IDF says some 20,000 have left Gaza’s Jabaliya, 150 terrorists detained in latest op
Palestinians say 42 killed in past day, as airstrike hits former school in Gaza City used as Hamas command post; second round of polio vaccine drive completed
The military said Wednesday that some 20,000 Palestinians had evacuated the Jabaliya area in the northern Gaza Strip amid its ongoing offensive, as it detained and killed terror operatives in the area.
Medics and residents said Israeli strikes across Gaza killed 42 people throughout the day.
According to the military, in that timeframe, troops killed numerous gunmen and seized weapons. It added that some 150 terror operatives had been detained by troops.
The IDF said in a statement that it was “breaking the Hamas siege on Jabaliya” by “allowing civilians to evacuate, for their safety, in a safe manner and through organized routes.
“The breaking of the Hamas siege on Jabaliya is manifested in tens of thousands of civilians evacuating from the area since yesterday morning, despite the efforts by Hamas to prevent it,” the IDF said.
The IDF statement added that the military and COGAT, the Defense Ministry body overseeing civilian matters in the West Bank and Gaza, are in contact with the international community and health authorities in Gaza to “maintain the ongoing functioning of the emergency systems of the hospitals, through the transfer of medical equipment and the supply of fuel subject to the operational situation, along with the evacuation of staff [and] patients.”
The only medical facility still partially functioning in the targeted area has “no medicine or medical supplies,” warned Hossam Abu Safia, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya
“People are being killed in the streets, and we can’t help them. Bodies are lying on the streets.”
Earlier this month, the IDF ordered the evacuation of Jabaliya and surrounding towns in northern Gaza, where several hundred thousand Palestinians are believed to still reside. The IDF has been operating to prevent Hamas from regrouping in northern Gaza.
Many Palestinians have remained in Jabaliya since the start of the war, despite repeated Israeli urgings to depart, either because they are unwilling or unable to evacuate. Some have claimed that the IDF has targeted those trying to flee — a charge the army denies.
The US has expressed concern that Israel is implementing the so-called General’s Plan, aimed at evacuating civilians and then laying siege to northern Gaza, in order to snuff out remaining Hamas fighters. The IDF has denied that this is the case and has begun allowing some aid into the area after two weeks of blocking assistance at the beginning of the month.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting Tuesday to publicly clarify that Israel is not implementing the plan, but the premier balked at the idea, according to a US official familiar with the matter.
Also on Wednesday, the IDF and Shin Bet said in a joint statement that the Israeli Air Force had carried out a strike on a Hamas command center located in a Gaza City compound that used to house the Al-Zahra school.
The IDF said measures were taken ahead of time to minimize the risk of civilian casualties.
Polio vaccine drive
A second round of polio vaccines was completed Tuesday in southern Gaza, according to Israel.
COGAT said that 266,273 children under the age of 10 were vaccinated in the area, representing 91 percent of the target population in southern Gaza.
It said the vaccine campaign in northern Gaza “will begin in the coming days, after a joint assessment and at the request of WHO and UNICEF.”
The World Health Organization said earlier Wednesday that it was forced to delay the vaccine rollout in northern Gaza due to escalating violence in the area.
Amid the violence, UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said another of its workers had been killed in Gaza after a strike hit one of its vehicles.
An AFP photographer reported a strike in the southern city of Khan Younis, leaving a mangled aid truck and mourners gathered around two bodies.
War erupted when Hamas-led terrorists rampaged through southern communities on October 7, 2023, murdering some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages to Gaza.
There are thought to be 101 hostages still held in Gaza, 97 of whom were kidnapped on October 7, in addition to two civilians and the bodies of two soldiers held there for nearly a decade. Dozens of those hostages are known to no longer be alive.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 42,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 17,000 combatants in battle as of August and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 358.
