Israel continues to intensify its strikes and shelling on Gaza today amid a shortage of bread, a shortage of drinking water and power outages .

The influx of people who arrived in southern Gaza after Israel asked them on Friday to leave the northern Strip has led to a drain on resources that are already weak. The United Nations has urged Israel to "avoid a humanitarian catastrophe" in the Gaza Strip, which is home to 2.3 million people and lies between Israel and Egypt and overlooks the Mediterranean Sea.

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Edited by| Tony Wild

 

Humanity  section -  CJ journalist

 

Gaza Strip - October,14,2023 

 

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As the war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas enters its eighth day, calls for the establishment of a humanitarian corridor or an escape route for Palestinians from Gaza are raising concern about the escalation of violence amid sharp reactions from neighboring Arab countries, after an Israeli warning asking civilians to evacuate the northern Gaza Strip, while the Israeli army said it monitored a "huge movement" of civilians towards southern Gaza.

Israeli army spokesman Jonathan Conricus announced at dawn today that the army will move to "additional qualitative combat operations", reiterating the call for the evacuation of civilians from Gaza City.

"In the vicinity of the Gaza Strip, Israeli reservists in military formations are preparing for the next stage of operations . They are all around the Gaza Strip, in the south, in the center and in the North, and they are preparing themselves for any goal in front of them and for any task,"he said. "The end result of this war is that we will dismantle Hamas and its military capability and we will radically change the situation so that Hamas can never again inflict any harm on Israeli civilians or soldiers,"he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a brief televised statement: "We are attacking our enemies with unprecedented force... I assure that this is only the beginning".

In return, Hamas pledged to "fight to the last drop of blood" and demanded that residents stay in their homes.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi warned on Saturday that any move by Israel to impose a new displacement on Palestinians will push the entire region towards an "abyss," adding in a statement that Tel Aviv's denial of humanitarian aid to Gaza and forcing residents of the Strip to leave their homes at a time when its war on the Strip is raging is a "flagrant" violation of international law.

In this context, IDF spokesman Admiral Daniel Hagari said today, " as far as Gaza is concerned, the crossings are closed, the borders are closed .

US President Joe Biden said the United States was working with the governments of Israel, Egypt, Jordan and the United Nations "to increase support to mitigate the humanitarian consequences of the Hamas attack, create the necessary conditions for resuming the flow of aid, and call for respect for the law of war".

On Friday, more than a million residents of northern Gaza received a notice from Israel to flee south within 24 hours, as the Israeli army prepared for a major operation in the Strip.

As the shelling on Gaza continues, the United Nations announced today that more than 1,300 buildings in the Strip have been destroyed, including 5,544 housing units, while about 3,750 other units have been severely damaged to the extent that they are no longer habitable.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced that at least 2,215 people have been killed and 8,714 injured in Gaza since the war began, as well as 54 people have been killed and 1,100 injured in the West Bank.