Israel steps up attack on Gaza, tens of thousands are trapped in Jabalia | Israel-Gaza war

Israel has launched new airstrikes and sent more troops to the Gaza Strip. This briefly dashed many residents of the area’s hope that the assassination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar could end the devastating conflict.

Sinwar, 62, was killed on Thursday by tank fire aimed at a building in Rafah, in the far south of the Gaza Strip, after an exchange of fire with an Israeli patrol.

At least 30 people, including 20 children and women, were killed in an Israeli attack on Jabalia, the largest of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps and the scene of fierce fighting in recent weeks between Israeli forces and Hamas militants who have regrouped there. More than 50 other people were injured in the attack, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency WAFA reported early Saturday.

According to Palestinian health authorities in Gaza, several more airstrikes were reported on Thursday and Friday, killing at least 62 people.

Tens of thousands of civilians are believed to be trapped in Jabalia, where conditions are deteriorating.

Israeli military officials said Israel was sending reinforcements to strengthen its operation in Jabalia, raising fears of an escalation of violence there.

“We always thought that [Sinwar was killed] The war would end and our lives would return to normal,” said Jemaa Abou Mendi, a 21-year-old Gaza resident. “But unfortunately the reality on the ground is exactly the opposite. The war has not stopped and the killings continue unabated.”

Mustafa al-Zaeem, 47, a resident of the Rimal neighborhood in western Gaza City, said Israel had achieved one of its key war goals and should stop fighting. “If Sinwar’s assassination was one of the goals of this war, then today they killed Yahya Sinwar,” Zaeem said. “Enough death, enough hunger, enough siege. Enough thirst and hunger, enough body and blood.”

Some in Gaza said they were inspired by images the Israeli military released of Sinwar’s final moments, showing the veteran leader covered in dust, wounded and with a Palestinian keffiyeh wrapped around his head. In the footage, Sinwar appears to throw a stick at a drone that was tracking him into a half-destroyed apartment.

Adel Rajab, 60, said he did not support the Oct. 7 attacks that sparked the conflict and believed Palestinians were not prepared for all-out war with Israel, but he considered Sinwar’s death heroic. “He died wearing a military vest, fighting with a rifle and grenades, and when he was wounded and bleeding, he fought with a stick. This is how heroes die.”

A poll in September found that a majority of people in Gaza believed the attack on Israel, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and led to the kidnapping of 250 people, was the wrong decision, and a growing number of Palestinians viewed Sinwar’s willingness to attack to start, questioned the war that had caused them so much suffering.

Palestinian authorities said Friday that more than 42,500 people have been killed since the Israeli offensive began. Most are civilians. Almost 100,000 were injured.

Haniyeh Ashour, 48, said recent heavy bombings had forced her family from their makeshift shelter at a hospital. “These two weeks were one of the worst weeks we have experienced in this war. We have seen death many times. My children and I don’t know what it’s like to sleep, and when there’s a bomb attack nearby, we get scared. We are just waiting for the missile that will send our souls to my children and my husband,” said Ashour, whose husband and three sons were previously killed in the conflict.

Much of the northern Gaza Strip remains under siege by Israeli forces and road closures are preventing the delivery of aid to the area, although the US has warned that a failure of the blockade could lead to a reduction in arms shipments to Israel.

“While we hear that aid deliveries will increase, the people of Gaza feel no difference,” Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, wrote on X. “They remain trapped, often hungry and sick .” under heavy bombardment.”

Israel said it sent about 30 truckloads of aid to northern Gaza on Friday, including food, water, medical supplies and shelter equipment. “We are fighting against Hamas, we are not fighting against the people of Gaza,” Nadav Shoshani, a military spokesman, told reporters in an online briefing.

On Friday, health officials in Gaza called for the immediate delivery of fuel, medical supplies and food to three hospitals in the north, which were overwhelmed by the number of patients and injured. “We are facing shortages of medical equipment, medicines and power outages. We use our cell phones or a battery just to light a lamp and have to operate almost in the dark. We cannot perform a cesarean section because there is no oxygen or electricity,” said Ahmed al-Masry, a 68-year-old obstetrician.

Israel has issued evacuation orders for residents across almost the entire northern Gaza Strip, but many are unable or unwilling to obey them.

“We know that there is no safe place in either the north or the south, and I also fear that if we go south, they will occupy our lands and our homes and we will not be able to return to the north. and that’s what they’re trying to do, so we’re still hanging in there,” Masry said. “We just hope the war stops.”

As winter approaches, there is acute fear for the 345,000 people in the area who are predicted to face “catastrophic” levels of hunger, according to a recent UN survey.

“We only get contaminated water and canned food from aid organizations because we have neither a source of income nor work. We can’t buy food because everything is expensive,” Ashour said. “But the biggest problem we face is finding security. Wherever we go, there is no security at all.”

With additional reporting from Agence France-Presse and Reuters