‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 58: Israel Kills 700 in Gaza over 24 Hours as Palestinians Get Forced Further South toward Egypt

PALESTINE - ISRAEL, 4 Dec 2023

Mustafa Abu Sneineh | Mondoweiss - TRANSCEND Media Service

3 Dec 2023 – At least 700 Palestinians were killed in Israeli bombing in Gaza over the past 24 hours as Israel pushes people south to Rafah. In Jerusalem, Israeli forces stormed the house of Al-Aqsa Mosque Iman Shiekh Ekrima Sabri.

Casualties

• 15,207+ killed*, including 6,150 children, and 40,752 wounded in the Gaza Strip.
• 250 Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem
• Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,200

*This figure was confirmed by the Gaza Ministry of Health on December 2. However, due to breakdowns in communication networks within the Gaza Strip (particularly in northern Gaza), the Gaza Ministry of Health has not been able to regularly and accurately update its tolls since mid-November. Some rights groups put the death toll number closer to 20,000.

Key Developments

• Israeli warplanes flattened an entire residential block in the Hamad City development in Khan Younis. The airstrikes were filmed by Palestinians who fled to an open area, knocking down one building after the other.
• 84 bodies arrived at Al-Mamadani Hospital in Gaza Strip, which called for help as it is overwhelmed treating hundreds of injured.
• Israeli forces cut the three main roads that connect Gaza Strip, leading Palestinians to travel off-road on foot.
• Sufyan Al-Tayeh, 52, the rector of the Gaza Islamic University was killed along with his family in an Israeli airstrike in Al-Faluja area in Jabalia on Saturday.
• The Palestine Red Crescent Society said that it received 100 aid trucks on Saturday evening from Egypt, carrying food, water, relief aid, medical supplies, and medicines.
• The director of UNRWA affairs in Gaza said that Israel cut fuel by 50 percent since the bombardment resumed on Friday and warned of Hepatitis A liver infection outbreak.
• Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, warned that Israel has attempted to push nearly 1 million Palestinians from Gaza into Egypt.
• Hamas launched a barrage of rockets from north Gaza. Sirens went off in Tel Aviv and other towns on Saturday, and one Israeli was injured in the town of Holon.
• France’s President Emmanuel Macron cautioned on Saturday that the war in the Gaza Strip could last a decade.
• Israeli forces stormed the house of Shiekh Ekrima Sabri, a prominent Imam in Jerusalem and the preacher at Al-Aqsa Mosque. Sabri was notified of a demolition order for five floors of the residential building, where he lives, in the Al-Sawana neighborhood.

Israel bombs homes in Khan Younis; Gaza Islamic University rector killed in Jabalia

At least 700 Palestinians were killed in Israeli bombardments in Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, according to Gaza’s government media office on Sunday morning.

On Friday, Israel resumed the genocide in Gaza Strip and focused firepower in Khan Younis, and the center and north of Gaza. Israeli forces have now told people to evacuate to the southernmost city of Rafah on the border with Egypt. However, Rafah is not a “safe zone” as Israeli artillery shelled the eastern parts of it on Saturday.

Israeli warplanes flattened an entire residential block in Khan Younis called Hamad City, a project initiated after the visit of Qatar’s former emir to Gaza in 2012, to build 60,000 affordable housing units for families. The airstrikes were filmed by Palestinians who fled to an open area, knocking down one building after the other.

On Saturday evening, 13 Palestinians were killed in Al-Qarara town, northeast of Khan Younis, following an Israeli airstrike that bombed the houses of al-Abadla, al-Nujaili, and al-Astal families. Israeli strikes targeted paramedics and rescue teams, injuring several people, in Al-Maghazai refugee camp in central Gaza, the official news agency Wafa reported.

Israeli forces also bombed from land, sea, and air Palestinian houses in Al-Nuseirat camp in central Gaza Strip on Saturday night. Homes belonging to al-Assar and Zaqout families in the camp, killing at least 13 people and injuring dozens who were transferred to Al-Awda Hospital.

