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DEIR EL-BALAH – Another 200,000 other people have fled northern Gaza since Nov. 5, the U.N. humanitarian place of work stated Tuesday, as Israeli floor forces fight Palestinian militants round hospitals the place sufferers, newborns and medics are stranded with out a electrical energy and dwindling provides.
The humanitarian place of work, referred to as OCHA, says just one health center in the north is able to receiving sufferers. All the others are not in a position to serve as and most commonly function shelters from the fighting, including Gaza’s largest, Shifa, which is surrounded by means of Israeli troops and the place 36 small children are prone to loss of life as a result of there’s no energy for incubators.
The conflict, now in its sixth week, was once precipitated by means of Hamas’ marvel assault into Israel, in which militants massacred hundreds of civilians and dragged some 240 hostages again to Gaza. Israel introduced heavy airstrikes for just about 3 weeks sooner than sending troops and tanks into the north. The conflict has killed hundreds of Palestinian civilians and wreaked in style destruction at the impoverished enclave.
Israel has suggested civilians to evacuate Gaza City and surrounding spaces in the north, however the southern a part of the besieged territory isn’t a lot more secure. Israel carries out widespread airstrikes from north to south, hitting what it says are militant objectives however regularly killing ladies and kids.
U.N.-run shelters in the south are seriously overcrowded, with a median of 1 bathroom for 160 other people. In all, some 1.5 million Palestinians, greater than two thirds of Gaza’s inhabitants, have fled their houses.
People stand in line for hours for scarce bread and brackish water. Trash is piling up, sewage is flooding the streets and faucets run dry as a result of there’s no gasoline for water pumps or remedy crops. Israel has barred gasoline imports for the reason that get started of the conflict, pronouncing Hamas would use it for army functions.
The onset of wet, chilly climate added to the distress. At a tent camp outdoor a health center in the central the city of Deir al-Balah, other people trudged thru dust as they stretched plastic tarps over flimsy tents.
“All of these tents collapsed because of the rain,” said Iqbal Abu Saud, who had fled Gaza City with 30 of her relatives. “How many days will we have to deal with this?”
The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, which is struggling to provide basic services to over 600,000 people sheltering in schools and other facilities in the south, said it may run out of fuel by Wednesday, forcing it to halt most aid operations. It said it was unable to continue importing limited supplies of food and medicine through Egypt’s Rafah crossing, Gaza’s only link to the outside world.
With Israeli forces fighting Palestinian militants in the center of Gaza City, both sides have seized on the plight of hospitals. Images of doctors trying to keep newborns warm at Shifa have circulated widely.
Israel accuses Hamas of using hospitals as cover for its fighters, alleging that Hamas has set up its main command center in and beneath Shifa, without providing visual evidence. Both Hamas and Shifa Hospital staff deny the Israeli allegations.
On Monday, the military released footage of a children’s hospital that its forces entered over the weekend, showing weapons it said it found inside, as well as rooms in the basement where it believes the militants were holding hostages. The video showed what appeared to be a hastily installed toilet and ventilation system, as well as a motorcycle with a bullet hole in it, in the basement.
The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza rejected the allegations, saying the basement shown was part of the hospital and had been turned into a shelter for displaced people.
“The hospital was forcefully evacuated at gunpoint … Why didn’t they detain any of the alleged resistance or alleged hostages?” the statement said. It denied the facility was related to a tunnel that Israeli forces uncovered nearby.
For weeks, Shifa staff members running low on supplies have performed surgery on war-wounded patients, including children, without anesthesia and using vinegar as antiseptic. After the weekend’s mass exodus, about 650 patients and 500 staff remain in the hospital, which can no longer function, along with around 2,500 displaced Palestinians sheltering inside with little food or water.
The Health Ministry said 32 patients, including three babies, have died since its emergency generator ran out of fuel Saturday. It said the 36 babies, as well as other patients, are at risk of dying.
Early Tuesday, the Israeli military said in a statement that it had started an effort to transfer incubators from Israel to Shifa. It wasn’t clear if the incubators had been delivered or how they will be powered.
International law gives hospitals special protections during war. Hospitals can lose those protections if combatants use them to hide fighters or store weapons, but staff and patients must be given plenty of warning to evacuate, and the harm to civilians cannot be disproportionate to the military objective.
The International Committee of the Red Cross tried Monday to evacuate some 6,000 people from another Gaza City hospital, Al-Quds, but said its convoy had to turn back because of shelling and fighting. Israel released a video showing what it said was a militant with a rocket-propelled grenade launcher entering Al-Quds Hospital. An Israeli tank was stationed nearby.
The U.S. has driven for brief pauses to permit wider distribution of badly wanted reduction. Israel has agreed only to daily windows right through which civilians can flee northern Gaza on foot alongside two major roads.
As of closing Friday, greater than 11,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of them ladies and minors, had been killed for the reason that conflict started, consistent with the Health Ministry in Gaza, which does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths. About 2,700 other people had been reported lacking.
Health officials have not updated the toll, citing the difficulty of collecting information.
At least 1,200 people have died on the Israeli side, mostly civilians killed in the initial Hamas attack. Palestinian militants. The military says 46 soldiers have been killed in ground operations in Gaza, and that thousands of militants have been killed.
About 250,000 Israelis have evacuated from communities near Gaza, where Palestinian militants still fire barrages of rockets, and along the northern border, where Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group have repeatedly traded fire since the start of the war.
The war has also fueled tensions in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. At least seven Palestinian were killed overnight during an Israeli raid in Tulkarem, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Tuesday. There was no immediate comment from the army. More than 190 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since Oct. 7, mainly during violent protests and gunfights sparked by arrest raids.
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Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Amy Teibel in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
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Full AP protection at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.
