Israel-Hamas war: Gaza refugee camp hit; civilians ‘buried alive’
Dozens have been killed in an air strike on a refugee camp as horrifying reports emerge about an Israeli raid on a hospital. Warning: Graphic
Israeli strikes have killed at least 90 Palestinians in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, a Gaza health ministry spokesperson says.
“Jabalia suffered tank, air, and naval bombardment overnight, it has been suffering a brutal war for days, people are dying in the streets and we can’t get to them,” a medic on the ground told Reuters by telephone.
“We believe the number of dead people under the rubble is huge, but there is no way to remove the rubble and recover them because of the intensity of Israeli fire.”
The Palestinian health ministry has called for an international investigation into reports that Israeli forces buried Palestinians alive in the courtyard of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan hospital with bulldozers amid its deadly raid over the weekend.
“Information and testimonies from citizens, medical crews, and media indicate that the occupation buried living civilians in the Kamal Adwan Hospital courtyard, and that some of them were seen alive before being besieged by the occupation,” Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaila said, according to news agency Wafa.
It came as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) revealed it has found the largest-ever Hamas tunnel as it pressed on with its offensive in Gaza despite growing international calls for a ceasefire and pleas from relatives to bring home the remaining hostages.
The Israeli army said it uncovered the biggest Hamas tunnel so far near the border crossing at Erez — large enough for small vehicles to use, the Times of Israel reported.
Israel said the tunnel, featuring rails, electricity, drainage and a communications network, was meant to facilitate a large-scale attack.
It could millions of dollars and took years to construct, the military said.
Extraordinary footage released by the IDF shows Muhammad Sinwar, the right-hand man and brother of Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar, being driven through the tunnel.
In the silent video, Sinwar can be seen giving instructions to the driver as they travel through the tunnel.
The video is one of multiple pieces of intelligence evidence that Israel has that Sinwar was personally involved in developing the tunnel, the Jerusalem Post reports.
The tunnel is the largest and longest in Gaza that the IDF has ever found, directly linking the tip of northern Gaza to Jabalia toward the southern end of northern Gaza while running almost exclusively through civilian areas.
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BROTHER OF HOSTAGE SAYS ARMY ‘MURDERED HIM’
The heartbroken brother of Alon Shamriz, one of three Israeli hostages accidentally killed by Israeli troops, says the Israeli army “abandoned” and “murdered” his sibling.
The three young men were shot dead by soldiers during an operation in the Gaza City suburb of Shejaiya, even as they carried a white flag and cried for help in Hebrew.
“Those who abandoned you also murdered you after all that you did right,” Ido Shamriz said at the funeral in kibbutz Shefayim north of Tel Aviv attended by dozens of relatives and family members.
“You survived 70 days in hell,” Mr Shamriz’s mother, Dikla, said in her eulogy. “Another moment and you would have been in my arms.”
WHO SLAMS ‘DESTRUCTION’ OF GAZA HOSPITAL
The head of the World Health Organisation has denounced “the effective destruction” of the Kamal Adwan hospital in the north of Gaza, adding that at least eight patients had died.
Among the deceased patients was a nine-year-old child, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
His statement came as the Israeli army pulled out of the hospital after an operation lasting several days, claiming it had been used as a command and control centre by Hamas.
Hamas has repeatedly denied such claims.
“@WHO is appalled by the effective destruction of Kamal Adwan hospital in northern #Gaza over the last several days, rendering it non-functional and resulting in the death of at least 8 patients,” wrote Tedros.
“Many health workers were reportedly detained, and WHO and partners are urgently seeking information on their status,” he added.
Israel’s representative to the United Nations posted to X accusing Tedros of making no mention of “Hamas entrenchment in hospitals”.
HOW ISRAELIS UNCOVERED TUNNEL
The IDF said that over the last few weeks, the Combat Engineering Corps’ elite Yahalom unit and the Gaza Division’s Northern Brigade used “advanced intelligence and technological means” to uncover the “strategic” tunnel network, scan it and clear it of any potential threats.
The tunnel has several branches and junctions, along with plumbing, electricity and communication lines, according to the IDF.
In some parts of the tunnel, troops found blast doors, which the IDF said were intended to prevent Israeli troops from entering.
It said the tunnel allowed for the movement of vehicles, and “many weapons” belonging to Hamas were found inside.
“Its width indicates that it was intended to have been used for vehicle-borne raids against civilians in the Gaza border communities,” said the commander of the Gaza Division’s Northern Brigade, Col. Haim Cohen, in a video statement.
Col. Cohen said none of the branches entered Israeli territory.
IDF REITERATES RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
The IDF’s chief of staff has reiterated the army’s rules of engagement to troops in the Gaza Strip, two days after soldiers mistakenly shot to death three hostages in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighbourhood.
Speaking to soldiers of the 99th Division, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi stressed that people holding a white flag in surrender must not be fired upon.
Even enemy fighters, if they put down their weapons and raise their hands, must be taken prisoner, not shot, he said.
“You see two people, they have their hands up and no shirts — take two seconds,” he said to the soldiers, referring to the tragic incident, The Times of Israel reports.
“And I want to tell you something no less important,” he said.
“What if it is two Gazans with a white flag who come out to surrender? Do we shoot at them? Absolutely not. Absolutely not.”
SOS SIGNS FOUND IN KILLED HOSTAGES’ HIDEOUT
Three Israeli hostages mistakenly killed by soldiers in Gaza had used leftover food to write signs pleading for help, Israel says.
