GAZA: Another 27 Israeli soldiers have been wounded during battles in the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, the military said on Tuesday. Figures released by the army showed that 519 soldiers had been killed and 2,465 others injured since the outbreak of the war on Gaza.
Earlier on Tuesday, the army had announced the killing of nine soldiers in Gaza. The army and the ministry have said in a joint statement that they’ve also begun giving out equipment containers to the local militias in northern communities. Each community will receive weapons, ceramic vests and helmets. In addition, medical and logistical equipment will also be distributed, the statement said.
This is similar to the initiative by Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir who in October distributed assault rifles to civilian militias. That distribution was focused on areas near the besieged Gaza Strip, settlements in the occupied West Bank and “mixed cities” in Israel inhabited by Palestinians and Jews. In the last few hours, the Israeli military attacks have intensified in Khan Younis city, with 11 Palestinians reported killed since the early hours of this morning.
And in the last hour, Israeli drones have opened fire at Palestinian residents and evacuees at Nasser hospital in the western part of Khan Younis. Also during the last hour, attacks continued on the middle governorates, where Israeli forces are using excessive power to destroy residential houses. The UN’s humanitarian agency OCHA reports that tents and self-built makeshift shelters are overcrowded in Gaza, with more than 15 people living on average in one tent, making the space available per person less than the minimum Sphere Standards.
The Sphere standards are a set of principles and minimum humanitarian standards in four areas of humanitarian response: Water, sanitation and hygiene, food, shelter and health. “This exposes IDPs [internally displaced people] to unhygienic conditions and communicable diseases,” the agency said. It also said, “The self-built makeshift shelters are constructed from salvaged materials inadequate to withstand current weather conditions.”
In the south, OCHA said, rental apartments cost more than 800 percent the normal price due to lack of availability of units in the south, according to a survey it conducted. The Health Ministry in Gaza says Israeli forces have committed “12 massacres” throughout the Gaza Strip on the 95th day of the war that resulted in 126 Palestinians being killed and 241 others wounded.
The ministry indicated that a number of victims are still under the rubble and on the roads, while ambulance and civil defence crews are unable to reach them. Two Israeli non-profit organisations say Israel’s authorities are poised to advance a settlement plan along the southern perimeter of occupied East Jerusalem, joining a series of new settlements promoted over the past year.
According to Ir Amim and Bimkom, the plan calls for the construction of 650 housing units on 29 dunams (29,000 square metres) of land situated along the southern slopes of the Palestinian neighbourhood of Sur Baher-Umm Tuba, whose boundaries extend up against existing Palestinian homes. “This is yet another new settlement plan not only being advanced within a Palestinian neighbourhood, but also in lockstep with official registration of land rights [settlement of land title] within the plan’s borders,” the two groups said.
“As documented by Bimkom and Ir Amim, settlement of land title is being exploited to expand and finalise state/settler appropriation of land across East Jerusalem, while increasing the threat of Palestinian dispossession.” We saw the assassination of senior Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri last week. We’ve seen the killing of Wissam al-Tawil just 24 hours ago and now a strike during his funeral – we’re hearing one person has died – and another strike where three other people have died.
This is now becoming a very dangerous situation. The international community is incredibly worried about escalation on the border, but now it’s got another problem. These strikes that took place against Hezbollah field commanders have taken place within Lebanese territory. Hezbollah has responded with a strike 40km (25 miles) inside Israeli territory.
That is something the international community and diplomatic efforts are trying to avoid. The idea was to try to keep everything contained along this 120km (75 miles) border. If it spills over; it’s only going to take a mistake or a miscalculation by either side that will be seen as a red line by either side for this to actually spill over.
Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank have shot dead a Palestinian youth accused of attempting a stabbing attack against them, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reports, citing local sources. The shooting took place near the Ein Sinya checkpoint, north of Ramallah. The report said the checkpoint is now closed.
Mohamad Elmasry, from the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, says it is unclear what comes next as Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon continue deadly cross-border attacks. “I think right now there’s significant disagreement inside Israel’s military establishment to what extent they want to go into an all-out war. What we know is Benjamin Netanyahu would like to see something more expansive. That would be more advantageous to his own political ambitions,” Elmasry told Al Jazeera.
“Israel right now is going to continue and try and provoke Hezbollah, and the ball is really in Hezbollah’s court as to what they do next. It’s got to be a very difficult calculation. Hezbollah won’t look good, like it has much deterrence, if it doesn’t respond forcefully.” At least 25 Palestinians have been detained in the occupied West Bank overnight and today, the Palestinian Prisoners Society said.
This brings the total number of Palestinians arrested by Israeli forces from the occupied territory since October 7 to 5,755, including 190 women and 335 children. Israel has also detained 50 journalists, including 20 who are under administrative detention, meaning that they are held without any charges or trial. The al-Qassam Brigades says its fighters destroyed an Israeli Merkava tank with an Al-Yassin 105 shell, south of the city of Khan Younis.
Merkava tanks are classified as among the most fortified in the world and the most powerful on the battlefield. East of the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, fighters from the al-Qassam Brigades killed four Israeli soldiers with a locally manufactured rifle called “Ghoul”. The health situation is dire in Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population is now squeezed into.
Here in Rafah, there are no large hospitals, only mid-sized hospitals or smaller centres and clinics. Outside the Kuwaiti hospital, we can see the wounded being brought in. However, they are only staying in the hospital for around 30 minutes – long enough for their information to be taken – because the facility is running out of space. Then, they are sent to either the Abu Youssef Najjar Hospital, which is a mid-sized facility and has relatively better equipment, or the European Gaza Hospital. Most of the injured are in Najjar Hospital because the road leading to the European Gaza Hospital is very dangerous, with possible artillery shelling during the day. —Aljazeera
