Israel strikes throughout Gaza because the offensive leaves each it and the U.S. more and more remoted

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli forces carried out strikes throughout Gaza in a single day and into Tuesday as they pressed forward with an offensive that officers say might go on for weeks or months, at the same time as international requires a cease-fire left each Israel and its most important ally, the United States, more and more remoted.

The warfare ignited by Hamas‘ Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel has already brought unprecedented death and destruction to the impoverished coastal enclave, with much of northern Gaza obliterated, more than 18,000 Palestinians killed, and over 80% of the population of 2.3 million pushed from their homes.

The health care system and humanitarian aid operations have collapsed in large parts of the besieged enclave, and aid workers have warned of starvation and the spread of disease among displaced people in overcrowded shelters and tent camps.

Strikes overnight and into Tuesday in southern Gaza – in an area where civilians have been told to seek shelter – killed at least 23 people, including seven children and six women, according to hospital records and an Associated Press reporter who saw the bodies arrive at a hospital.

Islam Harb’s three kids have been amongst these killed in a single day when Israeli airstrikes flattened 4 residential buildings within the the city of Rafah on the Egyptian border. The household was sharing their dwelling with 9 displaced folks, he stated.

“My twin girls, Maria and Joud, were martyred, and my little son, Ammar, also martyred,” he stated.

In central Gaza, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah acquired the our bodies of 33 folks killed in strikes in a single day, together with 16 ladies and 4 kids, in accordance with hospital data. Many have been killed in strikes that hit residential buildings within the built-up Maghazi refugee camp.

In northern Gaza, Israeli forces stormed the Kamal Adwan Hospital, ordering all males, together with medics, into the courtyard, stated Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesman for the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

The U.N. humanitarian workplace stated the hospital has 65 sufferers, together with 12 kids in intensive care and 6 newborns in incubators. Some 3,000 displaced persons are sheltering there, it stated, all awaiting evacuation due to extreme shortages of meals, water and electrical energy.

The army says it’s rounding up males in northern Gaza because it searches for Hamas fighters. Photos and movies circulating on-line present teams of detainees stripped to their underwear, sure and blindfolded, and a few who’ve been launched say they have been crushed and denied meals and water.

At one other hospital in northern Gaza, the help group Doctors Without Borders stated a surgeon was wounded Monday by a shot fired from exterior the ability, which it says has been beneath “total siege” by Israeli forces for per week.

There was no fast remark from the army on both incident within the north.

Israel launched the marketing campaign after Hamas broke via its defenses and militants streamed into the south on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 folks and seizing about 240 others, of which about half stay in captivity. At least 105 Israeli troopers have died within the Gaza floor offensive, the military says.

Israel‘s blockade of the territory – and intense airstrikes and ground fighting that have made aid nearly impossible to distribute – have led to severe shortages of food, water and other basic goods. The offensive has resulted in the deaths of over 18,000 Palestinians, according to health officials. They do not give a breakdown of civilians and combatants but say roughly two-thirds of the dead are women and minors.

Israel blames civilian casualties on Hamas, saying it positions fighters, tunnels and rocket launchers in dense urban areas, using civilians as human shields.

The U.N. secretary-general and Arab states have rallied much of the international community behind calls for an immediate cease-fire. But the U.S. vetoed those efforts at the U.N. Security Council last week as it rushed tank munitions to Israel to allow it to maintain the offensive.

A nonbinding vote on a similar resolution at the General Assembly scheduled for Tuesday would be largely symbolic.

Israel and the U.S. argue that any cease-fire that leaves Hamas in power, even over a small part of the devastated territory, would mean victory for the militant group, which has governed Gaza since 2007 and has pledged to destroy Israel.

In a briefing with the AP on Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant signaled that the current phase of heavy ground fighting and airstrikes could stretch on for weeks and that further military activity could continue for months.

But many experts consider Israel‘s aims to be unrealistic, pointing to Hamas‘ deep base of support among many Palestinians in Gaza, as well as the occupied West Bank, who see it as resisting Israel‘s half-century of military rule.

Even just destroying Hamas‘ military capability “will be a tall order without decimating what remains of Gaza,” said the International Crisis Group, a think tank, in a report over the weekend that also called for an immediate cease-fire.

Israeli officials have said some 7,000 Hamas militants – roughly one-quarter of the group’s estimated preventing power – have been killed and that 500 militants have been detained in Gaza over the previous month. Hamas, which fired a barrage of rockets Monday that wounded one individual in a Tel Aviv suburb, says it nonetheless has 1000’s of reserve fighters. None of the claims might be verified.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah, in the meantime, has repeatedly traded hearth with Israel, and different Iran-backed teams throughout the area have attacked U.S. targets, threatening to widen the battle. Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, who’ve focused Israeli transport, attacked a tanker within the Red Sea with no clear ties to the nation in a single day.

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Shurafa reported from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press author Tia Goldenberg in Jerusalem contributed.