Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli attacks killed at least 39 people on Saturday, warning that intensifying strikes on a Gaza City neighbourhood were placing its remaining residents in mortal danger.
The latest toll comes more than a week after Israel’s security cabinet approved plans to capture the Palestinian territory’s largest city, following 22 months of war that have created dire humanitarian conditions.
Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said conditions in Gaza City’s Zeitun neighbourhood were rapidly deteriorating with residents having little to no access to food and water amid heavy Israeli bombardment.
He said that about 50,000 people were estimated to be in that area of Gaza City, “the majority of whom are without food or water” and lacking “the basic necessities of life”.
Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing swathes of the Palestinian territory mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military.
In recent days, Gaza City residents have told AFP of more frequent air strikes targeting residential areas, including Zeitun, while earlier this week militant group Hamas denounced “aggressive” Israeli ground incursions.
To Bassal, Israel was carrying out “ethnic cleansing” in Zeitun.
Israeli officials have dismissed similar accusations before, and the military insists it abides by international law.
The military is “committed to mitigating civilian harm during operational activity, in strict accordance with international law,” it said in a statement, questioning the reliability of the death tolls provided by the civil defence agency.
Expanded operations
Earlier this month, the Israeli government approved plans to seize Gaza City and neighbouring camps, some of the most densely populated parts of the territory.
On Friday, the Israeli military said its troops were operating in Zeitun.
Ghassan Kashko, 40, who shelters with his family at a school building in the neighbourhood, said, “We don’t know the taste of sleep.”
He said air strikes and tank shelling were causing “explosions… that don’t stop”.
Later Saturday, Hamas said in a statement that Israeli forces had been carrying out a “sustained offensive in the eastern and southern neighbourhoods of Gaza City, particularly in Zeitun”.
The group said the military was targeting the area with warplanes, artillery and drones.
COGAT – the Israeli defence ministry body responsible for civil affairs in the Palestinian territories – said that, starting from Sunday, the military would supply more tents and shelter equipment ahead of the offensive.
“As part of the preparations to move the population from combat zones to the southern Gaza Strip for their protection, the supply of tents and shelter equipment to Gaza will resume,” it said in a statement.
The Israeli plan to expand the war has sparked an international outcry as well as domestic opposition.
UN-backed experts have warned of widespread famine unfolding in the territory, where Israel has drastically curtailed the amount of humanitarian aid it allows in.
According to the civil defence agency, at least 13 of the Palestinians killed on Saturday were shot by troops as they were waiting to collect food aid near distribution sites in the north and in the south.
The war was triggered by Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Israel’s offensive has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, which the United Nations considers reliable.
