More than 20 people, including six children, have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of a new wave of violence between Israel and the Islamic Jihad group, authorities in the Palestinian enclave said on Saturday.
In an updated balance sheet, the Gaza Health Ministry said that 24 people, including six minors, had been killed since Friday in Israeli attacks on Gaza and that 203 had been injured.
The Israeli authorities refuted this information, assuring that several Palestinian children died on Saturday night in Jabalia (north of Gaza) by a failed rocket launch by the Islamic Jihad towards Israel and not by its army.
“Israeli security forces have not attacked Jabalia in the last few hours,” Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s office said in a statement.
At a hospital in Jabalia, an AFP photographer saw the bodies of six people, including three children.
Israel alleges that its attacks, launched on Friday in a “preventive” manner against possible retaliation for the arrest of a leader of Islamic Jihad in the West Bank, are directed against weapons manufacturing sites of that armed group.
The Israeli army said on Saturday that it “is preparing for a one-week operation.” “Currently there are no negotiations with a view to a ceasefire,” said a military spokesman.
Taysir al Jabari ‘Abu Mahmud’, one of the main leaders of Islamic Jihad, and a total of 15 fighters were killed in the bombings on Friday, according to Israel.
The leader of the organization in Gaza, Mohamed Al Hindi, assured that “the battle has only just begun.”
Egyptian efforts
Egyptian sources told AFP that Cairo, a historical intermediary between Israel and the armed groups in Gaza, was trying to establish mediation. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said in a speech that he was working “tirelessly” to restore calm.
But on the ground, the exchange of fire continued into the night from Saturday to Sunday, according to AFP journalists in Gaza.
These clashes are the worst between Israel and the armed organizations in Gaza since the eleven-day war in May 2021. In that conflict, 260 people on the Palestinian side and 14 in Israel were killed, according to the authorities.
For the first time since the beginning of this new outbreak of violence, warning sirens sounded on Saturday afternoon in the Israeli metropolis of Tel Aviv.
According to an Israeli official, some 400 projectiles (including rockets and mortar shells) have been launched in the last 24 hours. Most were intercepted by the missile shield, the army said, and two people were slightly injured by shrapnel, according to emergency services.
The armed wing of the Palestinian group, the Al Quds Brigades, confirmed in a statement that it had fired “a heavy barrage of rockets” towards the Israeli cities of Tel Aviv, Ashkelon, Ashdod and Sderot.
At Kibbutz Nahal Oz, an Israeli community along the Gaza border, resident Nadav Peretz said he has been “at or near the bomb shelter” since Friday.
“We recognize that on the other side there is also a civilian population that is not taking part [in hostilities], and on both sides children deserve to enjoy their summer vacations,” the 40-year-old said.
This new escalation has already deprived the small enclave and its 2.3 million inhabitants of its only power plant, which had to close due to lack of fuel, due to the blockade of the entrances to the enclave by Israel since Tuesday.
Gaza’s health ministry said the next few hours will be “crucial and difficult,” warning that it risks shutting down vital services for 72 hours due to a lack of electricity.
The UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, Lynn Hastings, urged the warring parties to allow “fuel, food and medical supplies” to be sent to Gaza amid the worsening crisis.
Mohamed Abu Salameh, director of Shifa, the main hospital in Gaza City, explained that doctors are facing a “serious shortage of medical supplies”.
Dounia Ismail, a resident of Gaza, says that Palestinians have become accustomed to preparing a “survival bag” with items such as money and medicine.
“This latest escalation brings images of fear, anxiety and the feeling that we are alone,” he told AFP.
