Civilian Suffering in Gaza Intensifies Amid Israeli Military Operation

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Israel’s military operation close to “dismantling” Hamas, expanding Gaza operations

Palestinians walk through the rubble of buildings destroyed during an Israeli airstrike in El-Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip

Israel’s top general declared that the army was “close to dismantling” the Hamas military operation in the northern Gaza Strip, suggesting that military operations will soon expand to areas where hundreds are sheltering of thousands of civilians.

The news comes as the air force dropped leaflets near the town of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, a region that Israel had telegraphed in recent weeks as relatively safer as airstrikes and fighting raged in the north. Speaking to troops late Thursday, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said there was still “work to be completed” in the north, but that military activity would then spread to “more and more regions,” suggesting that the Israel Defense Forces are preparing to move ground forces to the southern part of Gaza.

Halevi on Friday echoed the head of the National Security Council, Tzachi Hanegbi, who warned that the recent operations were “just the beginning,” adding that “we will not stop until all the military and control capabilities of Hamas and the Jihad “Islamic be neutralized.”

Al Jazeera reported that fighting continued around Al Shifa hospital, the largest in Gaza. Israeli troops stormed the facility Tuesday night after weeks in which the military had maintained it was the “beating heart” of Hamas operations in the Gaza Strip.

So far, Israeli officials have presented little evidence to confirm that claim, other than some weapons and images of a large hole in the hospital complex that they claim is the entrance to a tunnel used by militants.

The image that the hospital doctors offer is one of terror and deprivation. Muhammad Abu Salmiya, director of the hospital, told Al Jazeera that patients in the intensive care unit had died and that thousands more wounded, displaced civilians and hospital staff were at risk of “extermination.” The Washington Post was unable to verify these claims.

The IDF said operations in the area were “ongoing” but that operational security prevented it from sharing details at the moment.

The Gaza Strip had already run out of its meager aid supply after the United Nations said fuel shortages and communications outages had made it impossible to coordinate humanitarian convoys, and the agency warned of risks of starvation or malnutrition was increasing throughout the territory.

After 16 years of Israeli and Egyptian blockade, Gazans were almost entirely dependent on humanitarian aid before the conflict began on October 7 with a deadly incursion by Hamas fighters into Israel.

Fuel shortages have intensified suffering in Gaza at almost every level: The main power plant has gone dark and backup generators are out of diesel, leaving many hospitals out of service. The communications network suffers an almost total blackout. Earlier this week, WFP confirmed that the last bakery it supported had closed due to lack of fuel, causing the same bread shortages that are occurring in the other 130 bakeries in Gaza.

UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, which coordinates the humanitarian response inside Gaza, said on Wednesday it had received some 23,000 liters of fuel, the equivalent of half a tanker truck, the first such shipment that Israel has allowed to cross the Egyptian border with Gaza since the beginning of the war.

The initial delivery allowed UNRWA to move some trucks with humanitarian aid across the border from Egypt to Gaza on Thursday. On Friday, the Israeli cabinet announced that it had approved the entry of 60,000 liters of fuel for use by the United Nations in order to restore the functioning of sewage and water facilities.

“It’s extremely difficult when you don’t have phones, when you don’t have internet. We can’t coordinate. We are losing contact with the vast majority of our staff on the ground,” said UNWRA spokesperson Juliette Touma. She was able to contact the director of the agency’s Gaza office on Friday morning via satellite phone, she said. But without normal functioning communication networks, the agency cannot deliver aid, she said.

The lack of communications has also paralyzed the Gaza Health Ministry’s efforts to count Palestinian victims of Israeli military action. The Palestinian death toll stood at 11,100 last weekend, but Health Ministry figures have not been updated in the last week.

The Hamas attack on Israeli border communities that sparked the war killed 1,200 people inside Israel, and another 200 were taken to Gaza as hostages. The IDF said Friday that the bodies of two of those hostages were found in buildings near the hospital.

Israeli troops found the body of 19-year-old Corporal Noa Marcian, and her funeral took place on Friday. On Thursday, the body of Yehudit Weiss, a 65-year-old woman who had been taken hostage at the Be’eri kibbutz, was recovered.

“We share the family’s pain,” said Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces.

Israel’s military operation in Gaza has raised tensions across the region. The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and the IDF trade cross-border attacks and Iran-linked militants in Iraq and Syria attack facilities linked to the US-backed military coalition in those two countries in response to Washington’s strong support for Israel.