The Palestine Red Crescent Society says Israeli attacks near al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City are causing “fear and panic” among displaced civilians and health workers. Hamas has said its fighters in Gaza fired anti-tank missiles at Israel’s invading forces early on Tuesday and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed calls for a halt to fighting that has deepened the Palestinian enclave’s humanitarian crisis. According to international media reports, Al-Qassam brigades said fighters clashed early on Tuesday with Israeli forces “invading the southern Gaza axis, (including) with machine guns, and targeted four vehicles with al-Yassin 105 missiles’, referring to locally produced anti-tank missiles. The fighters also targeted two Israeli tanks and bulldozers in northwest Gaza with the missiles, al-Qassam said. Gaza health authorities say that 8,306 people, including 3,457 minors, have been martyred in Israeli attacks since Oct. 7. U.N. officials say more than 1.4 million of Gaza’s civilian population of about 2.3 million have been made homeless. Netanyahu said late on Monday that Israel would not agree to a cessation of hostilities with Hamas in Gaza and would press ahead with its plans to wipe out the group. Israel’s military said it struck more than 600 targets in recent days in Gaza, where Palestinian civilians are in dire need of fuel, food and clean water. The U.N. humanitarian office (OCHA) said that water supply through a pipeline from Israel to southern Gaza was cut off on Monday “for unknown reasons”, and that an announced repair of another pipeline to central Gaza did not take place.
Civilians in Gaza pay heavy price as Israel strikes from above and below
