Israelis say conquest of Hamas stronghold of Jabaliya in northern Gaza Strip is complete

Israeli forces continued to pound Gaza on Tuesday and announced they had completed the conquest of the Hamas stronghold of Jabaliya in the north of the strip, estimating that about 1,000 militants were killed in the operation.

The Hamas-run health ministry reported that more than 19,600 people in Gaza have been killed in the war, which began on October 7th after Hamas-led gunmen stormed into southern Israel, killing 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities, and kidnapping 240.

Israeli special forces fighting inside Hamas tunnels under Gaza City on Tuesday were also trying to locate Hamas command-and-control centres in tunnels under the southern city of Khan Younis, from where Israel believes the Hamas leadership is directing its fighters.

A spokesman for Unrwa, the United Nations refugee agency, warned on Tuesday of an irreversible humanitarian crisis developing.

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“We are encountering people begging and collecting food on a scale we have never seen before in the Gaza Strip,” said the spokesman, Adnan Abu Hasna. “In addition, we are witnessing the spread of diseases in the refugee camps – such as lung and eye and skin diseases, as well as diseases of the digestive tract and meningitis.”

Israeli missiles on Tuesday hit the southern Rafah area, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees have amassed in recent weeks, killing at least 20 people and wounding dozens as they slept at home, local health officials said.

[ Death of a Gazan family: ‘Everyone in this video has been killed’ ]

Residents said they had to dig into the rubble with bare hands to rescue people. “This is a barbarian act,” said Mohammed Zurub, whose family lost 11 people in the attack.

In the north, another strike killed 13 people and wounded about 75 in the Jabalia refugee camp, the health ministry said. Local Palestinians reported intensifying Israeli aerial and tank bombardment of Jabalia as darkness descended later on Tuesday.

Israel said it warns of strikes on particular areas in advance so civilians can escape, and accuses Hamas fighters of hunkering down in residential areas and using hospitals and schools as cover, which the Islamist group denies.

President Yitzhak Herzog said Israel was ready for another humanitarian pause in Gaza to secure the release of more hostages and the delivery of much-needed aid. Addressing the diplomatic corps in Jerusalem on Tuesday, he blamed the United Nations for the backlog in aid deliveries via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

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A delegation of senior Hamas leaders will travel to Cairo in the coming days to discuss another hostage deal with Egyptian intelligence officials, according to Palestinian sources. Egypt, together with Qatar and the United States, was a key mediator in last month’s deal which saw 110 hostages freed during a one-week pause in the fighting.

However, the sides are still far apart, with Israel rejecting the Hamas condition for a permanent end to the war before the remaining 129 hostages can be released.

The former head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, Yossi Cohen, said those in charge of Israel’s security on October 7th must take responsibility for the intelligence failure, adding that there were “people who have said it publicly, and those who haven’t – we’re still expecting it”, in comments widely believed to be a reference to prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

Israel on Tuesday released a video of an investigation into the director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan hospital, in which he is recorded saying thatabout 16 hospital employees worked for the Hamas military wing.

In the video, the hospital director, Ahmad Kahlot, is seen telling an Israeli interrogator that Hamas operatives hid in the hospital because they believed it was a safe space and they also brought a kidnapped soldier there, using a private ambulance with no licence plates, which was also used to transfer bodies. – Additional reporting: Reuters