A residential building in the north of Gaza City’s Al-Saftawi neighbourhood and Al-Jalaa Street was bombed Israeli forces, which launched airstrikes on the neighbourhoods of Al-Tuffah, Al-Daraj, Al-Shujaiya, and Al-Sabra in Gaza City.

On Sunday morning, 84 bodies arrived at Al-Mamadani Hospital in Gaza Strip, which called for help as it is overwhelmed treating hundreds of injured.

The director of Al-Awda Hospital told Al-Jazeera on Sunday morning that they potentially could cease offering medical services due to the lack of supplies.

Israeli forces cut the three main roads that connect Gaza Strip, leading Palestinians to travel off-road on foot, or if possible, in cars. However, due to the rubble and the immense destruction caused by Israeli bombardment, cars can not drive in most areas.

At least 150 Palestinians were killed in the Al-Shujaiya neighborhood in a bombing on a residential block near Diwan Muntaha, Wafa’s correspondent reported on Saturday evening.

Sufyan Al-Tayeh, 52, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Al-Faluja area in Jabalia on Saturday. Tayeh is a Palestinian researcher in physics and applied mathematics and the rector of the Gaza Islamic University. The Palestinian Minister of Education, Mahmoud Abu Mouis, said in a statement that “President of the Islamic University Dr. Sufian Tayeh and his family were martyred today as a result of [an Israeli] occupation airstrike on the Faluja area in Gaza.”

On October 11, Israeli forces bombed the Gaza Islamic University and destroyed a number of its buildings, including the library.

By Sunday afternoon, the Ministry of Health had not updated the number of those killed since October 7. Its latest estimates on Saturday stood at 15,207 Palestinians killed and 40,752, adding that 70 percent of them were women and children, and 280 were medical personnel.

“[The] ongoing hostilities and heavy bombardment in Gaza are petrifying”

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said that it received 100 aid trucks on Saturday evening from Egypt, carrying food, water, relief aid, medical supplies, and medicines, though this is not enough to ease the crisis in the Gaza Strip.

Thomas White, the director of UNRWA affairs in Gaza, said that Israel cut fuel by 50 percent since the bombardment resumed on Friday.

“Fuel is vital to saving lives – with the end of the ‘pause’ the Israeli authorities have made the decision to cut fuel for humanitarian aid by 50% – this will cost more lives,” he tweeted on Saturday.

White also warned of the outbreak of Hepatitis A among people in Gaza, where there is an average of one toilet per 125 people. Hepatitis A is a contagious short-lived liver infection spread through food, water, or personal contact.

“Sanitation is an issue. People are jammed in very congested [UNRWA] classrooms… the risk of disease is very much present in Gaza,” he said of

Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, warned that Israel is attempted to push nearly 1 million Palestinians from Gaza into Egypt.

“If there is fighting there is indeed a higher likelihood that they might wish to flee further south and beyond the border,” he said.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director of World Health Organization (WHO) said “the reports of ongoing hostilities and heavy bombardment in Gaza are petrifying.”

“[On Saturday], our team visited Nassar Medical Hospital in the south. It was packed with 1,000 patients, 3 times over its capacity. Countless people were seeking shelter, filling every corner of the facility,” he wrote on X platform.

“Patients were receiving care on the floor, screaming in pain. These conditions are beyond inadequate – unimaginable for the provision of health care. I cannot find words strong enough to express our concern over what we’re witnessing. Ceasefire. NOW,” he added.

Israel and Hezbollah exchange fire, Hamas releases footage of targeting tanks in Gaza

Since Friday, the fighting resumed between Palestinian freedom fighters and Israeli occupation forces in several areas north of Gaza Strip, where Israel launched its ground incursion on October 28.

The Hamas movement released on Saturday a compilation of footage of targeting the occupation forces in Beit Hanoun, northeast of Gaza City, an area believed to be under Israeli forces control since late October.

