[News] Israel says 6, 000 bombs dropped on Gaza as war with Hamas nears a week

[Anti-Imperialist News]

 Israel says 6,000 bombs dropped on Gaza as war with Hamas nears a week

*Air strikes pound Gaza for a sixth day as death toll and fears of a
humanitarian disaster in the besieged Palestinian enclave mount.*
[image: Palestinians sit outside their house following Israeli airstrikes
in Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip]
Palestinians sit outside their house after Israeli air strikes hit Rafah
refugee camp in southern Gaza [Hatem Ali/AP Photo]
Published On 12 Oct 2023
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/12/israel-says-6000-bombs-dropped-on-gaza-as-war-with-hamas-nears-a-week
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Israeli air strikes are pounding the Gaza Strip for a sixth consecutive day
as fears of a humanitarian disaster in the besieged Palestinian enclave
mount.

Israel on Thursday said it has dropped 6,000 bombs
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2023/10/11/israel-hamas-war-live-gaza-faces-growing-humanitarian-catastrophe>
weighing 4,000 tonnes on Gaza in the past six days, killing more than 1,400
people.

Officials in Gaza said the dead included 447 children, 248 women and 10
healthcare workers. More than 150 people were killed on Thursday alone.

Entire neighbourhoods in Gaza – home to 2.3 million people, half of them
children – have been destroyed by the incessant bombing, forcing 338,000
Palestinians to flee their homes and take shelter.

The death toll in the occupied West Bank has also surged to 31 while more
than 600 people have been injured, according to the Palestinian Ministry of
Health.
[image: Interactive_Live tracker_Gaza_October12_2023_1410GMT_Casualty
tracker_UPDATED](Al Jazeera)

On the Israeli side, at least 1,300 people have been killed since the armed
Palestinian group Hamas attacked southern Israel and took at least 100
people captive on Saturday.

Israel has imposed a complete siege of Gaza, cutting access to food, water,
medicines and fuel, as its forces prepare for a possible ground assault.

Here is a recap of the latest developments:
Gazans rendered homeless by bombing

The United Nations humanitarian office said Israeli bombardment of Gaza has
levelled more than 1,000 homes since Saturday while another 560 housing
units have been severely damaged and rendered uninhabitable.

More than 12,600 homes have sustained damage due to Israeli air strikes,
said the agency, called the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs (OCHA).

It said the reduction in water supplies due to Israel tightening its siege
on the strip has resulted in dire water shortages for more than 650,000
people.

Sewage systems have been destroyed, OCHA added, sending fetid wastewater
into the streets and posing a health hazard.

Israeli air strikes have made cemeteries in Gaza dangerous to reach so
mourning families are burying their dead in informal graveyards dug in
empty lots, reports said.
Hospitals ‘risk turning into morgues’

Human rights groups said Gaza’s health system, already stretched to its
limits by a 16-year blockade, is on the verge of complete collapse. The
enclave’s only power plant was forced to shut down on Wednesday after it
ran out of fuel.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Gaza’s hospitals “risk
turning into morgues”
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/12/gaza-hospitals-risk-turning-into-morgues-rights-groups-call-for-action>
as severely wounded civilians, including infants, are rushed inside its
crowded wards, where beds and medical supplies are running out.

“As Gaza loses power, hospitals lose power, putting newborns in incubators
and elderly patients on oxygen at risk,” said Fabrizio Carboni, the ICRC’s
regional director.

OCHA said all 13 hospitals in the territory are only partially operational
due to severe shortages of fuel and crucial medical supplies.

Israel on Thursday said there would be no humanitarian exceptions to its
siege of Gaza until all its hostages are freed by Hamas.

“Humanitarian aid to Gaza? No electrical switch will be lifted, no water
hydrant will be opened and no fuel truck will enter until the Israeli
hostages are returned home,” Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz said in a
social media post.
Egypt says facilitating aid flights to Gaza

Egypt on Thursday said it was directing international aid flights for Gaza
to an airport in northern Sinai although Israeli bombardments along the
border have so far hampered the delivery of the relief.

The Rafah border crossing between the Sinai and Gaza remained open, the
Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, adding that Egypt asked Israel
to avoid targeting the Palestinian side of the crossing after strikes
prevented normal operations there.

Israel’s bombing and total siege on Gaza has caused alarm in Egypt, which
shares a border with the south of the narrow coastal enclave.

El Arish airport in northern Sinai, about 45km (28 miles) from the Gaza
border, was prepared to receive aid deliveries from Qatar and Jordan, but
these would not leave the airport until humanitarian corridors had been
established, Egyptian security sources told the Reuters news agency.
[image: Smoke plumes billow during Israeli air strikes in Gaza City on
October 12, 2023 as raging battles between Israel and the Hamas movement
continue for the sixth consecutive day. - Thousands of people, both Israeli
and Palestinians have died since October 7, 2023, after Palestinian Hamas
militants based in the Gaza Strip, entered southern Israel in a surprise
attack leading Israel to declare war on Hamas in Gaza on October 8. (Photo
by MAHMUD HAMS / AFP)]Smoke plumes billow during Israeli air strikes in
Gaza City [Mahmud Hams/AFP] US secretary of state in Israel

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel on
Thursday as President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to send a message
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/12/us-top-diplomat-blinken-visits-israel-urges-protection-of-gaza-civilians>
of unequivocal support to its ally Israel and deter regional forces hostile
to it from joining the fight alongside Hamas.

Blinken addressed reporters in Tel Aviv, saying the death toll for US
citizens killed in the attacks by Hamas has risen to at least 25, up from 22
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/11/us-death-toll-in-israel-hamas-war-rises-to-22-officials>
on Wednesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “Thank you, America, for
standing with Israel today, tomorrow and always.”

Also on Thursday, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said he expected
Israel’s military to “do the right thing” as it prepares for a ground
assault on Gaza. He said the US has placed no conditions on military
assistance to Israel.

Rights groups worry that, facing little outside pressure, Israel’s assault
on Gaza could move forward with little regard for civilian casualties or
adherence to international law.
Palestinians killed by settlers in West Bank

While the world’s focus has been fixed on events in Gaza and Israel,
tensions in the occupied West Bank are also at a boiling point with an Israeli
lockdown in place
<https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2023/10/11/palestinians-in-occupied-west-bank-are-under-israeli-lockdown>
and Israeli settlers killing several Palestinians in a series of attacks
over the past week.

On Thursday, a Palestinian father and his son were shot dead
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/12/palestinian-man-son-attending-funeral-procession-in-west-bank-shot-dead>
by Israeli settlers and soldiers taking part in a funeral procession held
for four Palestinians killed in a settler attack the day before.

Also on Thursday, two Palestinians were injured by Israeli forces in a
shooting near a police station in occupied East Jerusalem.

Israeli police said they opened fire at a group of Palestinians after one
man allegedly shot at the police station.
Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies
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