Palestinians Say 100,000 Residents Trapped in Israel's North Gaza Offensive
Residents say Israeli forces were besieging shelters housing displaced families, rounding up men and pushing women and children to leave the area. Only a few families headed to southern Gaza as the majority preferred to relocate temporarily in Gaza City, fearing they could otherwise never regain access to their homes
Israeli tanks thrust deeper on Monday into two north Gaza towns and a historic refugee camp, trapping around 100,000 civilians, the Palestinian emergency service said, in what the military said were operations to eliminate regrouping Hamas militants.
The Israeli military said soldiers captured around 100 suspected Hamas militants in a raid into Kamal Adwan Hospital in the Jabalya camp. Hamas and medics have denied any militant presence at the hospital.
The Gaza Strip's health ministry said at least 19 people were killed by Israeli airstrikes and bombardment on Monday, 13 of them in the north of the devastated coastal territory.
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The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said around 100,000 people were marooned in Jabalya, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun without medical or food supplies. Reuters could not verify the number independently.
The Israeli military has called on Palestinians to evacuate northern Gaza, where it has been waging a large offensive for more than three weeks.
According to IDF information, around 50,000 Palestinian civilians have left Jabalya and the surrounding area, mainly for Gaza City.
The emergency service said its operations had come to a halt because of the three-week Israeli assault into the north, an area where the military said it had wiped out Hamas combat forces earlier in the year-long war.
North Gaza's three hospitals, where officials refused Israel's orders to evacuate, said they were hardly operating. At least two had been damaged by Israeli fire during the assault and run out of medical, food and fuel stocks.
At least one doctor, a nurse and two child patients had died in those hospitals due to a lack of treatment in the past week.
On Monday, the Gaza health ministry said there was only one of roughly 70 medical staff - a pediatrician - left at Kamal Adwan Hospital after Israel "detained and expelled" the others.
North Gaza residents said Israeli forces were besieging schools and other shelters housing displaced families, ordering them out before rounding up men and pushing women and children to leave the area for Gaza City and points in the south.
Only a few families headed to southern Gaza as the majority preferred to relocate temporarily in Gaza City, fearing they could otherwise never regain access to their homes.
Some said they had written their death notices in case they died from the constant bombardment, saying they would prefer death to displacement.
"While the world is busy with Lebanon and new nonsense talk about a few days of cease-fire (in Gaza), the Israeli occupation is wiping out north Gaza and displacing its people," a resident of Jabalya told Reuters by a chat app.
The Israeli military says its forces operate in keeping with international law and accuses militants of hiding fighters and weaponry in civilian areas including hospitals and schools, a charge Hamas denies.