ISRAELI ATTACKS ON GAZA: Palestinian death toll reaches 2,215
The number of Palestinians killed by a massive Israeli air assault against the Gaza Strip has risen to 2,215, reports Anadolu Agency citing the Gaza Health Ministry statement on October 14. In a statement, the ministry said that 724 children and 458 women were among the people killed in the Israeli attacks. The ministry also said that the number of wounded has risen to 8,714, including 2,450 children and 1,536 women.
In a dramatic escalation of Middle East tensions, a week ago Israeli forces launched a sustained and forceful military campaign against the Gaza Strip, a response to a military offensive by the Palestinian group Hamas in Israeli territories.
The conflict began last Saturday when Hamas initiated Operation Al-Aqsa Flood against Israel, a multi-pronged surprise attack including a barrage of rocket launches and infiltrations into Israel via land, sea, and air. Hamas said the operation was in retaliation for the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem and Israeli settlers’ growing violence against Palestinians. The Israeli military then launched Operation Swords of Iron against Hamas targets within the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s response has extended into cutting water and electricity supplies to Gaza, further worsening the living conditions in an area that has endured a crippling siege since 2007, as well as ordering over 1 million Gazans in the northern strip to evacuate to the southern strip within 24 hours.
Gaza: Interior Ministry tells residents to remain because Israel wants to displace them again
The spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior and National Security in Gaza, Iyad Al-Bazm, announced on October 13: “Everything is targeted by the missiles that have been continuously raining down from the air, sea and occupation artillery over the past seven days over the heads of the citizens in Gaza.”
Al-Bazm added during a press conference in Gaza City: “We say to the citizens of northern Gaza and Gaza City, stay in your homes or wherever you are, because the occupation, by committing massacres against civilians, wants to displace us once again from our land. The migration of 1948 will not be repeated. We will return to our land again.”
Al-Bazm called on the Palestinian people and all Arabs and Muslims around the world to take action to support the people in Gaza. He urged the world to act immediately to save the Palestinians besieged in the Gaza Strip.
This statement was made after the occupation army called on all residents of Gaza City to evacuate their homes and remain south of Wadi Gaza.
Israeli army destroys house in southern Gaza with residents inside
Israeli aircraft destroyed a house in the southern Gaza Strip with its residents still inside, Anadolu Agency reported citing local officials on October 14. In a statement, the Interior Ministry in the Gaza Strip said that “the house was bombed while the family who owned it was inside.”
There were a number of dead and injured underneath the rubble, the ministry added. The ministry said civil defense and ambulance crews are working to “recover the bodies and evacuate the wounded.”
A week ago Israeli forces launched a sustained and forceful military campaign against the Gaza Strip in response to a military offensive by the Palestinian group Hamas in Israeli territories.
More than 400,000 Palestinians internally displaced as Israel pounds Gaza: UN
More than 400,000 Palestinians have been internally displaced in the Gaza Strip amid a massive Israeli air campaign, the UN humanitarian office said, reports Anadolu Agency on October 14. “Most people have no access to clean drinking water after supply through the water network and the operation of water desalination/purification plants came to a halt,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement.
“As a last resort, people are consuming brackish water from agricultural wells, triggering serious concerns about the spread of waterborne diseases,” it added.
The Israeli military warned 1.1 million residents in northern Gaza to evacuate Friday “within 24 hours” and move south.
The OCHA said tens of thousands of residents are estimated to have fled south following the order.
The UN warned it would be impossible for Palestinians in Gaza to obey the order to leave the north without “devastating humanitarian consequences.”
Syria’s two main airports out of service after Israel strikes
Israeli strikes have knocked Syria’s two main airports out of service, Syrian state media said, in the first such attack since a weekend Hamas assault on Israel triggered fierce fighting, an AFP report said on October 13.
Israeli strikes have repeatedly caused the grounding of flights at the airports in the capital Damascus and northern city Aleppo, both of which are controlled by the government of war-torn Syria. The “simultaneous” strikes “damaged landing strips in the two airports, putting them out of service”, state media said, citing an unidentified military source.
The latest strikes came as Hamas and Israel traded heavy fire for the sixth day, after hundreds of Hamas gunmen stormed across the Gaza border into Israel on Saturday and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians. They also came as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Israel, and hours after Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, in a telephone call with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad, called on Arab and Islamic countries to cooperate in confronting Israel.
The military source, the report added, cited by Syrian state media described the strikes as a “desperate attempt” by Israel to “divert attention” away from the war in Gaza. During more than a decade of war in Syria, Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on its northern neighbour, primarily targeting Iran-backed forces and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters as well as Syrian army positions.
Thousands shelter at Gaza’s largest hospital after Israeli evacuation order
Thousands of Palestinians have taken shelter at the Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip, from ongoing Israeli airstrikes, reports Anadolu Agency citing a hospital official said on October 14. “Around 35,000 residents of Gaza take shelter at the hospital from the Israeli aggression,” Director Mohamed Abu Slima said on Facebook. “The population are in total panic and fear,” he said, adding families set up their tents in the medical complex “for safety.”
The Israeli military warned 1.1 million residents in northern Gaza to evacuate their homes Friday and move south immediately, prompting thousands to take shelter at the hospital. The Gaza-based Health Ministry said at least 70 Palestinians were killed and 200 injured in an Israeli airstrike on a convoy of trucks carrying displaced civilians heading from northern Gaza to the south.
UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric warned that it would be impossible for Palestinians in Gaza to obey the order to leave the north without “devastating humanitarian consequences.”
Israeli forces launched a sustained and forceful military campaign against the Gaza Strip in response to a military offensive by the Palestinian group Hamas in Israeli territories.
The conflict began Saturday when Hamas initiated Operation Al-Aqsa Flood — a multi-pronged surprise attack including a barrage of rocket launches and infiltrations into Israel via land, sea and air.
Hamas said the operation was in retaliation for the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem and Israeli settlers’ growing violence against Palestinians.