Israel wipes out refugee camp as bombing toll exceeds over 9,000

WASHINGTON/Rafah, Palestinian Territories: Hundreds of more foreigners and dual nationals fled war-torn Gaza for Egypt Thursday as Israeli forces bombarded and fought ground battles in the besieged Palestinian territory, where at least 9,061 have died.

Ground battles flared again overnight in northern Gaza as Israeli troops have sought to destroy Hamas. The Israeli army chief of staff, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, said troops were inside Gaza, besieging Gaza City and “deepening infiltration” of Hamas-held areas. “The concept of a ceasefire is not currently on the table at all,” he added.

The Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, warned Israel its invading soldiers would go home “in black bags”. Spokesman Abu Obeida said: “Gaza will be the curse of history for Israel.” The Hamas warning came after Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said troops had completely surrounded Gaza City after days of expanding ground operations.

The Israeli army is also seeking to free around 240 hostages, both civilians and troops. Some 332 soldiers have already died in the October 7 attacks and in the Israeli offensive. Now gruelling urban warfare lies ahead deeper inside Gaza, where Hamas is fighting from a tunnel network spanning hundreds of kilometres. There are five different battles taking place in the Gaza Strip in the north and around Gaza City. The biggest is in the north-west of the strip, where “very few” people remain. Hamas says they are using anti-tank missiles and engaging in gun battles. Last night saw heavy fighting, and heavy air strikes, including near two hospitals.

Global concern has risen sharply over Israel’s response, in which the army says it has struck more than 12,000 targets so far. The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 9,061 people have died, mostly women and children. Israel’s defence minister said the Israeli military has dropped more than 10,000 munitions on Gaza City alone since the start of the current conflict. Israel said the number of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza has risen to 242 in the most recent calculations, up from 240.

Special concern has focused on repeated heavy strikes on Gaza’s largest refugee camp -- densely populated Jabalia, north of Gaza City -- where explosions brought down residential buildings. Gaza’s Hamas-ruled government said 195 were killed in two days of Israeli strikes on Jabalia, with hundreds more missing and wounded. The round of strikes that began Wednesday evening continued into Thursday morning, medical officials and relief workers told CNN.

Israeli bombing has killed at least 29 people and injured dozens more in the third attack on Jabalia refugee camp in as many days; at least 15 people have been killed in an attack on the Bureij refugee camp. The UN says four of its schools, housing 20,000, in Gaza being used as shelters have been damaged in less than 24 hours. The agency said one was damaged at the Jabalia refugee camp, the largest in the Gaza Strip, another school at Beach, or Al-Shati, refugee camp, leaving 20 dead.

It added: “Further south, two schools-turned-shelters in the Al Bureij Refugee Camp were hit.”

AFP has witnessed rescuers desperately clawing through the rubble and twisted metal in frantic attempts to bring out survivors and bodies. The wounded were rushed away by cart, motorcycle and ambulance as anguished wails and blaring sirens filled the dusty air. But Gaza’s hospitals have been overwhelmed and run short of medical supplies and even electricity. Israeli forces dropped munition containing white phosphorus on a UN school sheltering thousands of displaced Palestinians in Gaza, Al Jazeera said.

US President Joe Biden believes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has only a few months left in office, current and former US officials told Politico. According to the report, Biden told Netanyahu personally that he should think about “lessons” that he could share with his successor. “There’s going to have to be a reckoning within Israeli society about what happened,†said the official.

Outside the Al-Quds hospital in Gaza City, displaced residents seeking shelter from Israeli strikes told AFP that civilians would not withstand the barrage much longer. In embattled Gaza, more than 20,000 people are wounded, according to aid group Doctors Without Borders.

Violence has also flared in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where more than 130 Palestinians have died since October 7, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Three Palestinians were killed Thursday by Israeli fire in the West Bank, the ministry said, and an Israeli was killed in a Palestinian shooting attack, according to first responders. Israeli settlers attacked and set ablaze shops and cars in Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah said it attacked 19 Israeli positions along the border simultaneously, prompting a “broad” retaliatory assault, on the eve of a speech by the Iran-backed group’s leader on the Israel-Hamas war. Another barrage of rockets wounded two people in the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona near the Lebanese border, Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency medical service said. Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah is set to speak Friday for the first time since the Israel-Hamas war broke out. Yemen’s Houthi rebels also promised to keep up operations against Israel until the country’s aggression against the Gaza Strip stopped.

Bahrain has cut economic relations with Israel and recalled its ambassador in Tel Aviv, according to media reports. The Bahraini parliament also confirmed the Israeli ambassador in Manama had left the country, citing the “escalating aggression” against Gaza as the reason behind the decision.

Egypt said it eventually plans to help evacuate 7,000 foreigners through the Rafah crossing. The health ministry in Cairo said 21 wounded Palestinians and “344 foreign nationals, including 72 children” passed through the Rafah border crossing on only the second day it has opened for people to leave Gaza in nearly four weeks of fighting. A list of those approved to travel shows hundreds of US citizens and 50 Belgians along with smaller numbers from various European, Arab, Asian and African countries.

The evacuations come as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken set off for his second trip to the Middle East. He will spend Friday in Israel before a trip to Jordan, The New York Times reported. The top US diplomat is expected to push for “a series of brief cessations of military operations in Gaza†in meetings with Netanyahu and other Israeli government officials. Washington has continued to refuse to back calls for an outright ceasefire in Gaza, arguing that such a move would benefit Hamas.

Russia’s representative to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzya told the emergency special session of the General Assembly, that the United Nations does not have the right to give Israel an absolute mandate to carry out a ground operation in Gaza. “The only thing they can muster is continued pronouncements about Israel’s supposed right to self-defence, although as an occupying power, it does not have that power as confirmed by the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice handed down in 2004,†he explained.