GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: Explosions, airstrikes and gunfire rocked northern Gaza on Saturday, the third day of an Israeli military operation that has displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians and worsened what the UN has called “unbearable” living conditions in the territory.
An AFP correspondent reported ongoing explosions in the Shujaiya area near Gaza City. A local resident said bodies could be seen in the streets.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that its operations would continue in Shujaiya, where a “large number” of militants had been killed in fighting “above and below ground”.
Fighting in the region flared up again months after Israel declared the command structure of Hamas fighters in the north of the Gaza Strip dissolved.
Last Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the “intense phase” of the war was coming to an end after nearly nine months, but experts predict the next phase may extend even further.
The Gaza war has also led to rising tensions on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, prompting Iran to warn on Saturday of a “devastating” war if Israel attacks Lebanon.
The war began with Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on October 7, which killed 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP news agency count based on Israeli figures.
The militants also took hostages, 116 of whom are still in the Gaza Strip, but the army says 42 people have died.
According to the Health Ministry, at least 37,834 people have died in the Israeli retaliatory offensive in Hamas-controlled Gaza, most of them civilians. At least 69 deaths have been reported in the last 48 hours.
Mohammed Harara, 30, said he and his family, young and old, felt like they were becoming part of these victims.
He said they had fled their home in Shujaiya without any belongings and had barely survived “due to bombardment by Israeli planes, tanks and drones”.
“We couldn’t take anything from the house. We left behind food, flour, canned goods, mattresses and blankets,” Harara said.
The Israeli military said on Friday it was carrying out “targeted attacks” supported by air strikes against Hamas fighters in the Shujaiya region.
The United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA estimated that “around 60,000 to 80,000 people have been displaced from the area” this week.
AFPTV images on Saturday showed men carrying their belongings on a donkey cart. Some people were pushed in wheelchairs. Children walked past dusty piles of rubble with backpacks.
“I saw a tank firing at targets in front of the Shuhada Mosque,” said Abdelkareem Al-Mamluk. “There were martyrs on the street.”
On Friday, both Hamas and the armed wing of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad said they were fighting in Shujaiya.
Elsewhere in the coastal area, the Civil Defense Agency said on Saturday that four bodies had been recovered from an apartment following an Israeli attack in the central region.
Further south, in the Rafah area, witnesses reported deaths and injuries following another incursion by Israeli troops.
Tarek Qandeel, director of the Al-Maghazi medical center in central Gaza, said the facility was badly damaged when a neighboring house was bombed, making it the latest medical facility in Gaza to be affected by the war.
The United Nations said in a report on Friday, citing Gaza’s Health Ministry, that “about 70 percent of the health infrastructure has been destroyed.”
Separately, UN spokeswoman Louise Wateridge said via video link that she had just returned to central Gaza after spending four weeks outside the area.
“It is really unbearable,” she said, describing a “significantly worsened” situation.
“There is no water, no sanitation, no food,” and people are returning to live in “empty shells” of their buildings.
Since there are no toilets, “they relieve themselves wherever they can,” Wateridge said.
According to the UN, most of the Gaza Strip’s population has been displaced. But the consequences of the war have also forced people to flee on both sides of the Israeli-Lebanese border, where there are almost daily exchanges of fire between the Lebanese Hezbollah movement and Israeli forces.
Such exchanges have intensified this month, parallel to the bellicose rhetoric of both sides.
The Israeli military said plans for an offensive in Lebanon had been “approved and confirmed,” to which Hezbollah responded that in the event of a full-scale conflict, no one in Israel would be spared.
In a social media post on Saturday, Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York said it viewed Israeli threats to “attack” Lebanon as “psychological warfare.”
However, it was also said that such a move would lead to a “devastating” war that could involve “all resistance fronts” – an allusion to the Iran-backed groups in the region.
They include the Yemeni Houthi militias, which have been attacking international shipping in the Red Sea region for months. The Houthis say they are acting in solidarity with the Palestinians.
On Friday, the Houthis said there had been a “direct hit” on a tanker in the Red Sea, but a maritime security agency run by Britain’s Royal Navy reported there was no damage.
The US Navy has retaliated against Houthi targets for such attacks, and on Friday the US military said its forces had destroyed seven drones and a control station vehicle in Houthis-controlled areas of Yemen in recent days.
