The death toll from Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip continues to climb, with the Health Ministry there announcing that at least 1,100 Palestinians, including 326 children, have been killed in more than five days of Israeli bombardment of the besieged territory.
The Gaza Health Ministry said on Wednesday that at least 5,339 other there have also been wounded, with dozens of Palestinians losing their lives in fresh Israeli attacks on Gaza over the past few hours.
Israel kept pondering Gaza’s commercial zones, residential areas and refugee camps on Wednesday.
The official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported on Wednesday that the Israeli warplanes bombed residential apartments as well as a port in the west of Gaza City with a large number of rockets and shells.
The bombing destroyed a large number of buildings and set them on fire, leading to injuries among citizens who were transferred to al-Shifa Hospital west of the city.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said that four paramedics of the Palestinian Red Crescent were killed in Israeli airstrikes. The humanitarian organization said that three of them died when a strike “directly targeted an ambulance” of the Red Crescent north of Gaza, and the fourth in a separate strike in the east of the besieged territory.
The United Nations humanitarian relief agency that operates in the Gaza Strip said Wednesday that 11 of its workers had been killed by Israeli airstrikes on the densely packed Palestinian territory since Saturday.
“We are very saddened to confirm that 11 UNRWA colleagues have been killed since October 7 in the Gaza Strip,” the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), said in a statement.
It added that they included five teachers at UNRWA schools, one gynecologist, one engineer, one psychological counselor and three support staff.
“Some were killed in their homes with their families. UNRWA mourns this loss and is grieving with our colleagues and the families,” it said.
According to UNRWA, at least 20 of its facilities in Gaza had been damaged by the strikes, including two schools.
Elsewhere in the statement, UNRWA also said nearly 175,500 internally displaced people were sheltering in 88 of its schools across Gaza.
“The numbers continue to increase as airstrikes continue from the Israeli Air Forces,” it said. “UNRWA staff are working around the clock to respond to the needs of the displaced in the shelters. However, some are overcrowded and have limited availability of food, other basic items and potable water.”
Gaza hospitals overwhelmed, power plant shuts down
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders, warned on Wednesday that hospitals across Gaza are overwhelmed and experiencing shortages of drugs, medical supplies and electricity.
In a statement, Avril Benoît, executive director of MSF-USA, said the aid agency was “seeing shortages of water, electricity, and fuel, which hospitals rely on for their generators.”
Gaza is under full Israeli siege and now the only power plant there has shut down due to fuel outage. According to health authorities, overwhelmed hospitals without electricity will have to rely on their emergency generators, which will only last two to four days.
Hassan Khalaf, the medical director of al-Wafa Hospital in Gaza City, said there are currently 100 newborn babies relying on medical equipment currently in Gaza.
“These newborns, they could not survive … because they depend in every aspect of life on electricity and equipment,” he said. “They are very tiny. They are very weak.”
The doctor also said there were about 1,100 patients who rely on dialysis machines for survival in Gaza, saying the Israeli siege amounts to “mass killing.”
Israel has stepped up its aerial offensive in Gaza in recent days, leaving hundreds of thousands displaced, many cut off from food and electricity.
Israel forcibly expels hundreds of Gaza workers
Thousands of Gaza workers were forcibly expelled from their workplaces across the occupied territories. Around 600 workers carrying bags arrived in Ramallah from their workplace after Israeli forces transported them to checkpoints in the West Bank early Wednesday.
The number of workers seeking aid continued to rise, with more individuals arriving at the temporary shelter.
Palestinian envoy to UN censures Israel’s deadly campaign
Palestinian Ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour, in a letter to the UN Security Council, has lashed out at Israel for its deadly campaign against the Gaza Strip and the regime’s decision to impose a complete siege on the territory.
On Monday, Israel declared its decision to impose a complete siege on Gaza, cutting off the supply of electricity, food, fuel and water. The move that could leave the territory on the brink of a new humanitarian crisis has drawn international condemnations.
The UN says depriving civilians of goods essential for survival is banned under international law.
The European Union has also criticized Israel’s move as a collective punishment against all Palestinians.
Iraqi groups warn US against involvement in war on Gaza
Iraqi resistance groups have warned the United States against any engagement in the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza.
Iraq’s Hezbollah Brigades, also known as Kata’ib Hezbollah, said that it will hit US bases and Israeli positions if Washington gets involved in the Gaza war.
The group added that its forces, drones and missiles are fully prepared to retaliate.
Meanwhile, the al-Nujaba movement issued a similar warning, promising a decisive military response in case the US or any other country gets involved in the conflict against the Palestinian nation.
Putin accuses US of inflaming tensions in West Asia region
Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the US of inflaming tensions in West Asia by sending an aircraft carrier group to the region.
Putin called the move a mistake that only exacerbates the situation.
He also blamed the violence in Palestine on Washington, describing it as a blatant example of the failure of US policy in the region.
Washington has announced plans to move a carrier strike group closer to Israel to support the regime.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also warned Washington’s move would risk massacre of Palestinians.
Turkey’s Erdogan calls Israeli raids on Gaza ‘massacre’
Erdogan said on Wednesday that Israel’s blockade and bombing of Gaza was a disproportionate response amounting to “massacre.”
Speaking to his ruling AK Party in parliament, Erdogan said even war had a “morality” but the flare-up since the weekend had “very severely” violated that.
“Preventing people [from] meeting their most fundamental needs and bombing housings where civilians live – in short, conducting a conflict using every sort of shameful method – is not a war, it’s a massacre,” he said, referring to Israel cutting off electricity and water to Gaza and destroying infrastructure.
Erdogan has also said that Israel was trying to portray bombing civilians as a proof of its skills.
The Turkish president’s comments come as Israel is massing troops and tanks near the fence that separates the besieged Gaza Strip from the occupied territories to get ready for a ground invasion.
Over two million Palestinians are trapped in the Gaza Strip which is known as the world’s biggest open air prison.
The Israeli regime launched its onslaught on Saturday after Gaza-based resistance groups carried out a multi-front operation in response to Israeli crimes.
According to media, the operation has left 1,200 Israelis dead and nearly 3,000 others injured.
UN Chief Antonio Guterres has already expressed concern over the situation in Gaza, saying the clashes will deteriorate the situation exponentially. He said he was “deeply distressed” by an announcement that Israel will initiate a complete siege of Gaza.
