Israeli strikes kill scores in Gaza with many trapped beneath the rubble

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

The Israeli military bombed at least five crowded homes in northern Gaza early on Thursday with many casualties buried beneath the rubble, Palestinian health officials said, as troops deepened an incursion along the territory's northern edge.

Rescue operations were under way in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, medics said. Hamas media put the number of fatalities at 66, most of whom it said had not been recovered.

There was no comment by the Israeli military, which has been operating in Beit Lahiya and the nearby Jabalia and Beit Hanoun since early last month in a campaign it said was aimed at preventing Hamas fighters from regrouping and waging attacks.

Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, one of three medical facilities barely operational in the besieged northern area, said at least 200 people lived in the residential district that was bombed in Beit Lahiya and that many people remained missing.

Abu Safiya said medics were recovering injured people and treating them on-site because they had no ambulance vehicles to move them to hospitals.

Even if the injured make it to hospital, many then die because of a lack of medical supplies and specialized surgeons after Israel detained or expelled most of the medical staff, Abu Safiya said.

Israeli operations in Gaza have focused for weeks on the northern edge of the territory, where the military has laid siege to three major towns and ordered residents to flee.

Residents in the three towns - Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun - said Israeli forces had destroyed hundreds of houses in since they began the latest offensive on Oct. 5.

MOST OF GAZA NOW 'HIGH RISK', UNRWA SAYS

Palestinians say Israel appears determined to depopulate the area permanently to create a buffer zone along the northern edge of Gaza, which Israel denies.

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), said on Thursday that 80 percent of the Gaza Strip is now high-risk, with many people increasingly desperate.

"They are trapped with no safe place to go. In northern Gaza, people remain under a tight siege. They run for their lives in vicious circles and have been deprived of humanitarian aid for more than 40 days now," he said in a post on X.

"Across Gaza, the delivery of the little aid allowed in has become overly complex including because of insecure routes," he added.

The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden last month told Israel it had 30 days to improve the flow of aid to Gaza or risk consequences to U.S. military assistance. On Nov. 12, Washington said it had concluded that Israel had made progress and was not impeding aid to Gaza. Many aid groups disagreed.

Adding to the challenges, armed gangs have stepped up looting of aid trucks, contributing to spiralling prices of essential food items such as flour. The price of a 25kg sack of flour, if available, has risen to 700 shekels ($186) from 50 shekels ($13) over the past week.

"Code-word today is hunger everywhere in Gaza. Looters are sharing the occupation's war against the displaced," said Tamer, a Gaza City man now living alongside hundreds of thousands of people who have crowded into Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza.

Most of Gaza's population of 2.3 million people has been displaced and the enclave is at risk of famine, more than a year into Israel's war against its former Hamas rulers. Gaza health officials say more than 43,922 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's offensive.

The war was launched in response to an attack by Hamas-led fighters who killed 1,200 people and captured more than 250 hostages in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has said.

Months of attempts to negotiate a ceasefire have yielded scant progress and negotiations are now on hold, with mediator Qatar having suspended its efforts until the sides are prepared to make concessions.

Although Israel's assaults have been focused on Gaza's north since last month, its strikes have continued across the territory.

In Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, an Israeli strike killed two people, while another strike killed three others in Rafah, in the south near the border with Egypt.