‘This is a tense life’: Teenager speaks from Gaza’s bombed humanitarian zone

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Written by Super User

Category: MENA

Published: 09 October 2024

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By BEL TREW

ISRAELI OCCUPIED GAZA - A teenager from north Gaza has shared what her life is like living in a tent after she was displaced under Israeli bombardment.

Enas Tantesh is 17 years old and lives in the Al Mawasi so-called humanitarian zone.

“This is a tense life... You cannot set a routine, you cannot do whatever you want. You might be displaced or even die at any moment,” she said.

Enas was displaced after Israel unleashed its heaviest-ever bombardment of Gaza and a siege last October after Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 as hostages, according to Israeli estimates.

Since then, Israel’s retaliatory bombardment of Gaza has killed almost 42,000 people, the majority women and children, according to the Palestinian health ministry. A further 10,000 are thought to be under the rubble and an unknown number have been taken into Israeli detention.

Over 41,900 Palestinians killed in year of war in Gaza

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Written by Super User

Category: MENA

Published: 07 October 2024

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ISRAELI OCCUPIED GAZA - Gaza's death toll rose to 41,909 on Monday, exactly one year since the start of the war which has devastated much of the Palestinian enclave and displaced almost the entire population.

Thirty-five people were killed in the space of 24 hours, the health ministry said, with 137 others wounded, taking the total number of injured to 97,303 since the war began.

More than 60 per cent of the dead are women and children.

Israeli attacks have killed 986 medical workers and damaged 65 per cent of health facilities, with remaining hospitals operating at 300 per cent capacity, the ministry added.

Twelve thousand cancer patients are deprived of treatment, and hundreds of kidney disease patients have died after being deprived of dialysis treatment.

"The ugliness of the scene that has been going on for a year is still weighing heavily on the chest of our people in our beloved strip, the ministry said."

"We confirm that we are committed to performing our humanitarian mission, no matter the sacrifices it costs us."

At least 19 killed after Israeli strike on mosque in Gaza

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Written by Super User

Category: MENA

Published: 06 October 2024

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OCCUPIED GAZA - An Israeli strike on a mosque in the Gaza Strip early Sunday killed at least 19 people, Palestinian officials said, as Israel intensified its bombardment of northern Gaza and southern Beirut in its widening war on Iran-allied militant groups across the region.

Israel is still battling Hamas in Gaza nearly a year after its October 7 attack, and has opened a new front against Hezbollah in Lebanon, which has been trading fire with Israel along the border since the war in Gaza began. Israel has also vowed to strike Iran itself after it launched a ballistic missile attack on the country last week.

The widening conflict risks drawing in the United States, which has provided crucial military and diplomatic support to Israel, as well as US-allied Arab countries that host American forces. Iran-allied militant groups in Syria, Iraq and Yemen have also joined in with long-distance strikes on Israel.

The strike in Gaza hit a mosque where displaced people were sheltering near the main hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah. Israel said it targeted a Hamas command and control centre embedded among civilians, without providing evidence.

An Associated Press journalist counted the bodies at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital morgue. Hospital records showed that the dead were all men, while another man was wounded.

The military meanwhile announced a new air and ground offensive in Jabaliya, in northern Gaza, home to a densely populated refugee camp dating back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation. It circulated photos and video footage showing a column of tanks heading towards the area.

The military said its forces had encircled Jabaliya as warplanes struck militant sides ahead of their advance. Over the course of the war, Israel has carried out several large operations there, only to see militants regroup.

Israel also ordered new evacuations in northern Gaza, which largely emptied out in the early weeks of the war when Israel ordered its entire population to flee south. Up to 300,000 people are estimated to have remained there despite harsh conditions and heavy destruction.

"We are in a new phase of the war," the military said in leaflets dropped over the area. "These areas are considered dangerous combat zones."

Avichay Adraee, a spokesman for the Israeli military, said it has expanded the so-called humanitarian zone in southern Gaza, urging people to head there. The zone includes sprawling tent camps where hundreds of thousands of people have already sought refuge, and Israel has carried out strikes inside it against what it says are fighters sheltering among civilians.

Palestinian residents reported heavy Israeli strikes across northern Gaza. The Civil Defence, first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government, said several homes and buildings had been hit and they were not able to reach them because of the bombardment.

Many posted about the airstrikes and mourned their relatives on social media. Imad Alarabid said in a Facebook post that an airstrike on his home in Jabaliya killed a dozen of his family members, including his parents.

Local journalists said one of their colleagues, Hassan Hamd, was killed in artillery shelling on his home in Jabaliya. He had worked as a freelance TV reporter and his footage had aired on Al Jazeera and other networks. Anas al-Sharif, an Al Jazeera reporter in northern Gaza, confirmed his death.

The latest strikes add to the mounting Palestinian death toll in Gaza, which is nearing 42,000, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths, but many of the dead were women and children.

Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in the 7 Oct attack and took another 250 hostage. They are still holding around 100 captives, a third of whom are believed to be dead.