Hospitals under attack as Israel deepens ops in northern Gaza

Blinken to make another push to defuse West Asia conflict

Reuters

Cairo, Updated At : 10:21 AM Oct 22, 2024 IST

Palestinians offer prayers next to bodies of those killed in an Israeli strike. Reuters

Israeli forces besieged hospitals and shelters for displaced people in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday as they stepped up their operations against Palestinian militants, residents and medics said.

Troops rounded up men and ordered women to leave the Jabalia historic refugee camp, they said. An Israeli airstrike on a house in Jabalia killed five people and wounded several others, medics said.

The UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA said Israeli authorities were preventing humanitarian missions from reaching areas in the north of the Palestinian enclave with critical supplies, including medicine and food.

Palestinian health officials said at least 18 people had been killed in Jabalia and eight elsewhere in Gaza in Israeli strikes.

The Israeli military said in a statement it was operating against “terrorists and terrorist infrastructure” in the Jabalia area.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will make another push for a ceasefire when he heads to West Asia on Monday, the State Department said, seeking to kick-start negotiations to end the Gaza war and defuse the spillover in Lebanon.