Fighting rages in Jabalia as Palestinians wounded
The Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, says via a statement that it attacked four Israeli army Merkava tanks in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip.
It added that, working with the Quds Brigades, the fighting force of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, it attacked an additional tank in Jabalia and clashed with a group of Israeli soldiers that accompanied it, killing and wounding them.
Additionally, Al Jazeera’s correspondent has reported constant shelling of residential neighbourhoods in Jabalia over the last several hours.
Video posted on Instagram – and verified by Al Jazeera – by Palestinian journalist Ahmed Hamdan shows the recovery of injured residents from one such attack earlier today by a Red Crescent ambulance crew.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C7BuWVpNmCS
Video shows strike on house adjacent to Rafah hospital
Video posted on Instagram and verified by Al Jazeera shows smoke rising just beyond the gate of Kuwati Hospital in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city. Israeli forces have been stepping up attacks on Rafah as they proceed with their offensive on the city, where more than 1 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering.
This assault has taken a toll on Rafah’s already stressed medical system. This week, Doctors Without Borders announced its teams had decided to evacuate the Indonesian Hospital in the city due to the frequency and proximity of Israeli attacks there. It said it referred the 22 patients still at the hospital to other care centres and it “could no longer guarantee their safety”.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C7B_el7tAJQ
Palestinian fighters claim attacks on Israeli forces in Gaza’s Jabalia
Palestinian fighters are claiming dozens of new attacks on Israeli troops and armoured vehicles every day as the Israeli military is advancing on the Jabalia refugee camp in the north.
In Jabalia on Thursday afternoon so far, Hamas and other groups, including the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, have claimed to:
- Target an Israeli artillery emplacement with mortar shells
- Destroy a command headquarters for ground troops with heavy-calibre mortar shells
- Attack multiple Merkava tanks with Yassin-105 shells
- Hit an observation site east of Jabalia with mortar shells
- Destroy tanks with planted explosive devices
- Use anti-armour shells to incapacitate D9 military bulldozers
Israeli military destroying schools, clinics in Jabalia, Zeitoun: Monitor
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor reports that Israeli forces are intentionally destroying more schools and medical facilities during a ground invasion of the Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City and Jabalia in northern Gaza.
After the Israeli military withdrawal on Wednesday from Zeitoun – which was attacked for a third time – it revealed the destruction of Ain Jalut, Atta al-Shawa and Hassan al-Nakhalah schools, as well as the Zeitoun Medical Clinic, according to the Geneva-based organisation.
In the Sabra neighbourhood in Gaza City, Israeli warplanes hit a four-story clinic run by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
Israeli forces also bombed or opened fire on six UNRWA schools in Jabalia, according to the human rights group.
“As part of its military assault on the Gaza Strip, ongoing for nearly eight months, the Israeli army has worked methodically to militarise civilian objects, turning places like hospitals, schools, and other educational institutions into military bases, in clear violation of international law and the conventions on war.”
Israeli army’s destruction of more schools, health centres in Gaza is additional manifestation of genocide https://t.co/ILAGMYDmOW
— Euro-Med Monitor (@EuroMedHR) May 16, 2024
No food or water for days for northern Gaza residents
Thousands of Palestinians in northern Gaza have been cut off from water and food for nearly a week as Israeli forces carry out an increasingly deadly incursion.
“We have been receiving dozens of appeals from the residents of the city of Beit Hanoon who have been besieged for the fifth day,” the Gaza government’s media office says.
Beit Hanoon is northeast of Jabalia. Israeli forces resumed ground and air attacks on northern Gaza’s densely populated Jabalia refugee camp this week. Israel said in January it pulled its troops out of the devastated north – where famine has taken hold – after claiming it “dismantled” Hamas.
