KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip. Israel intensified its bombardment of the Gaza Strip early Friday, targeting areas where Palestinians had been instructed to seek safety. Concurrently, Israel initiated the evacuation of a significant Israeli town near the Lebanon border, hinting at a possible ground invasion of Gaza, which has the potential to ignite regional instability.
During the ongoing conflict, Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, stated to lawmakers that the country had no intention of assuming long-term control over civilian life in Gaza after its war against the Hamas militant group. Gallant revealed a three-phase approach, beginning with airstrikes and ground maneuvers, followed by neutralizing pockets of resistance, and ultimately relinquishing Israel’s “responsibility for life in the Gaza Strip.”
Palestinians in Gaza reported heavy airstrikes in Khan Younis, a town in the southern region of the territory. Nasser Hospital, Gaza’s second-largest, was already overwhelmed with patients and shelter-seekers. The Israeli military claimed to have struck over 100 targets across Gaza linked to Hamas, including tunnels and arms depots.
On Thursday, Gallant had ordered ground troops to prepare for a potential ground offensive against Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers, following their bloody incursion into Israel nearly two weeks ago. However, Israeli officials have not disclosed a specific timeline for such an operation.
The conflict has displaced over a million people in Gaza, with many adhering to Israel’s evacuation orders for the northern part of the sealed-off enclave. However, Israeli military spokesman Nir Dinar clarified on Friday that there were “no safe zones” in Gaza, despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s earlier characterization of areas in southern Gaza as such.
UN officials noted that due to the extensive bombings across Gaza, some Palestinians who had initially fled the north were returning. Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN human rights office, stated that “the strikes, coupled with extremely difficult living conditions in the south, appear to have pushed some to return to the north, despite the continuing heavy bombing there.”
Gaza’s overwhelmed hospitals are rationing medical supplies and fuel for generators, while working on logistics for a much-needed aid delivery from Egypt. Doctors are performing surgeries using the light of mobile phones, and vinegar is being used to treat infected wounds in darkened hospital wards.
The agreement to allow aid into Gaza through the only entry point not controlled by Israel remained precarious. Israel stipulated that the supplies must go to civilians and warned of thwarting any diversions by Hamas. Over 200 trucks carrying some 3,000 tons of aid were positioned at or near the crossing in Rafah, which straddles northern Egypt and southern Gaza.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited the crossing on Friday and appealed for the swift movement of aid into Gaza, emphasizing that it could be “the difference between life and death.”
Israel has evacuated its communities near Gaza and Lebanon, accommodating residents in hotels elsewhere in the country. On Friday, the Defense Ministry announced evacuation plans for Kiryat Shmona, a town with over 20,000 residents near the Lebanese border. Three Israelis, including a 5-year-old girl, were wounded in a rocket attack there on Thursday.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, with a significant arsenal of long-range rockets, has been engaging in near-daily border skirmishes with Israel and hinted at joining the conflict if Israel seeks to annihilate Hamas. Iran supports both Hamas and Hezbollah.
The violence in Gaza has triggered protests across the region, including in Arab countries allied with the U.S., and these demonstrations could reignite following Friday’s weekly Muslim prayers.
In an address from the Oval Office on Thursday, U.S. President Joe Biden reaffirmed unwavering support for Israel’s security while acknowledging the plight of innocent Palestinians in Gaza. He linked the current war in Gaza to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, stating that both Hamas and Russian President Vladimir Putin aim to “completely annihilate a neighboring democracy.” Biden announced plans to submit an “urgent budget request” to Congress to provide emergency military aid to both Israel and Ukraine.
An unclassified U.S. intelligence assessment delivered to Congress estimated casualties in an explosion at a Gaza City hospital earlier this week to be between 100 to 300 deaths on the “low end.” The report emphasized that this death toll still represented a significant loss of life and noted that intelligence officials were continuing to assess the evidence, which might lead to a revised casualty estimate. The cause of the explosion at the al-Ahli hospital has been a point of contention, with Israel asserting that it was not the result of an Israeli airstrike.
A Greek Orthodox church, housing displaced Palestinians near the hospital, was also hit by an Israeli airstrike late Thursday. Israel claimed it was targeting a nearby Hamas command and control center, which caused damage to a church wall. Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry reported the death of 16 Palestinian Christians.
The Greek Orthodox Patriarchy of Jerusalem condemned the attack and vowed not to abandon its religious and humanitarian duties to provide assistance.
The conflict between Israel and Gaza has been marked by relentless Israeli airstrikes in response to a Hamas attack on October 7. Palestinian militants have launched over 6,900 rocket attacks into Israel, while tensions have escalated in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The Gaza Health Ministry reported that since the conflict began, 4,137 people in Gaza have been killed, with the majority being women, children, and older adults. Over 13,000 people have been injured, and approximately 1,300 are believed to be trapped under the rubble.
In Israel, more than 1,400 people have been killed, mostly civilians during Hamas’ incursion, with roughly 200 others abducted. On Thursday, the Israeli military announced that it had notified the families of 203 captives.
In a fiery speech to Israeli infantry soldiers on the Gaza border, Defense Minister Gallant called on them to “be ready” to move in. Israel has activated approximately 360,000 reserves and deployed tens of thousands of troops along the Gaza border. Gallant expressed the determination to “destroy them,” referring to Hamas, though the timeframe for such an operation remains uncertain.
With supplies running low due to a complete Israeli blockade, some Gaza residents are down to one meal a day and drinking contaminated water. Negotiations between Egypt and Israel to allow fuel for hospitals into Gaza were still in progress. Israel expressed concerns that Hamas might siphon off fuel from UN facilities, and it is seeking assurances that this won’t occur.
Gaza’s sole power plant has been offline for a week, forcing Palestinians to rely on generators, and no fuel has been delivered since the start of the war. A donation from a UN agency to Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, the largest in the territory, was expected to provide a few more hours of power to sustain critical operations.
Si Venus L Peñaflor ay naging editor-in-chief ng Newsworld, isang lokal na pahayagan ng Laguna. Publisher din siya ng Daystar Gazette at Tutubi News Magazine. Siya ay isa ring pintor at doll face designer ng Ninay Dolls, ang unang Manikang Pilipino. Kasali siya sa DesignCrowd sa rank na #305 sa 640,000 graphic designers sa buong daigdig. Kasama din siya sa unang Local TV Broadcast sa Laguna na Beyond Manila. Aktibong kasapi siya ng San Pablo Jaycees Senate bilang isang JCI Senator.
