May 18, 2024
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Palestinians living in the heart of Gaza’s largest city said Wednesday they could see and hear Israeli ground forces closing in from multiple directions, accelerating the exodus of thousands of civilians as food and water become scarce and urban fighting between Israel and Hamas heats up.
The Israeli army has not given specifics on troop movements as it presses its ground assault, vowing to crush Hamas after its deadly Oct. 7 assault inside Israel. But residents said Israeli forces had moved into inner neighborhoods of Gaza City amid intense bombardment all around the surrounding north.
Clashes took place within a mile of the territory's largest hospital, Shifa, which has become a focal point in the war.
The Israeli military says Hamas’ main command center is located in and under the hospital complex and that senior leaders of the group are hiding there, accusing the militants of using the facility as a shield.
The Group of Seven wealthy industrial nations issued a statement Wednesday condemning Hamas and supporting Israel’s right to self-defense. But the group also called for the “unimpeded” delivery of food, water, medicine and fuel, and for “humanitarian pauses” in the fighting.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has left open the possibility of small pauses to deliver aid, but has ruled out a broader cease-fire unless nearly 240 hostages taken by Hamas are freed.
“There are no limitations” on how long the war will last, Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s decision-making War Cabinet, said Wednesday.
Gantz acknowledged that Israel does not yet have a vision for the Gaza Strip after it destroys Hamas rule, but it will include an Israeli security presence in the territory after the war — a point that echoed comments made by Netanyahu earlier this week.
Support for the war remains strong inside Israel, where the focus has been on the fate of the more than 240 hostages taken by Hamas and other militant groups.
Over 70% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have already left their homes since the war began but the number fleeing the north has dramatically accelerated.
Throngs of people filled Salah al-Din Street, Gaza’s main highway leading south. They appeared to be in greater numbers than Tuesday, when the U.N. said about 15,000 people streamed southward -- which in turn was triple the number the day before.
Israeli forces advancing from the northwest along the Mediterranean coast have been clashing with fighters inside Shati refugee camp, a dense neighborhood adjacent to Gaza City’s center, two residents told The Associated Press.
The Israeli army’s chief spokesperson, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said Wednesday the ground forces were deepening the offensive into Gaza City. The army said it killed one of Hamas’ leading developers of rockets and other weapons, without saying where he was killed.
Israel is focusing its operations on the city, which was home to some 650,000 people before the war and where the military says Hamas has its central command and a labyrinth of tunnels.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have heeded Israeli orders in recent weeks to flee to the south to get out of the way of the ground assault.
Hundreds of trucks carrying aid have been allowed to enter Gaza from Egypt since Oct. 21.
But “there is an ocean of needs in Gaza right now, and what’s been getting in is a drop in the ocean. We need fuel, we need water, we need food, and we need medical supplies,” Dominic Allen of the United Nations Population Fund said, speaking from the West Bank.
A month of relentless bombardment in Gaza since the Hamas attack has killed more than 10,500 Palestinians according to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry.
More than 1,400 people have died in Israel since the start of the war, most of them civilians killed by Hamas militants during their incursion. Israel says 32 of its soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the ground offensive began, and Palestinian militants have continued to fire rockets into Israel on a daily basis.
Israeli officials say thousands of Palestinian militants have been killed, and blame civilian deaths on Hamas, accusing it of operating in residential areas. Gaza’s Health Ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its casualty reports.
