As Israel’s renewed strikes kill hundreds in Gaza, a retired Israeli general says the assault will mean „more hostages dead,“ too.
Tel Aviv — For a second night in a row, Israel’s military launched airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, killing at least 13 more people by early Wednesday after more than 400 were killed the previous day, according to health officials in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory.
Israel’s military said it had targeted a Hamas military site in the enclave’s southern al-Mawasi humanitarian zone, near the border with Egypt. At least two civilians were among those killed Wednesday, according to the Red Crescent.
Separately, the United Nations agency UNOPS, which helps implement humanitarian, development and peacebuilding projects around the world, said Wednesday that one of its staffers had apparently been killed in a blast in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah.
„Reports are coming in that a UNOPS colleague has been killed in a detonation in Deir al Balah. It is understood that UNOPS accommodation was hit at approximately 11:30 a.m. this morning“, the agency said.
The statement from UNOPS came a couple hours after Israel’s military issued a statement denying reports that it had struck „a U.N. compound“ in Deir al-Balah, and adding a call for „media outlets to act with caution regarding unverified reports.“
The mounting deaths come after Israel definitively ended a two-month ceasefire with Hamas before dawn Tuesday, resuming full-scale military operations in Gaza and threatening to ramp up its assault further. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a national address Tuesday night, vowed more strikes to force Hamas to release all of the remaining 59 hostages held in Gaza, about two dozen of whom are still believed to be alive.
On Wednesday, Israel said it launched a „limited ground operation“ in northern Gaza to retake part of a corridor that bisects it, The Associated Press reported.
Even before Israel resumed military operations it had halted all humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza, drawing warnings from aid agencies and the United Nations that civilians would suffer unduly for the impasse in talks aimed at extending the ceasefire.“It would be a blessing if this kid passed“
Dr. Marc Perlmutter, an American surgeon who has been volunteering at the al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah, northern Gaza, told CBS News on Tuesday that the facility was struggling to cope with the influx of new patients wounded by Israel’s attacks, and that young Palestinians were among those with the worst injuries.
„The level of bodily damage that these children get in particular is insane.
