At least 31 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip on Sunday, according to Palestinian medical officials. Nearly half of the fatalities occurred in northern regions, where the Israeli army has been conducting a month-long campaign it says aims to prevent Hamas from regrouping. Palestinians claim that the intensified air and ground attacks, along with forced evacuations, amount to “ethnic cleansing” intended to depopulate two northern Gaza towns and a refugee camp to establish buffer zones. Israel refutes this, asserting its actions target Hamas militants who have launched attacks from these locations.
An Israeli military spokesman said that aircraft and tanks struck targets across the enclave in response to rocket fire from Iran-backed militants. The spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, denied that there were any civilian casualties and said the army was targeting command centers used by Hamas in densely populated areas.
The United Nations has urged Israel to halt its bombardment of Gaza, where the death toll now stands at more than 28,064. It also called for an immediate end to Israel’s destruction of infrastructure and the “excessive use of force.” A U.N. statement by its deputy spokesperson on Monday said a U.N. staff member was killed by an Israeli strike in Rafah on Sunday as he traveled to a hospital, and another U.N. staffer was injured. The spokesman added that “the Secretary-General strongly condemns this unacceptable killing and injury of United Nations personnel in Gaza and calls on the Government of Israel to investigate.”
Palestinian officials also reported at least 13 deaths in separate strikes on houses in Beit Lahiya and in Jabalia, one of the enclave’s largest historic refugee camps, as well as on a school sheltering families in the central Gaza City neighborhood of Tuffah. A hospital in the southern town of Khan Younis came under Israeli tank fire, and its director, Hussam Abu Safiya, told AFP that it was damaged. The A.P. reports that the facility’s water supplies, courtyard, and neonatal intensive care unit were all damaged.
Hospitals across the Gaza Strip have been hit by Israeli airstrikes and shelling, with some overwhelmed by casualties. According to a statement from its local branch, the Red Crescent in Gaza has received dozens of calls for assistance but was unable to respond because of the intense fighting. The spokesman said the Palestinian Civil Defense, which includes ambulances, was “stretched thin.”
The Hamas armed wings and other more minor factions issued separate statements saying their fighters had attacked Israeli forces operating in several areas of the Gaza Strip with anti-tank rockets, mortar fire, and explosive devices. Israel, meanwhile, launched a ground operation into Lebanon to battle Hezbollah, which has said it is responding to massive Israeli strikes on its territory.
The Israeli escalation threatens to wreak havoc in the region and raise the risk of an asymmetrical regional conflict, potentially involving Iran and the U.S. as well as Hezbollah and its allies, including Shiite militias from Iraq and Syria, that it has fought for decades.
