Israel Army Advances Into The Densely Populated Southern Gaza Region

The number of Palestinian deaths in the Gaza Strip has increased, and on Monday the Israeli military increased its operations there.

According to army spokesperson Daniel Hagari, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) “operates wherever Hamas has strongholds,” which was stated late on Sunday night.

On October 27, Israeli forces began a ground invasion in Gaza, seizing control of several northern districts. Following the expiration of a week-long truce with Hamas, violence resumed on Friday. The army has mostly carried out airstrikes. Thousands of refugees have sought safety from the violence in the south, where its troops and tanks are currently advancing.

Several individuals were killed by a midnight airstrike that struck the entrance to Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, according to the Palestinian Wafa news agency.

This strike was referred to by Hamas as a “serious violation” of international humanitarian law.

When the AFP asked the Israeli army if it had bombed the hospital, it did not answer right away. Israel charges Hamas with utilizing citizens as human shields and installing military equipment inside or beneath hospitals.

While states are still required by international law to safeguard civilian life during battle, some critics argue that Israel employs the human shield argument as a means of diverting attention from its own actions. Critics point out that Israel has provided evidence that Hamas uses hospitals to hide its troops.

Three of the five soldiers who had died on Sunday were reported dead by the IDF on Monday.

Earlier, the Israeli army used over thirty military vehicles to conduct operations throughout the occupied West Bank, particularly in Jenin. The flood of wounded is overwhelming hospitals in southern Gaza, and fuel supplies for generators are nearly depleting.

Following each blast, fresh casualties and bodies—sometimes without an identity—pour into the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younes, the biggest in the southern Gaza region.

“It is impossible for me to express the atrocities that befall the children here,” James Elder, a Unicef representative who was at Nasser, stated in a video on Sunday. He said earlier on X, “I see children arriving en masse among the victims.”

Israel’s army has launched “around 10,000 airstrikes” since the war’s beginning, the IDF reported on Sunday.

Following Hamas’ deadly onslaught on southern Israel on October 7, 15,523 individuals have died in all, with women and children making up 70% of the dead, according to a report released by Palestinian officials on Sunday.

According to Ashraf al-Qidreh, a spokesman for the Gaza health ministry, “Only 316 dead and 664 injured were able to be taken out of the rubble and brought to hospitals during the past hours, but many others are still under the rubble.”

The United States forewarned its main Middle Eastern ally about the increasing number of civilian deaths, without questioning Israel’s right “to defend itself”.

Vice President Kamala Harris expressed her alarm at “devastating” photographs from Gaza this past weekend, saying, “Too many innocent Palestinians have been killed.” Israel should “do more to protect innocent civilians,” she demanded.

The authorities estimate that 1,200 persons were murdered in the October Hamas attack, the majority of them were civilians. Israel, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, responded by declaring war on Hamas and pledging to “annihilate” the Islamist movement.