Jerusalem/Gaza City (EFE).- Gaza’s Civil Defense issued an “appeal to the world” early Saturday morning, warning that Gaza City was under “violent bombardment,” which has claimed about 60 lives throughout the day. It is one of the most violent attacks since Israel began its ground operation on Sep. 16.
Gazan journalists who collect data published an update Saturday afternoon, raising the death toll in Gaza City to 61.
Most of the victims, 33 and 28 respectively, arrived at Al-Shifa Hospital, the most important in the Strip, and Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, the last operational one in the eastern part of the capital. This area is the most vulnerable to the expansion of the Israeli ground offensive.
“A massacre”
Among the bodies collected at the Shifa morgue were those of the director of the center, Mohammed Abu Salmiya, and his three nephews.
The army bombed the family’s home in the Shati refugee camp, next to the beach, while the doctor was at the hospital.
“The ‘Israeli’ occupation destroyed my home and killed several members of my family without warning, with the intention of committing a massacre,” Abu Salmiya said in a statement.
“The world has decided to watch the genocide of millions of people without caring,” he added.
When asked by EFE about the attack on Abu Salmiya’s home, the Israel Defense Forces requested the coordinates and time of the attack to identify it. Since then, the military spokesman has not offered a response.
Another center that received several bodies was the Al Ahli Baptist Hospital. Doctor Issam Abu Ajwa stated that they are going through “one of their most difficult moments since the beginning of the war.”
On Saturday, the fighting in the capital involved artillery attacks, robots loaded with explosives in residential neighborhoods, and extensive aerial attacks to destroy large areas, as well as fire from Apache helicopters and drones.
“They want us to leave”
According to the Gaza Civil Defense, the attacks were carried out “indiscriminately” against civilian homes.
“My area is dangerous. It’s not easy to leave home. A drone will shoot at you immediately,” a Gazan Health Ministry official told EFE. He said he is locked in his home for fear of being shot. “They want us to leave.”
The IDF claimed to be “dismantling terrorist infrastructure,” including tunnel access hatches and booby-trapped structures, as well as “structures from which Hamas militants operated.”
In previous conversations with EFE, a military spokeswoman said the armed forces can consider civilian homes where suspected Hamas members gather as “terrorist infrastructure.”
Saturday’s military statement said that troops had found weapons and eliminated several Hamas militants of various ranks who were actively fighting against army troops in the area. The document did not give details about how many militants were killed.
On Tuesday, when Israel announced the beginning of the “initial phases” of its ground operation in the capital, an army official estimated that between 2,000 and 3,000 Hamas militants remained.
900,000 people remain in Gaza City
Residents of Gaza City view the bombardments as an attempt by the armed forces to push them into the Mawasi area in the south. The army has referred to this area as “humanitarian” in an effort to encourage evacuation.
On Saturday, the Hamas government in the Strip estimated that approximately 900,000 people remain in Gaza City and that 270,000 have left, which directly contradicts the army’s estimate of 480,000 forcibly displaced people.
A spokeswoman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) told EFE that the organization is still preparing its own count.
However, she noted that the UN agency has registered over 290,000 north-south movements, which do not necessarily equate to one movement per person.
Additionally, Gaza’s government reported that around 1 million people have gathered on the beaches of Mawasi and Khan Yunis. These are areas where the army is forcibly relocating people.
The area’s poor humanitarian conditions, including water shortages, overcrowding, and waste accumulation, have been denounced by international organizations.
These conditions have led approximately 22,000 residents of the capital to return, after trying to find shelter in the north, according to the government. EFE
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