GAZA: Israeli forces and Hamas were locked in heavy, close quarters fighting in Gaza City on Thursday, including a ten-hour battle.
Broken palm trees, twisted lampposts, and mangled road signs marked the remains of what was once north Gaza’s main arterial route.
Israeli flags were flying over buildings at beach resorts in northern Gaza Strip and there was little sign of any human presence amid the devastation as hundreds of thousands have fled a dire humanitarian situation, AFP reported.
The intense fighting and the densely populated coastal territory being effectively sealed off have resulted in increasingly dire conditions for civilians.
French President Emmanuel Macron urged countries to “work towards a ceasefire” between Israel and Palestine, as he opened a conference in Paris on assistance to the Palestinian territory.
Israel would not attend the meeting, which aims to mobilize the key players involved in the humanitarian response in the Gaza Strip.
Catastrophic situation in Gaza
Chief surgeon at the International Committee of the Red Cross Tom Potokar described the scene at the European hospital in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza as “catastrophic”.
Potokar said that in the last 24 hours, he has seen three patients with maggots in their wounds.
A rare delivery of emergency medical supplies reached the main Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Wednesday, just the second since the war erupted, the UN and World Health Organization (WHO) said, warning it “far from sufficient to respond to the immense needs”.
The army said that fifty thousand people had fled their homes in the main battle zone of northern Gaza on Wednesday, a sharp increase in numbers from earlier this week, adding to over 1.5 million people already seeking safety in the south of the coastal enclave.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs confirmed the figure, and warned conditions were desperate in battle zones north of the central Wadi Gaza district.
