PEOPLE FLEEING
The UN World Health Organization said on Wednesday its staff had seen tens of thousands of people fleeing heavy strikes in Khan Younis and the Middle Area on foot, on donkeys or in cars. Makeshift shelters were being built along the road, it said.
“WHO is extremely concerned this fresh displacement of people will further strain health facilities in the south, which are already struggling to meet the population’s immense needs,” said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative in the West Bank and Gaza, said in the agency’s statement on X.
“This forced mass movement of people will also lead to more overcrowding, increased risk of infectious diseases and make it even harder to deliver humanitarian aid.”
Israel says it is doing what it can to protect civilians, and blames Hamas for putting them in harm’s way by operating among them, which Hamas denies. Even Israel’s closest ally the US has said it should do more to reduce civilian deaths from what President Joe Biden has called “indiscriminate bombing”.
Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy also urged the United Nations to help clear the backlog of aid waiting to enter Gaza, describing the UN aid mechanism as “woefully unsuccessful”.
The Israeli military said it was continuing to strike militant targets in Gaza, at one point using its navy to hit suspects deemed to pose a threat to ground troops.
In the Shejaia district of Gaza City, an Israeli attack on militant fighters on foot caused secondary explosions, indicating the area was rigged with explosives to attack soldiers, a military statement said.
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, six youths were killed in an Israeli raid into the city of Tulkarm, the Palestinian health ministry said. An Israeli military statement said Israeli forces on a counter-terrorism operation came under attack by militants who threw explosive devices at them. The attackers were struck by an Israeli air force aircraft, it said.
Residents said the youths were neither fighters nor militants.
“It was a sight I could not see,” Saida Famawi, the mother of one of the youths, said. “It was something you cannot look at.”
Source: CNA
