Israeli army issues statement about Nuseirat operation
The Israeli army has said in a short statement that it is targeting “militant” infrastructure in the Nuseirat area, where Gaza’s Health Ministry reported dozens of casualties.
Images from central Gaza show children and women being rushed to the hospital.
It is unusual for Israel’s military to inform about its actions while its operations are still under way.
‘Everyone is terrified’
Al-Aqsa Hospital is overwhelmed. People are on the floor. Medics, volunteers, everyone is trying to help them. There’s no place for them.
They’re even trying to put injured people in other departments. The doctors are trying their best to rescue as many people as possible, but there are a lot of severe critical injuries right now, and everyone is terrified.
We’re talking about an area that’s been having hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians who evacuated from Rafah in the past couple of weeks, and they came here because the Israeli forces told them that the middle area is a designated “safe area”.
Again, there is no safe place in Gaza, and people are now homeless, terrified, horrified, fearing another wave of violence and air strikes, and they don’t know where to hide or where to go.
A wounded man lies on a gurney in the shade, out side the Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir el-Balah, Friday
Israeli forces launch ‘unprecedented brutal attack’ on Nuseirat
Gaza’s Government Media Office says the Israeli forces have launched “an unprecedented brutal attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp”, leaving dozens of people killed and wounded in the streets.
“[It] continues its aggression against all areas of the Central Governorate [Deir el-Balah], and Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital is in a catastrophic situation,” it said.
Israeli forces launched “a barbaric and brutal aggression” in the camp, directly targeting civilians, the office said, adding that ambulances and civil defence cannot reach the area due to the intensity of the bombing.
The office warned that Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital is the only hospital in Deir el-Balah currently working on only one electric generator; if the sole generator stops, “a real disaster” will ensue.
“This hospital provides health services to a million people and displaced persons, and it cannot accommodate this large number of martyrs and injuries,” it said.
It called on the international community, the UN and all international organisations “to intervene immediately and urgently save the hospital and save the health situation in the Central Governorate”.
“We hold the [Israeli] occupation and the American administration fully responsible for this catastrophic crime in which the blood of dozens of innocent civilians was shed,” it said.
“We call on the international community and all international organisations to stop this brutal aggression continued by the ‘Israeli’ occupation, and we demand that they stop the genocidal war immediately and urgently.”
A man carries a casualty in the aftermath of an Israeli strike, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah, Saturday
Israeli forces attacking by air, land and sea
What we’re hearing from the Israeli army in a very short statement is that they’re going after “terrorist infrastructure” in Nuseirat refugee camp. But that is a statement that’s very difficult to square with the pictures we’re seeing of women and children being rushed to the hospital.
A far bigger operation than we’ve seen perhaps in recent weeks. The Israeli military says it is going after terrorist infrastructure. A week ago they said that they’d hit terrorist infrastructure in Rafah but actually some 45 civilians were killed in what was called the Rafah massacre.
We don’t know how many people are dead arriving at Al-Aqsa Hospital but that number does seem to be rising.
Palestinians watch smoke rising from the residential area following the Israeli attacks on Deir el-Balah, Gaza, Saturday
