israeli strikes overnight and into Monday.
At least three more people were killed when crowds of Palestinians waiting for aid trucks were shot at in the area of the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza, according to two hospitals that received the bodies.
Israel says the seizure of territory in Gaza is aimed at pressuring Hamas to release hostages, but it is a major point of contention in ongoing ceasefire talks.
The World Food Program, meanwhile, accused Israeli forces of firing into a crowd of Palestinians seeking humanitarian aid over the weekend. The Gaza Health Ministry called it one of the deadliest attacks on aid-seekers in the war that has driven the territory to the brink of famine.
In the latest sign of international frustration, the United Kingdom, France and 23 other Western-aligned countries issued a statement saying “the war in Gaza must end now”, criticising Israel’s restrictions on humanitarian aid and calling for the release of the remaining 50 hostages in Gaza.
Reporters heard explosions and saw smoke rising from parts of the city that were ordered evacuated on Sunday. An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said it was the first time ground troops had operated in the area.
The World Health Organization said Israeli forces raided its main staff residence in Deir al-Balah, forcing women and children to evacuate on foot toward the coast.
“Male staff and family members were handcuffed, stripped, interrogated on the spot and screened at gunpoint,” the UN health agency said in a statement. It said two staff and two family members were detained, with three later released and one still being held.
The WHO said its main warehouse in the city, which is in the evacuation zone, was damaged by an explosion and a fire, hurting the agency’s ability to help hospitals and emergency medical teams. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
United Nations spokesperson Stephane Dujarric had earlier said two UN guesthouses in Deir al-Balah were damaged by shrapnel. He said the cause was still being investigated but that heavy Israeli airstrikes had been reported in the area. Local and international staff will continue to work there, he said.
The military declined to say if it had ordered the evacuation of aid groups based in the city, saying only that it maintains continuous contact with them and facilitates their relocation when necessary. Separately, the military announced that a 19-year-old soldier was killed and an officer was severely wounded in combat in southern Gaza.
The UN humanitarian coordinator says 87.8% of Gaza is now under evacuation orders or inside Israeli military zones, “leaving 2.1 million civilians squeezed into a fragmented 12 per cent of the Strip, where essential services have collapsed.”
Israel has taken over large areas of Gaza and split the territory with corridors stretching from the border to the sea.
In response to the Deir al-Balah incursion, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum warned in its statement that “the people of Israel will not forgive anyone who knowingly endangered the hostages — both the living and the deceased. No one will be able to claim they didn’t know what was at stake.”
The World Food Program, in a rare condemnation, said the crowd surrounding its convoy in northern Gaza on Sunday “came under fire from Israeli tanks, snipers and other gunfire.” It said “countless lives” were lost.
The Gaza Health Ministry said at least 80 people were killed. Israel’s military said it fired warning shots “to remove an immediate threat” and questioned the death toll reported by the Palestinians. It declined to comment on the WFP statement.
Hundreds of people have been killed while seeking food in recent weeks, both from UN convoys and separate aid sites run by an Israeli-backed group that has been mired in controversy.
The Palestinian death toll from the war has climbed to more than 59,000.
The Gaza Health Ministry said Israeli forces detained Dr. Marwan al-Hams, acting director of the strip’s field hospitals and the ministry’s spokesman.
Israeli troops killed a local journalist, Tamer al-Zaanein, who was accompanying al-Hams, and wounded two other people when they detained him near a Red Cross field hospital in southern Gaza.