By Najib Jobain, KHAN
YOUNIS, Gaza Strip
Israel pounded the Gaza Strip with airstrikes Thursday, including in the south where Palestinians were told to take refuge, as the Israeli defense minister ordered ground troops to prepare to see Gaza “from the inside”, though he didn’t indicate when the ground assault would begin.
Gaza’s overwhelmed hospitals
tried to stretch out ebbing medical supplies and fuel for generators, as
authorities worked out logistics for a desperately needed aid delivery from Egypt. Doctors in darkened wards across Gaza performed
surgeries by the light of mobile phones and used vinegar to treat infected
wounds.
Amid the violence, President
Joe Biden pledged unwavering support for Israel’s security, “today and always,”
while adding that the world “can’t ignore the humanity of innocent
Palestinians” in the besieged Gaza Strip.
In an address Thursday night from the Oval office, hours
after returning to Washington from an urgent visit to Israel, Biden drew a
distinction between ordinary Palestinians and Hamas, the militant group that
controls Gaza. He linked the current war in Gaza to the Russian invasion of Ukraine,
saying Hamas and Russian President Vladimir Putin “both want to completely
annihilate a neighboring democracy.”
Biden said he was sending an
“urgent budget request” to Congress on Friday, to cover emergency military aid
to both Israel and Ukraine.
Meanwhile,
an unclassified U.S. intelligence assessment delivered to Congress estimated
casualties in an explosion at a Gaza City hospital this week on the “low end”
of 100 to 300 deaths. The death toll “still reflects a staggering loss of
life,” U.S. intelligence officials said in the report, seen by The Associated
Press. It said intelligence officials were still assessing the evidence and
their casualty estimate may evolve.
Biden and other U.S. officials
already have said that U.S. intelligence officials believe the explosion at
al-Ahli Hospital was not caused by an Israeli airstrike. Thursday’s findings
echoed that.
The Israeli military has
relentlessly attacked Gaza in retaliation for the devastating Oct. 7 Hamas rampage in southern Israel. Even after Israel
told Palestinians to evacuate the north of Gaza and flee south, strikes
extended across the territory, heightening fears among the territory’s 2.3
million people that nowhere was safe.
Palestinian militants fired
rockets into Israel from Gaza and Lebanon, and tensions flared in the
Israeli-occupied West Bank.
In a fiery speech to Israeli
infantry soldiers on the Gaza border, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant urged the
forces to “get organized, be ready” to move in. Israel has massed tens of
thousands of troops along the border.
“Whoever sees Gaza from afar
now, will see it from the inside,” he said. “It might take a week, a month, two
months until we destroy them,” he added, referring to Hamas.
Israel’s
consent for Egypt to let in food, water and medicine provided the first
possible opening in its seal of the territory. Many Gaza residents are down to
one meal a day and drinking dirty water.
Egypt and Israel were still
negotiating the entry of fuel for hospitals. Israeli military spokesman Rear
Adm. Daniel Hagari said Hamas has stolen fuel from U.N. facilities and Israel
wants assurances that won’t happen. The first trucks of aid were expected to go
in Friday.
With the Egypt-Gaza border
crossing in Rafah closed, the already dire conditions at Gaza’s second-largest
hospital deteriorated further, said Dr. Mohammed Qandeel of Nasser Hospital in
the southern town of Khan Younis. Power was shut off in most of the hospital
and medical staff were using mobile phones for light.
At least 80 wounded civilians
and 12 dead flooded into the hospital after witnesses said a strike hit a
residential building in Khan Younis. Doctors had no choice but to leave two to
die because there were no ventilators, Qandeel said.
“We can’t save more lives if
this keeps happening,” he said.
The Gaza Health Ministry
pleaded with gas stations to give fuel to hospitals and a U.N. agency donated
some of its last fuel.
The agency’s donation to Gaza
City’s Shifa Hospital, the territory’s largest, would “keep us going for
another few hours,” hospital director Mohammed Abu Selmia said.
