Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za

3-minute read
29 December 2023 | 17:07 CAT

Casualties rise as Israeli forces pound central and southern areas of the enclave, including overcrowded refugee camps.

As the Israeli military pounded central and Southern Gaza by land, sea and air, Palestinian authorities reported scores of casualties, and the United Nations Health Agency said thousands of people were trying to flee the widening offensive.

Israel’s unprecedented air and ground offensive against Hamas has displaced some 85% of the Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million residents, sending swells of people seeking shelter in Israeli-designated safe areas that the military has nevertheless also bombed. That has left Palestinians with a harrowing sense that nowhere is safe in the tiny enclave.

“The confusion that Israelis have created by directing people to move to specific areas and bombarded those areas when people arrived to the region,” Gulf Studies Centre director, Professor Mahjoob Zweiri, told Radio Islam International.

Along the eastern border, the Israeli military continues its artillery shelling campaign, destroying more residential buildings in the east part of Khan Younis, Rafah, as well as the central area and the northern part of Gaza.

It is consistent with clearing the entire eastern area and preparing it for a buffer zone. It follows the narrative of making that area completely out of service in terms of schools and health facilities and eventually uninhabitable and eventually squeezing people into a small area and finally into expulsion.

Israeli forces were pressing on with their operations in the northern part of the enclave, leaving hundreds of thousands of fleeing Palestinians with no safe place left to shelter.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) said its staff had seen thousands of people fleeing heavy strikes in Khan Younis on foot, donkeys, or cars. Makeshift shelters were being built along the road.

“WHO is extremely concerned this fresh displacement of people will further strain health facilities in the south, which are already struggling to meet the population’s immense needs,” said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the occupied Palestinian territories.

“This forced mass movement of people will also lead to more overcrowding, increased risk of infectious diseases and make it even harder to deliver humanitarian aid,” WHO stated.

Listen to the full interview on the Daily Round-Up with Muallimah Annisa Essack.