GAZA STRIP: Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes overnight and early on Sunday killed at least 28 Palestinians, including at one family’s home and at a school building.

There was no let-up in the violence in the Gaza Strip even as Palestinian groups involved in the fighting said a ceasefire deal was “closer than ever”.

Israel has faced growing criticism of its actions during the conflict, including from rights groups accusing it of “acts of genocide” which the Israeli government strongly denies.

Civil agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said that at least 13 people were killed in an air strike on a house in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah belonging to the Abu Samra family.

Hours after the strike, a photographer saw residents searching through the debris for survivors, while others looked for belongings they could salvage.

In a nearby compound, bodies covered in blankets were laid on the floor.

Medics struggle to rescue patients after Israel orders hospital evacuation

Bassal said that eight people including four children were killed in the attack on the school, which had been repurposed as a shelter for Palestinians displaced by the Israeli aggression

A military statement said that a Hamas “command and control centre… was embedded inside” the school compound in the city’s east, adding that it was used “to plan and execute terrorist attacks” against Israeli forces.

Images showed the damaged school building where mangled concrete slabs and iron beams lay strewn amid patches of blood.

Bassal said in a statement that an overnight strike killed three people in Rafah, in the south. And a drone strike early on Sunday hit a car in Gaza City, killing four people, the spokesman added.

An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman hit back at the pontiff’s comments, saying they were “particularly disappointing” and showed “double standards”, singling out Israel for criticism.

The remarks were “disconnected from the true and factual context of Israel’s fight against jihadist terrorism”, the spokesman said.

Hospital evacuated

Israel ordered the closure and evacuation on Sunday of one of the last hospitals still partly functioning in a besieged area on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip, forcing medics to search for a way to bring hundreds of patients and staff to safety.

The head of the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya, Husam Abu Safiya, said that obeying the order to shut down was “next to impossible” because there were not enough ambulances to get patients out.

“We currently have nearly 400 civilians inside the hospital, including babies in the neonatal unit, whose lives depend on oxygen and incubators. We cannot evacuate these patients safely without assistance, equipment, and time,” said Abu Safiya.

“We are sending this message under heavy bombardment and direct targeting of the fuel tanks, which if hit will cause a large explosion and mass casualties of the civilians inside,” he said.

The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment on Abu Safiya’s remarks.

On Friday it said it had sent fuel and food supplies to the hospital and helped evacuate more than 100 patients and caregivers to other Gaza hospitals, some in coordination with the Red Cross, for their own safety.

The hospital is one of the only ones still partially functioning in the once crowded northern edge of Gaza, an area under intense Israeli military pressure for nearly three months in one of the most punishing operations.

Abu Safiya said the military had ordered patients and staff to be evacuated to another hospital where conditions are even worse. Photos from inside the hospital showed patients on beds crammed into corridors to keep them away from windows.

Palestinians accuse Israel of seeking to permanently depopulate the area to create a buffer zone, which Israel denies.

Mediators have stepped up efforts in recent weeks to secure a ceasefire in Gaza after months when talks were frozen.

Sources close to the discussions said that Qatar and Egypt had been able to resolve some differences between the warring parties but sticking points remained.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2024