Fighting between Israel and Hamas intensified across Gaza on Monday, fuelling fears flagged by the United Nations on the weekend of a breakdown in public order and a mass exodus of Palestinians into Egypt.
The narrow coastal strip has been under a full blockade since Israel responded to deadly attacks from Palestinian militant group Hamas on Oct. 7, and the border with Egypt is the only way out.
Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes, and residents say it is impossible to find refuge in the densely populated enclave, with around 18,000 people already killed and the conflict intensifying.
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Since the breakdown of a week-long ceasefire on Dec. 1, Israel launched a ground offensive in southern Gaza and has since pushed from the east into the heart of the major city of Khan Younis, with warplanes attacking an area to the west.
On Monday, militants and some residents said fighters were preventing Israeli tanks from moving further west through the city, and there were also fierce clashes in parts of northern Gaza, where Israel had said its tasks were largely complete.
WARNING: This story contains disturbing details | As Israeli troops move closer to the centre of Khan Younis, Gaza, and residents attempt to find safety, the UN warns that half of Gaza’s population is starving.
In the northern Gazan city of Jabalia, Palestinians ran to escape smoke bombs fired near tents and other homes and militants said they were clashing with Israeli troops.
Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee issued a new call on social media on Monday for Gaza residents to evacuate Gaza City and other areas of the north, as well as Khan Younis in the south.
Israel says the instructions to move are among far-reaching measures to protect the local population. It accuses Hamas of using civilians as human shields and stealing humanitarian aid, which Hamas denies.
Fierce fighting
UN officials say 1.9 million people — 85 per cent of Gaza’s population — are displaced and describe the conditions in the southern areas where they have concentrated as hellish.
“I expect public order to completely break down soon and an even worse situation could unfold, including epidemic diseases and increased pressure for mass displacement into Egypt,” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Sunday.
Around 18,000 people have been killed by the Israeli response to the Hamas attacks, with 49,500 injured, according to Gaza health authorities.
The Oct. 7 attacks left 1,200 people dead, including several Canadians. About 100 of an estimated 240 hostages taken by Hamas were freed during a week-long truce that ended on Dec. 1.
Israelis fled to shelters on Monday after new warnings of rocket fire from Gaza, including into the capital, Tel Aviv. The armed wing of Hamas said it was bombarding the city in response to “the Zionist massacres against civilians.”
The Israeli military said its troops in Jabalia had found weapons in an UNRWA bag and rocket launchers near a school, and distributed a video showing explosive devices next to a bag marked UNRWA. Reuters was not able to independently verify the footage.
The military also distributed video purporting to show Hamas gunmen beating people and taking aid in the Gaza City district of Shejaia. Israel has prevented most aid from moving into Gaza, despite what UN officials have said are overwhelming needs.
Militants and residents said fighting was also fierce in Shejaia, east of the centre of Gaza City, the northwestern Sheikh Radwan district and Jabalia further north.
Medics said an Israeli airstrike had killed four in a house in Rafah, one of two places near Egypt where Israel says Palestinians should take refuge.
Israel said it had suspended military activities in the refugee camp in Rafah on Monday morning for humanitarian reasons.
Israel rejects forced displacement allegation
Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general of UNRWA, the UN body responsible for the welfare of Palestinian refugees, said Gazans driven from their homes were being pushed closer and closer to the border.
“The developments we are witnessing point to attempts to move Palestinians into Egypt,” Lazzarini wrote in the Los Angeles Times.
The border with Egypt is heavily fortified, but Hamas militants blew holes in the wall in 2008 to break a tight blockade. Gazans crossed to buy food and other goods but quickly returned, with none permanently displaced.
Day 69:53A Palestinian psychologist reckons with the trauma Gaza children face after two months of attacks
In 2016, Iman Farajallah, a psychologist who was born and raised in Gaza and now lives in California, traveled to Gaza to interview children about their experiences during the latest round of fighting between Israel and Hamas. She found they experienced significant trauma that affected their emotional and cognitive behaviour as well as their ability to function at school and home and she says the results of two months of Israeli attacks could damage an entire generation of children in Gaza.
Egypt has long warned it would not allow Palestinians into its territory this time, fearing they would not be able to return.
Jordan, which absorbed the bulk of Palestinians after the creation of Israel in 1948, accused Israel on Sunday of seeking “to empty Gaza of its people.”
Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy called the accusation “outrageous and false,” saying his country was defending itself “from the monsters who perpetrated the Oct. 7 massacre” and bringing them to justice.
The 193-member UN General Assembly was likely to vote on Tuesday on a draft resolution demanding a ceasefire, diplomats said on Sunday.
On Friday, the United States vetoed a UN Security Council proposal demanding an immediate ceasefire for humanitarian reasons, a vote criticized by Arab foreign ministers on Sunday at an international conference in Qatar.
Guterres said he would “not give up” appealing for a ceasefire.
Palestinian activists called for a global strike on Monday to try to pressure Israel into a ceasefire, but it was unclear if it had spread beyond the Israeli-occupied West Bank.