Israeli troops surround Gaza City and cut off northern part of the besieged Hamas-ruled territory

DEIR EL-BALAH – Israeli troops early Monday had surrounded Gaza City and cut off the northern part of the besieged Hamas-ruled territory as communications misplaced for a number of hours throughout Gaza in a single day have been being restored.

Troops are anticipated to go into the town Monday or Tuesday, Israeli media reported, and militants who’ve ready for years are anticipated to combat side road via side road using a vast network of tunnels. Casualties will most probably upward push on all sides in the month-old conflict, which has already killed greater than 9,700 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Some 1.5 million Palestinians, or round 70% of the inhabitants, have fled their houses since the conflict started with a bloody Hamas incursion into Israel that killed greater than 1,400 folks, most commonly civilians. Food, drugs, gasoline and water are working low, and U.N.-run schools-turned-shelters are past capability, with many sound asleep on the streets out of doors.

Israel has to this point rejected U.S. suggestions for a pause in combating to facilitate humanitarian help deliveries and the liberate of some of the estimated 240 captives seized via Hamas in its Oct. 7 raid. Israel has additionally pushed aside requires a broader cease-fire from increasingly more alarmed Arab nations — together with Jordan and Egypt, which made peace with it a long time in the past.

In any other signal of widening unrest, a Palestinian guy stabbed and wounded two individuals of Israel’s paramilitary Border Police in east Jerusalem sooner than being shot lifeless, consistent with police and an Associated Press reporter at the scene.

Israel captured east Jerusalem, at the side of Gaza and the West Bank, in the 1967 Mideast conflict. The Palestinians need all 3 territories for a long run state. Israel annexed east Jerusalem in a transfer now not known via maximum of the global group and considers the complete town its capital.

A Jordanian army shipment aircraft air-dropped scientific help to a box health facility in northern Gaza, King Abdullah II mentioned early Monday. It seemed to be the first such airdrop of the conflict, elevating the risk of any other road for help supply but even so Egypt’s Rafah crossing with Gaza.

The scenario stays dire in the north. Some 800,000 folks have heeded Israeli army orders to escape to southern Gaza, even if Israel had persevered airstrikes in the house. Strikes in central and southern Gaza — the purported secure zone — killed a minimum of 53 folks on Sunday.

Hundreds of hundreds stay in Gaza City and different portions of the north. Some 2,000 folks, many sporting handiest what they might hang of their fingers, walked down Gaza’s primary north-south freeway on Sunday all through an hourslong window by which the army had inspired them to escape.

One guy mentioned they walked 500 meters (yards) with their fingers raised whilst passing Israeli troops. Another described seeing our bodies alongside the highway. “The children saw tanks for the first time. Oh world, have mercy on us,” mentioned one Palestinian guy, who declined to present his identify.

A majority of Gaza’s inhabitants are the descendants of Palestinian refugees who fled or have been pushed out of Israel all through the 1948 conflict surrounding its introduction. Palestinians seek advice from their exodus as the Nakba, or disaster, and many fear a repeat as masses of hundreds are displaced via the newest conflict.

The Israeli army mentioned past due Sunday that it had severed northern Gaza from the south, calling it a “significant stage” in the conflict. It mentioned a one-way hall for citizens to escape south would stay to be had.

The army says 30 troops had been killed since the flooring offensive started over per week in the past. Palestinian militants have persevered firing rockets into Israel, disrupting day-to-day lifestyles at the same time as maximum are intercepted or fall in open spaces. Tens of hundreds of Israelis have evacuated from communities close to the unstable borders with Gaza and Lebanon.

The army mentioned Monday that airplane struck 450 objectives in a single day and took over a Hamas compound. It additionally mentioned it had killed a senior Hamas militant, known as Jamal Mussa, who had allegedly performed a taking pictures assault towards Israeli infantrymen in Gaza in 1993.

Communications in Gaza went down past due Sunday for the 3rd time in the conflict, consistent with the web get right of entry to advocacy crew NetBlocks.org and the Palestinian telecom corporate Paltel. Aid employees say the outages make it even more difficult for civilians to hunt protection and even name ambulances.

The first Gaza outage lasted 36 hours, coinciding with the flooring invasion, and the 2nd one for a couple of hours. Paltel and NetBlocks mentioned cell phone and web provider used to be restored on Monday.

Food, water and the gasoline wanted for turbines that energy hospitals are working low. Gaza’s sole energy station used to be compelled to close down in a while after the conflict broke out and Israel has allowed no gasoline to go into, announcing Hamas would scouse borrow it for army functions.

Northern Gaza is going through a critical water scarcity, as there’s no gasoline to pump from municipal wells and Israel close off the area’s primary line. The U.N. place of job for humanitarian affairs mentioned seven water amenities throughout Gaza have been struck over the ultimate two days and sustained “major damage,” elevating the chance of sewage flooding. Israel has restored two water pipelines in central and southern Gaza, the U.N. mentioned.

Over 450 vans sporting meals, water, drugs and different elementary help had been allowed to go into Gaza from Egypt since Oct. 21, however help employees say it’s inadequate to satisfy mounting wishes in the territory, which is house to a few 2.3 million Palestinians.

The conflict has stoked wider tensions, with Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant crew trading fire alongside the border.

Four civilians were killed via an Israeli airstrike in south Lebanon past due Sunday, together with 3 kids, a neighborhood civil protection legit and state-run media reported. The Israeli army mentioned it had attacked Hezbollah objectives in keeping with anti-tank hearth that killed an Israeli civilian. Hezbollah mentioned it fired Grad rockets from southern Lebanon into Israel in reaction.

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Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press reporters Najib Jobain in Khan Younis, Amy Teibel and Sam McNeil in Jerusalem, and Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed to this document.

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Full AP protection at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war