It shows the snipping of an Israeli soldier inside a building, the firing of 105mm Al-Yaseen ani-tank shells on military tanks, a bulldozer, and an armored personal carrier. The movement also released footage of firing a barrage of rockets from north of Gaza Strip, where the Israeli forces are closely stationed, according to Al-Jazeera.

Sirens went off in Tel Aviv and other Israeli towns on the 57^th day of the war. One Israeli was injured in the town of Holon, south of Tel Aviv. A technical malfunction of the Iron Dome caused an interceptor missile to misfire and crash in central Israel. No injuries were reported in local media.

Al-Jazeera reported armed clashes on Sunday morning in Sheikh Radwan and Al-Nasr, two neighborhoods in the north of Gaza. Hamas’ Ezz El-Din Al-Qassam Brigades said that they targeted “five Zionist army vehicles” in Dier Al-Balah town and 60 infantry soldiers with explosives in Juhor ad-Dik in the center of the Gaza Strip.

Islamic Jihad also said they launched a barrage of rockets on the Israeli settlements of Raim and Mivtahim, close to the Gaza Strip.

Israel said that since Friday it had hit 400 targets in Gaza Strip, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had vowed to “destroy Hamas” in a speech on Saturday.

Israel said that 398 soldiers and police officers were killed since October 7. It revealed that on Saturday, Assaf Hamami, 41, a colonel and the commander of the Southern Brigade in the Gaza Division, was killed during a Hamas surprise attack.

Hamami is one of the most senior military personnel to be announced dead since October 7. Ynet reported that his body is held by Hamas, who has yet to comment.

On Sunday, fire was exchanged between the Lebanese movement Hezbollah and Israeli forces continued. Hezbollah said in a statement that it targeted a military vehicle in Beit Hillel base in the Upper Galilee, and army sites in Shebaa farms, including Zebdine.

Israeli military spokesperson confirmed that four soldiers were injured by shrapnel of an anti-armour shell in Beit Hillel and said that the Israeli artillery bombed “the source of the firing” in Lebanon.

Two Palestinians killed in West Bank, Al-Aqsa imam’s house stormed in Jerusalem

France’s President Emmanuel Macron cautioned on Saturday that the war in Gaza Strip could last a decade.

“We are at a moment when Israeli authorities must more precisely define their objectives and their final goal: the total destruction of Hamas, does anyone think it is possible? If this is the case, the war will last 10 years,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Colombian President Gustavo Petro shared footage on X platform of injured Palestinian children rescued from under the rubble and rushed to the hospital.

“They [Israelis] claim this is not Nazi-like; killing 5,300 Palestinian boys and girls is a Nazi practice, despite the West’s reluctance to acknowledge this truth,” he wrote.

On Sunday morning, Israeli forces killed Adnan Issam Zaid, 21, during a raid on the town of Qalqilya. Zaid was on his way to his workplace at a bakery when he was shot by Israeli forces, who fired live bullets, stun grenades, and tear gas canisters at Palestinians.

On Saturday evening, Israeli settlers killed Ahmed Mustafa Assi, 38, from Qarwat Bani Hassan, a village west of Salfit in the occupied West Bank.

Assi, a father of six children, was attacked and shot by settlers with live bullets and left to bleed. Three others were injured after settlers attacked Qarwat Bani Hassan accompanied by Israeli forces, Wafa reported. Settlers burned the house of Shaher Mari and a car and vandalized houses in Al-Ras area in Qarwat Bani Hassan village on Saturday when residents went out to confront them.

Footage released on Saturday show Israeli soldiers and settlers attack a Palestinian family near the city of Hebron. The family looks like they were having a picnic on a hill when a soldier pushes them out from the area and aim his rifle cursing and throwing stone at them.

Israeli forces arrested 60 Palestinians from cities and towns in occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank. At least 3,480 people have been arrested since October 7, and 250 have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers.

On Sunday morning, Israeli forces stormed the house of Shiekh Ekrima Sabri, a prominent Imam in Jerusalem and the preacher at Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Sabri was notified of a demolition order for five floors of the residential building where his family lives in the Al-Sawana neighborhood.

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