Haunting images released by the IDF showed the signs, which read “Help, 3 hostages”, written in Hebrew, as well as SOS.
The makeshift signs were found on the walls of a Gaza building where the three hostages had been hiding before they were mistakenly killed.
It emerged on Sunday that the three young men — Yotam Haim, Alon Shamriz and Samer Al-Talalka — had raised a white flag and were shirtless when they were gunned down.
By stripping off their shirts, the three might have been trying to show the Israeli army that they weren’t armed or wearing explosive suicide vests, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Officials have admitted that killing of the hostages, who are believed to have either fled their captors or been abandoned, was a breach of “rules of engagement”.
The news of their killing sparked protests in Israel, with relatives of the remaining hostages expressing concern their loved ones could be next and urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to return to the negotiating table.
TUNNEL FOUND UNDER BABY’S COT
Israeli forces claim they have found another Hamas tunnel – this time hidden beneath a baby cot in northern Gaza.
Footage shared by the IDF appeared to show a company commander in the 931st Battalion giving a tour of the home in Jabaliya, where the soldiers claim to have found the tunnel.
The IDF said the underground passage is a “strategic” Hamas attack tunnel, The Times of Israel reports.
It was later destroyed by combat engineers.
HAMAS LEADERS’ HOLIDAY HOMES RAIDED
IDF troops added they found more secret passages and weapons after raiding offices and vacation homes of Hamas bosses, including Yahya Sinwar’s, also known as “Gaza’s bin Laden”.
During the operations in Khan Younis, the brigade’s troops killed “many terrorists,” including some by tank shelling, the IDF says in a statement.
Troops also uncovered some 30 tunnel shafts, struck dozens of antitank missile launch sites and observation posts, and seized weapons used by Hamas operatives, along with intelligence materials, the IDF claimed.
“We found weapons, tunnels inside vacation homes of senior Hamas officials,” commander of the 7th Armored Brigade, Col. Elad Tzuri, said.
“We see a lot of tunnel shafts here, still encountering the enemy but gaining operational control of the area.”
The Israeli military added troops also raided an outpost belonging to the terror group’s Deir al-Balah battalion and seized intelligence materials, The Times of Israel reports.
In another raid, troops seized weapons and equipment at the home of a member of Hamas’s elite Nukhba forces, the IDF added.
ISRAEL CONTINUES TO PUMP SEAWATER INTO TUNNELS
Israel reportedly started pumping seawater into Hamas’s sprawling network of tunnels in Gaza in a bid to flush out terrorists.
The IDF is said to have installed at least five pumps close to the Al-Shati refugee camp in the besieged enclave, aiming to use them to destroy the underground labyrinth.
The pumps would pour in thousands of cubic metres of water per hour from the Mediterranean Sea, which would drive out or drown Hamas terrorists.
US officials have now revealed the operation has begun and will supposedly take weeks according to the Wall Street Journal.
The underground network that stretches some 500km is used by the terror group as a hiding spot and to transport people and goods as well as store rocks and ammunition.
CALLS FOR NEW CEASEFIRE GROW
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again vowed “we will fight until the end. We will achieve all of our aims — eliminating Hamas, freeing all our hostages and ensuring that Gaza will not again become a centre for terrorism.”
But French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna was the latest envoy to call for an “immediate and durable” truce as she visited Tel Aviv, stressing that “too many civilians are being killed”.
France separately condemned an Israel bombardment that killed one of its foreign ministry officials in Gaza.
Colonna’s British and German counterparts, David Cameron and Annalena Baerbock, also bemoaned the high civilian toll but said it was not the right time for a ceasefire because it would not be sustainable.
“Calling right now for a general and immediate ceasefire, hoping it somehow becomes permanent … ignores why Israel is forced to defend itself: Hamas barbarically attacked Israel and still fires rockets to kill Israeli citizens every day. Hamas must lay down its arms,” they wrote in Britain’s Sunday Times.
The Israeli army says 121 soldiers have died in the ground operations that began late October, accompanied by relentless aerial and artillery bombardment.
‘TRAGIC MISTAKE’: OUTRAGE OVER KILLING OF HOSTAGES
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the killing of the three hostages as an “unbearable tragedy”.
“All of Israel is grieving their loss,” he said, while the White House called the incident a “tragic mistake”.
Hamas said that it would not “open any negotiations to exchange prisoners unless the aggression against our people stops completely”.
TWO WOMEN SHOT IN CATHOLIC CHURCH
It came as the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said a Christian mother and daughter — named as Nahida and daughter Samar — were shot and killed by Israeli snipers inside the Holy Family Church complex in Gaza City.
In a statement, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said the two women had been “shot in cold blood”.
“One was killed as she tried to carry the other to safety,” a statement said. Seven more people were shot and wounded as they “tried to protect others inside the church compound” on Saturday.
The patriarchate said no warning had been given and added: “They were shot in cold blood inside the premises of the parish, where there are no belligerents.”
The patriarchate said that earlier on Saturday an Israeli tank fired on part of the church compound with 54 disabled people inside.
It caused a fire that destroyed the building’s generator, the only source of electricity, and some of the disabled people can no longer use their respirators, the statement said.
– with AFP
Originally published as Israel-Hamas war: Gaza refugee camp hit; civilians ‘buried alive’
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