Israeli tanks advanced into the fringes of Gaza City on Monday, witnesses said, as it ramped up its war on Hamas, saying it had killed dozens of militants in hundreds of strikes.
“We have hit more than 600 targets in the past 24 hours,” a military spokesperson said, up from 450 the previous day, with Hamas militants also reporting “heavy fighting” in northern Gaza.
Tanks entered the Zaytun district on the southern fringes of Gaza City, cutting a key road from the north to the south of the war-torn Palestinian territory, witnesses said Monday.
“They have cut the Salahedin Road and are firing at any vehicle that tries to go along it,” said one resident who did not give his name.
Israel has on several occasions warned the 1.1 million people living in northern Gaza, including Gaza City, to head south to avoid its military strikes as it pushes ahead with a mission to “destroy” the territory’s Hamas rulers.
Although huge numbers have left in recent weeks, tens of thousands more are believed to be still in the zone.
Since Friday, Israeli forces have stepped up their ground offensive as part of the military response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks that officials say killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians, with another 239 people taken hostage.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says more than 8,000 people, mainly civilians, mostly civilians and more than half of them children, have since been killed in Israeli air and ground strikes.
The Israeli army said troops killed “dozens” of militants in overnight clashes, saying they had “barricaded themselves inside buildings and tunnels and attempted to attack the troops”.
In one incident, a fighter jet targeted a building “with over 20 Hamas terrorist operatives inside,” while another fighter jet was guided to an anti-tank missile launching post in the area of Al-Azhar University, it said. The university is in the heart of Gaza City.
It also said it hit “weapons depots, dozens of anti-tank missile launching positions, as well as hideouts and staging grounds used by the Hamas terrorist organization.”
More aid trucks get through
In the south, more than 30 aid trucks entered Gaza on Sunday, the largest convoy to the war-ravaged Palestinian territory since deliveries began trickling in again over a week ago, the UN said.
The United Nations humanitarian organization OCHA said 33 trucks carrying water, food, and medical supplies had gone into Gaza on Sunday, through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
To date, it said, 117 trucks had entered Gaza through the crossing since limited deliveries resumed to the crowded Palestinian territory of 2.4 million people, which is facing a near-total siege and relentless Israeli bombardment.
Israel imposed the siege and unleashed its massive bombing campaign after Hamas gunmen stormed across the border on Oct. 7, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and seizing 230 hostages, according to Israeli officials.
Israel’s strikes have since then killed more than 8,000 people, half of them children, the Hamas-controlled health ministry in the territory said.
Thousands of buildings have been flattened, with more than half the population displaced.
UN chief Antonio Guterres voiced alarm that Israel was intensifying its military operations in Gaza, warning that “the world is witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe.”
A US government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Sunday that Israel was committed to allowing 100 aid trucks into Gaza daily — a figure the UN has said was needed to meet the most basic needs.
OCHA welcomed the latest aid deliveries, but stressed that “a much larger volume of aid is needed on a regular basis to prevent further deterioration in the dire humanitarian situation, including civil unrest.”
“In particular, entry of fuel to operate medical equipment and water and sanitation facilities is urgently required.”
Of the 117 trucks allowed in so far, it said that 70 had carried medical supplies and 60 of them brought in food and nutritional items.
Only 13 carried water and sanitation supplies, it said.
And Israel has blocked all deliveries of fuel, saying it would be exploited by Hamas to manufacture weapons and explosives.
The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor warned Sunday that blocking humanitarian aid from entering Gaza could constitute a crime.
“Impeding relief supplies as provided by the Geneva Conventions may constitute a crime within the court jurisdiction,” Karim Khan told reporters in Cairo.
He was speaking after a visit to Egypt’s Rafah crossing, where he said trucks full of desperately needed goods remained stuck and unable to cross into Gaza.
“I saw trucks full of goods, full of humanitarian assistance stuck where nobody needs them, stuck in Egypt, stuck at Rafah,” he said.
“These supplies must get to the civilians of Gaza without delay.”
Manila backs two-state solution
The Philippine government is backing Israel’s right to defend itself, while advocating for a two-state solution to end the war in Gaza between the Israeli Defense Forces and Hamas.
“The Philippines truly believes in the foreign policy of recognizing the two-state solution and, of course, regard for human lives that may be affected if the situation escalates in Gaza,” Philippine Ambassador to Israel Junie Laylo said in an interview with GMA News.
Laylo made the statement at a memorial mass on Sunday for one of the four Filipinos killed by Hamas’ attack on kibbutz in Southern Israel on Oct. 7.
The Philippines abstained from voting on a United Nations resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas and demanding aid access to the besieged Gaza Strip and the protection of civilians.
While the UN passed the resolution, the Department of Foreign Affairs said that although the Philippines supports many elements of the UN resolution, it abstained because the resolution did not condemn the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, resulting in the deaths of innocent civilians, including at least four Filipinos.
“First and foremost, we condemn the violent attack by Hamas, which seems to have been omitted [from the resolution],” Laylo said. “So we abstained.”
In a statement, the Department of Foreign Affairs said the Philippines has been in solidarity with the global community in calling for swift action to stop the “scale of human suffering affecting both Israel and Gaza Strip.”
In Manila, 60 Filipinos repatriated from Israel arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on Monday afternoon. Of these, 32 were hotel workers and 28 were caregivers. This was the fourth batch of Filipinos working in Israel who opted to return to the Philippines.
Isolation in Gaza
Gaza’s besieged residents faced a near-total communications and internet blackout as Israel’s warplanes dropped bombs and its troops and armor pushed into the Hamas-ruled enclave, with Israeli military chiefs signaling they were gearing up for an expanded ground offensive.
Aid supplies to Gaza have been choked since Israel began bombarding the enclave, and the communication isolation also hit aid agencies, complicating already severe shortages of food, fuel and medicine.
On Sunday, amid a growing outcry over Palestinian civilian deaths, the White House said that Israel has a responsibility to protect the lives of innocent people in Gaza.
US President Joe Biden’s administration has been under increasing pressure to make clear that its steadfast support of Israel does not translate into a blanket endorsement of all that its ally is doing in the impoverished coastal enclave.
In other developments:
* In the West Bank, four Palestinians were killed Monday during an early-morning Israeli raid in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, the Palestinian health ministry said as violence escalated in the restive area. The ministry says nearly 120 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since Hamas militants stormed across the Gaza border on Oct. 7. The West Bank was already a hotbed of tension before the war with frequent Israeli army raids, a surge in assaults by Jewish settlers, and Palestinian attacks on settlements fanning the unrest. Israel occupied the West Bank during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and its forces regularly carry out raids on Palestinian militants there.
* Israel’s army said Monday it carried out air strikes on military infrastructure inside Syria as fears grow that its war against Hamas could spur a broader regional conflict. “A short time ago, an IDF fighter jet attacked the launchers” from where overnight attacks originated towards Israeli territory, the military said, indicating it hit “military infrastructure in Syrian territory.” The army did not provide more details, but public broadcaster Kan News said the strikes hit near the southern city of Daraa. With Rey E. Requejo
