Current:Home > FinanceSurpassing Quant Think Tank Center|Palestinians crowd into ever-shrinking areas in Gaza as Israel’s war against Hamas enters 3rd month -DataFinance
Surpassing Quant Think Tank Center|Palestinians crowd into ever-shrinking areas in Gaza as Israel’s war against Hamas enters 3rd month
SafeX Pro Exchange View
Date:2025-04-08 11:01:23
RAFAH,Surpassing Quant Think Tank Center Gaza Strip (AP) — Desperate Palestinians fleeing Israel’s expanding ground offensive crowded into an ever-shrinking area of the Gaza Strip as the Israel-Hamas war entered its third month Friday. The United Nations warned that its aid operation is “in tatters” because no place in the besieged enclave is safe.
Israel’s ferocious military assault on Gaza, a tiny, densely populated territory, has led to widespread civilian casualties and mass displacements, triggering international alarm.
The Israeli army said Friday that over the past day the military had struck about 450 targets in the Gaza Strip by air, sea and ground, signaling the continued intensity of Israel’s campaign.
Earlier this week, U.N Secretary-General Antonio Guterres used a rarely exercised power to warn the Security Council of an impending “humanitarian catastrophe,” and Arab and Islamic nations have called for a vote Friday on a draft Council resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire.
The United States, Israel’s closest ally, appears likely to block any U.N. effort to halt the fighting which was triggered by the deadly Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants on southern Israel. Still, U.S. concern over the devastation was growing. U.S. officials told Israel ahead of the expansion of its ground offensive to southern Gaza several days ago that it must limit civilian deaths and displacement, saying too many Palestinians were killed when it obliterated much of Gaza City and the north.
On Thursday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a call with Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer that casualties are still too high, a senior State Department official said. Blinken told Dermer that Israel must also do more to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private diplomatic discussion.
Palestinians evacuate a wounded woman following Israeli airstrikes in Khan Younis refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, Dec. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Mohammed Dahman)
Israel insists it must crush the military capabilities of Hamas, which rules Gaza, and remove it from power following the group’s Oct. 7 attack.
In the first stage of the war, Israel’s devastating air and ground campaign focused on the northern half of Gaza, as hundreds of thousands or residents fled south. Intense battles continued in parts of the north in recent days, while troops there have rounded up hundreds of Palestinian men.
In photos and video published Thursday, dozens of men are seen sitting in rows on a street in northern Gaza, stripped down to their underwear with their heads bowed as they are being guarded by Israeli troops.
A Palestinian woman gestures following Israeli airstrikes in Khan Younis refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, Dec. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Mohammed Dahman)
The images were the first showing such detentions in the war. Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said troops have detained and interrogated hundreds of people in Gaza suspected of militant links. U.N. monitors said troops reportedly detained men and boys from the age of 15 in a school-turned-shelter in the town of Beit Lahiya, in the north.
Over the past week, Israeli forces expanded their ground offensive into southern Gaza, with a focus on Khan Younis, the territory’s second largest city.
With the entire Gaza Strip under military assault, tens of thousands of people displaced by the fighting have packed into the border city of Rafah, in the far south of the Gaza Strip, and Muwasi, a nearby patch of barren coastline that Israel has declared a safe zone.
With shelters significantly beyond capacity, many people pitched tents along the side of the road leading from Rafah to Muwasi.
Palestinians evacuate a wounded woman following Israeli airstrikes in Khan Younis refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, Dec. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Mohammed Dahman)
“Humanitarian actors … are reporting extreme overcrowded conditions and lack of basic resources in Rafah,” said the United Nations’ humanitarian affairs section.
The ability of U.N. aid agencies to receive vital aid supplies had been “significantly impaired” over the past few days due to trucks and staff being stranded by the fighting, and telecommunications blackout, it said.
“We do not have a humanitarian operation in southern Gaza that can be called by that name anymore,” the U.N.’s humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, warned Thursday. The pace of Israel’s military assault “has made no place safe for civilians in southern Gaza, which had been a cornerstone of the humanitarian plan to protect civilians and thus to provide aid to them. But without places of safety, that plan is in tatters.”
Palestinians displaced by the Israeli ground offensive on the Gaza Strip set up a tent camp in the Muwasi area Thursday, Dec. 7, 2023. AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
With the entire Gaza Strip under military assault, Israel designated Muwasi on the territory’s Mediterranean Coast as a safe zone for those seeking safety from the fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas militants. But the U.N. and relief agencies say it is a poorly planned solution that offers no guarantee of safety in a territory where civilians have been faced by airstrikes even in other areas where the Israeli army has ordered them to evacuate to.
Israel’s campaign has killed more than 17,100 people in Gaza — 70% of them women and children — and wounded more than 46,000, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which says many others are trapped under rubble. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths.
Hamas and other militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7 attack and took more than 240 hostages. An estimated 138 hostages remain in Gaza, mostly soldiers and civilian men, after 105 were freed during a cease-fire in late November.
___
Mroue contributed from Beirut, Lebanon and Becatoros from Athens, Greece.
veryGood! (285)
Related
- Paige Bueckers vs. Hannah Hidalgo highlights women's basketball games to watch
- Kellie Pickler performs live for the first time since husband's death: 'He is here with us'
- Emma Stone Responds to Speculation She Called Jimmy Kimmel a Prick
- NBA playoffs Tuesday: Timberwolves take 2-0 lead on Suns; Pacers even series with Bucks
- The Louvre will be renovated and the 'Mona Lisa' will have her own room
- Blinken begins key China visit as tensions rise over new US foreign aid bill
- Jennifer Garner, Mark Ruffalo and Judy Greer reunite as '13 Going on 30' turns 20
- After Tesla layoffs, price cuts and Cybertruck recall, earnings call finds Musk focused on AI
- NFL Week 15 picks straight up and against spread: Bills, Lions put No. 1 seed hopes on line
- 'Extraordinary': George Washington's 250-year-old cherries found buried at Mount Vernon
Ranking
- What to watch: O Jolie night
- Video shows Florida authorities wrangling huge alligator at Air Force base
- Columbia says encampments will scale down; students claim 'important victory': Live updates
- Starbucks versus the union: Supreme Court poised to back company over 'Memphis 7' union workers
- What were Tom Selleck's juicy final 'Blue Bloods' words in Reagan family
- New FAFSA rules opened up a 'grandparent loophole' that boosts 529 plans
- Guard kills Georgia inmate at hospital after he overpowered other officer, investigators say
- Inside Coachella 2024's biggest moments
Recommendation
'Malcolm in the Middle’ to return with new episodes featuring Frankie Muniz
Billie Eilish Details When She Realized She Wanted Her “Face in a Vagina”
The Best Swimsuit Coverups on Amazon for All Your Future Beachy Vacations
Chicago Bears will make the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft for just the third time ever
Intellectuals vs. The Internet
Cristian Măcelaru to become music director of Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in 2025-26
Ashley Judd says late mom Naomi Judd's mental illness 'stole from our family'
Minnesota senator charged with burglary says she was retrieving late father's ashes