Al-Ahli Hospital was still
recovering from Tuesday’s explosion, which remains a point of dispute between
Hamas and Israel. Hamas quickly said an Israeli airstrike hit the hospital,
which Israel denied. The AP has not independently verified any of the claims or
evidence released by the parties.
The blast left body parts
strewn on the hospital grounds, where crowds of Palestinians had clustered in
hopes of escaping Israeli airstrikes. The U.S. assessment noted “only light
structural damage,” with no impact crater visible.
Near al-Ahli, meanwhile,
another explosion struck a Greek Orthodox church housing displaced Palestinians
late Thursday, resulting in deaths and dozens of wounded. Abu Selmia, the Shifa
Hospital director general, said dozens were hurt at the Church of Saint
Porphyrios but could not give a precise death toll because bodies were buried
under rubble.
Palestinian authorities blamed
the blast on an Israeli airstrike, a claim that could not be independently
verified. The Greek Orthodox Patriarchy of Jerusalem condemned the attack and
said it would “not abandon its religious and humanitarian duty” to provide
assistance.
The Gaza Health Ministry said
3,785 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, the majority women,
children and older adults. Nearly 12,500 were injured, and another 1,300 people
were believed buried under rubble, authorities said.
More than 1,400 people in
Israel have been killed, mostly civilians slain during Hamas’ deadly incursion.
Roughly 200 others were abducted. The Israeli military said Thursday it had
notified the families of 203 captives.
More than 1 million Palestinians, about half of Gaza’s
population, have fled their homes in the north since Israel told them to
evacuate, crowding into U.N.-run schools-turned-shelters or the homes of
relatives.
For the first time since
Israel captured Gaza from Egypt in 1967, a major tent camp arose to house
displaced people. Dozens of U.N.-provided tents lined a dirt lot in Khan
Younis.
The deal to get aid into Gaza
through Rafah, the territory’s only connection to Egypt, remained fragile.
Israel said the supplies could only go to civilians and that it would “thwart”
any diversions by Hamas. Biden said the deliveries “will end” if Hamas takes
any aid.
More than 200 trucks and some
3,000 tons of aid were positioned at or near Rafah, according to Khalid Zayed,
the head of the Red Crescent for North Sinai.
Under an arrangement reached
between the United Nations, Israel and Egypt, U.N. observers will inspect the
trucks before entering Gaza. The U.N., working with the Egyptian and
Palestinian Red Crescent, will ensure aid goes only to civilians, an Egyptian
official and European diplomat told the AP. A U.N. flag will be raised on both
sides of the crossing as a sign of protection against airstrikes, said the
officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized
to brief media.
It was not immediately clear
how much cargo the crossing could handle. Waleed Abu Omar, spokesperson for the
Palestinian side, said work has not started to repair the road damaged by
Israeli airstrikes.
Egyptian Foreign Minister
Sameh Shoukry told Al-Arabiya TV that foreigners and dual nationals would be
allowed to leave Gaza once the crossing was opened.
Israel said it agreed to allow
aid from Egypt because of a request by Biden — which followed days of intense
talks with the U.S. secretary of state to overcome staunch Israeli refusal.
Israel had previously said it
would let nothing into Gaza until Hamas freed the hostages taken from
Israel. Relatives of some of the captives were furious over
the aid announcement.
“The Israeli government
pampers the murderers and kidnappers,” the Hostage and Missing Families Forum
said.
The Israeli military said
Thursday it killed a top Palestinian militant in Rafah and hit hundreds of
targets across Gaza, including militant tunnel shafts, intelligence
infrastructure and command centers. Palestinians have launched barrages of rockets at Israel since the fighting
began.
Violence was also escalating
in the West Bank, where Israel carried out a rare airstrike Thursday, targeting
militants in the Nur Shams refugee camp.
Six Palestinians were killed,
the Palestinian Health Ministry said, and the Israeli military said the strike
killed militants and resulted in 10 Israeli officers being wounded. More than
74 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the war started.
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