In Gaza, at least 3,648 children and 2,187 women have died since the start of the war. Over 22,240 Palestinians have been injured, according to the U.N. humanitarian coordination affairs office.
TN Ashok / Agencies / WEB DESK
The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) were within reach of Gaza city as they engaged Hamas militants in heavy gun fire Thursday killing dozens as more injured civilians and foreign nationals were expected to enter Egypt through the Rafah border crossing, which opened partially the previous day.
“The IDF continues to advance in the Gaza City area, conducting face-to-face battles with Hamas terrorists and deepening the fighting,” Daniel Hagari, spokesperson for IDF, said in a press statement Thursday. “The battle is progressing as we planned,” he said .
Israeli forces launched an expanded ground invasion last Friday calling it the 2nd stage of their war against Hamas and have since made significant advances into the Gaza Strip. “We are located at the gates of Gaza City,” said Brig Gen. Itzik Cohen, commander of the 162nd Armored Division, on Wednesday.
A large number of Americans have left Gaza and more are expected to follow them , a US state department official said in Washington. Department spokesman Matthew Miller said about 400 U.S. citizens are seeking to leave the territory immediately, taking the total to more than 1,000 if you included their family members also, USA TODAY reported.
Officials from Australia, Bulgaria, France, the U.K. and the U.S. announced Wednesday the first lot of their nationals crossed Gaza through the Rafah border to Egypt.
The latest developments on the war front show a large number of journalists covering the war were killed in the crossfire. Some 33 journalists and media workers have been killed as of Thursday, preliminary investigations by the Committee to Protect Journalists show.
The U.N. on Wednesday reported that so far 227 aid trucks have been allowed into Gaza since the borders opened between Gaza and Rafa which included 10 trucks carrying water, food and medicine on Wednesday. The expanded Israeli ground operations have complicated an already complex situation cutting off Gaza City and northern Gaza from the rest of the strip, preventing humanitarian aid from reaching the south to some 300,000 internally displaced persons in the north, the U.N. said.
Connectivity was gradually being restored to civilians in Gaza who had suffered communication blackouts. Internet and communication services have been repeatedly interrupted in Gaza and humanitarian aid agencies have warned that blackouts severely disrupt their work, media reports said.
The Palestinian death toll has touched the figure of 8,805, Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza claimed. In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, 130 Palestinians have been killed, authorities there said. More than 1,400 Israelis have died, most of them civilians killed in the first hours of the Oct. 7 Hamas rampage, Israeli authorities say.
In Gaza, at least 3,648 children and 2,187 women have died since the start of the war. Over 22,240 Palestinians have been injured, according to the U.N. humanitarian coordination affairs office.
Israeli airstrikes pounded the Jabaliya refugee camp on Tuesday and Wednesday, killing a key Hamas figure and drawing the ire of the U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, whose spokesperson said he is “is appalled over the escalating violence in Gaza,” including the killing of Palestinians by Israeli airstrikes. “He condemns in the strongest terms, any killings of civilians,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.,
Americans awaiting evacuation from Gaza: ‘The situation is so horrible’. Yaser Betar, a native of Denton, Texas, has been attempting to leave the Hamas-controlled territory for weeks, ever since the Israel Defense Forces began its counterattack after a surprise invasion triggered the worst escalation in the conflict in decades.
“The situation is so horrible here in Gaza. Definitely, I will never come back again,” Betar texted in a WhatsApp message to USA TODAY.