Gaza refugee camp under Israeli attack, say aid workers

Thousands of people are trapped in Gaza’s Jabalia camp as Israeli forces attack the area, Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) said on Friday, a week after Israel began an offensive it says is aimed at stopping Hamas regrouping.

Israeli military strikes killed at least 34 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Friday, with nearly half of the fatalities occurring in Jabalia, the northern district that is home to the largest of Gaza’s refugee camps.

Israeli airstrikes are continuing in Gaza. Pictured is the aftermath of a strike on the Rufaida al-Aslamia school in Deir al-balah.Credit: Bloomberg

“Nobody is allowed to get in or out; anyone who tries is getting shot,” MSF project coordinator Sarah Vuylsteke said on X. Five MSF staff were trapped in Jabalia, she said.

“I don’t know what to do; at any moment we could die. People are starving. I am afraid to stay, and I am also afraid to leave,” she quoted Haydar, an MSF driver, as saying.

At least 15 of the fatalities in Jabalia since dawn were due to Israeli strikes targeting various areas, including a school sheltering displaced individuals, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa said, citing medical sources.

The Israeli military has sent troops into the nearby towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya as well as Jabalia. The militant Hamas group has said it will continue to defend itself against Israeli attacks, while Israel maintains that its operations are essential for national security and to prevent Hamas from regrouping.

An injured Palestinian child is carried into Gaza’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital following an Israeli airstrike.Credit: Bloomberg

Palestinian health officials have reported at least 130 deaths in the operation so far, while the military has told residents to evacuate areas where the UN estimates over 400,000 people are trapped.

United Nations officials expressed concern that the ongoing Israeli offensive and evacuation orders in northern Gaza could disrupt the second phase of its polio vaccination campaign set to begin next week.

Healthcare officials have reported that dozens of facilities in Gaza are under evacuation orders from the Israeli military, complicating humanitarian efforts amid the ongoing conflict.

Attacks on Lebanon continue

Israel’s continuing attacks on Gaza are being conducted concurrently with attacks on Lebanon, including sustained airstrikes on the Lebanese capital, Beirut.

On Friday, two United Nations peacekeepers were injured by an Israeli strike near their watchtower in south Lebanon, the Israeli military said.

The United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon (UNIFIL) said the incident was a serious development and stressed that the security of UN personnel and property must be guaranteed.

France summoned Israel’s ambassador in response, while Russia demanded that Israel refrain from “hostile actions” against peacekeepers. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also condemned the attacks on UN personnel.

Overnight on Thursday, 22 people were killed and 139 wounded in a strike in the heart of Lebanon’s capital Beirut, caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati said, as Israel continued what it says are attacks on the militant Hezbollah group.

Rescue workers at the site of an Israeli airstrike on an apartment block in Beirut, Lebanon on Friday.Credit: Getty Images

Lebanon’s army said two soldiers had been killed and three others wounded when Israeli forces attacked one of its military posts in Kafra in the south.

Israel says its campaign in Lebanon aims to make northern Israel safe for tens of thousands of people driven out in the last year by Hezbollah rocket fire.

Its expanded operation has displaced more than 1.2 million people, according to the Lebanese government, which says more than 2100 people have been killed and more than 10,000 wounded in over a year of fighting. The toll does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but includes scores of women and children.

Hezbollah rockets have killed at least 54 people in Israel, more than half civilians, according to Israeli authorities.

The watchtower that came under Israeli fire on Friday is located at UNIFIL’s main base in Naqoura. UNIFIL said an Israeli bulldozer had also knocked over barriers at UN positions near the “blue line” that denotes the frontier between Lebanon and Israel.

Israel said the peacekeepers had been warned to take shelter. The United Nations said both peacekeepers were from Sri Lanka.

Two Indonesian UN peacekeepers were also injured on Thursday after falling from a watchtower after Israeli tank fire.

UNIFIL has more than 10,000 personnel, with Italy, France, Malaysia, Indonesia and India among the biggest contributors.

Elsewhere, at a Beirut hospital that received dozens of wounded, a man sat in a chair in a corridor, his knees covered in white bandages, and his face and body covered with wounds.

“The situation ... I don’t even know how to describe it. We received three martyrs ... in pieces,” said Wael al-Jaroush, head of the Makassed hospital’s medical department.

Among the dead were a family of eight, including three children, who had evacuated from the south, a security source said.

Reuters, AP

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