Israel continues bombing Gaza, says Hamas commander killed; Rafah boarder opened as 500 foreign passport holders, 80 injured crossed to Egypt; Bolivia, others severed diplomatic relations, recall ambassadors
Despite international calls for a humanitarian ceasefire, Israel continued heavy bombings on the densely populated Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
Israel has been pounding the Gaza Strip since Hamas gunmen stormed across the border on October 7 and, killed more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians, according to Israeli officials. The bombing campaign has killed more than 8,796 people, two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Daniel Hagari said during a press conference on Wednesday that ground forces have broken through Hamas’ front lines of defense in the northern Gaza Strip.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said during a visit of armored troops deployed on the Gaza border that Israel would continue coordinated strikes on Gaza from the air, ground and sea, and the military has taken actions to expose tunnels to “deal heavy blows to enemies within.”
The Israeli military revealed in a statement that based on intelligence from the IDF and the U.S. Intelligence Support Activity (ISA), an IDF fighter jet struck Muhammad A’sar, head of Hamas anti-tank missile unit who had commanded “numerous missile attacks” on Israeli targets.
The area around Al Quds Hospital in Gaza has endured heavy bombardment from the Israeli military, causing massive explosions that have left medical personnel and civilians in a state of panic, according to Palestine Red Crescent Society on Wednesday.
Since the break out of the conflict on October 7, Israel has frequently targeted the areas surrounding Al Quds Hospital, resulting in damage to parts of the hospital.
Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaila said the Turkish hospital was out of service under Israeli strikes and fuel shortage. Gaza medical officials also warned that the work of the largest Shifa Medical Complex, other hospitals and health institutions would stop within hours due to the exhaustion of fuel needed to operate electrical generators.
At least 195 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Hamas-run government media office said. Some 120 were still missing under the rubble, and at least 777 more were wounded, the office said in a statement.
The European Union’s top diplomat Josep Borrell says he was “appalled” by the high number of casualties from the bombing by Israel of a refugee camp in Gaza and called for fighting parties to respect the international rules of conflict.
Palestinian health officials said more than 50 people were killed following an Israeli airstrike on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza on Tuesday. Hamas said seven of its hostages, including three holding foreign passports, were killed in the Israeli bombing of the refugee camp.
The number of Palestinian casualties in Gaza has now reached at least 8,796, including 3,648 children and 2,290 women, according to the Gaza-based health ministry. Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank, more than 132 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops and settlers.
On Wednesday, the first group of some 500 foreign passport holders and some 80 injured left Gaza as the Rafah crossing to Egypt opened to civilians for the first time in more than three weeks according to Egyptian and Palestinian sources.
Meanwhile, a total of 55 trucks of medical supplies and humanitarian aid have entered the Gaza Strip via the Rafah crossing, with 100 trucks carrying aid are expected to enter Gaza the next day, according to Egypt’s Al-Ahram newspaper.
Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), crossed into Gaza on Wednesday, where he met with Palestinian civilians and other UNRWA colleagues working in the territory, according to the Times of Israel.
On the diplomatic front, Bolivia has severed its diplomatic ties with Israel, citing the Palestinian death toll in Gaza. Meanwhile, Jordan, Chile and Colombia have recalled their ambassadors.
Iran’s supreme leader on Wednesday urged Muslim governments to unite and stop oil and other exports to Israel to pressure the latter to cease its attacks on Gaza.
At least 195 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Hamas-run government media office said.
Some 120 were still missing under the rubble, and at least 777 more were wounded, the office said in a statement.
Palestinian health officials said at least 50 Palestinians were killed when Israeli air strikes hit the densely populated Jabalia refugee camp in north Gaza on Tuesday. Israel said the strike had killed a ringleader of last month’s deadly Hamas attack on the country.
“Building on (the) EU Council’s clear stance that Israel has the right to defend itself in line with international humanitarian law and ensuring the protection of all civilians, I am appalled by the high number of casualties following the bombing by Israel of the Jabalia refugee camp,” Borrell said in a statement on X. “Laws of war and humanity must always apply, including when it comes to humanitarian assistance.”
EU leaders last week called for pauses in Israeli bombing and Hamas rocket attacks to get humanitarian aid into Gaza through safe corridors, as they said they were deeply concerned about the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the area.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed the international calls for a “humanitarian pause” in the fighting, saying that Hamas would take advantage of any truce.
UN and other aid officials said civilians in the besieged Palestinian enclave were facing a public health catastrophe, with hospitals struggling to treat snowballing casualties as electricity supplies peter out.
“With each passing day, as the situation becomes more and more dire, this is more urgent than ever,” Borrell said as he repeated last week’s plea. “The safety and the protection of civilians is not only a moral but a legal obligation.”
Meanwhile, the first group of foreign passport holders have been evacuated from the Gaza strip and have reached the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing, two sources at the border and local media said on Wednesday.
The Rafah crossing opened to allow a limited number of people to cross from Gaza into Egypt. It is expected that foreign nationals, dual-passport holders and some of the most seriously injured will be allowed through by Egyptian authorities, in a deal said to be brokered by Qatar.
Parents with strollers and elderly people were seen among those getting off a bus on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing in footage broadcast by an Egyptian TV channel close to the intelligence services.
A spokesperson for the German Foreign Ministry said there are several thousand foreigners in the Gaza Strip but that they will not all be able to leave in one day. Germany has informed its citizens in Gaza about the possibility of leaving the enclave via the Rafah border crossing.
Italy is working to get the first Italian citizens out of the region, the Italian foreign minister said on Wednesday. “This morning the Rafah crossing was opened and the first people started to be evacuated. We are working so that the first Italians can also leave the Gaza Strip,” Antonio Tajani wrote on X.
Turkey and Iran on Wednesday called for a regional conference aimed at averting the spread of the Israel-Hamas conflict. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian a day after Iran’s top diplomat met Hamas leaders in Qatar.
Iran has warned that armed groups it supports in the region could attack Israel in light of its conflict with Hamas. Fidan said Turkey was pushing for an immediate ceasefire because “it is not difficult to predict that this spiral of violence will grow” without a permanent solution to the escalation.
“We do not want the human tragedy in Gaza to turn into a war that affects the region’s countries,” he said. The Iranian foreign minister “shared with us that there are strong indications that other armed elements in the region may intervene in the conflict if conditions do not change”, Fidan added. “A ceasefire and peace have become more essential.”
Amir-Abdollahian said a peace conference involving “Muslim and Arab” countries should be held “as soon as possible”. He also called on the Muslim world to boycott Israeli products because of the war.
Jordan’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday immediately summoned the Jordanian Ambassador to Israel back to Jordan.
The ministry said in a statement that Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi also requested that the Israeli Foreign Ministry not send the Israeli ambassador, who left due to security precautions at the beginning of the conflict last month, back to Amman.
The decision was “an expression of Jordan’s position of rejection and condemnation of the raging Israeli war on Gaza,” the statement said.
Jordan’s Foreign Ministry also announced on Wednesday that it will start evacuating Jordanian citizens from the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing in coordination with the Egyptian government.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah announced that they destroyed an Israeli drone with a surface-to-air missile in the airspace above two border villages, Al Arabiya reported on Thursday.
LENS with wire report
