Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed at least 50 people across the Palestinian territory on Friday, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed in a defiant UN address to “finish the job” against Hamas.
The Israeli military is pressing an offensive against the Palestinian Islamist movement in Gaza City, from which hundreds of thousands have been forced to flee in recent weeks.
The civil defence agency — a rescue force operating under Hamas authority — reported at least 50 people killed across the territory since dawn, 30 of them in Gaza City.
Israel’s military said the air force had during the past day “struck over 140 targets throughout the Gaza Strip, including terrorists, tunnel shafts (and) military infrastructure”.
Media restrictions in the territory and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls or details provided by the civil defence or the Israeli military.
AFP footage from Al-Shati refugee camp near Gaza City showed heavy damage to buildings after an air strike.
A barefoot young girl was among those searching through the rubble for belongings. Toppled poles left a web of cables on the ground.
Netanyahu said at the United Nations on Friday that the military had “crushed the bulk” of Hamas’s “terror machine” and sought to finish the job “as fast as possible.”
He said his speech was being partially broadcast in Gaza on military loudspeakers.
A statement from his office said the military had “taken over the telephones of Gaza residents and Hamas members”, and that the address was being broadcast live on the devices.
“It’s a lie — we haven’t received any messages or anything on the phone, and we didn’t hear any loudspeakers,” said Randa Hanoun, 30, a displaced Palestinian living in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
“This is just an attempt to stir fear in our hearts and to make us pay attention to Netanyahu’s speech… But we don’t care about his speeches and we don’t want to hear a single word from him.”
Two AFP contributors in southern Gaza and one in Gaza City said they hadn’t heard the speech on the loudspeakers, nor received anything on their phones.
– ‘Piled on top of each other’ –
Israel launched its ground offensive on Gaza City on September 16. The military said on Thursday that 700,000 Palestinians had fled the urban hub since late August.
The UN humanitarian office said the displacement of 388,400 people had been recorded since mid-August, most of them from Gaza City.
Um Youssef al-Shaer, a 50-year-old displaced Palestinian living in the tent city of of Al-Mawasi on the Mediterranean coast, told AFP that the area had become overcrowded as more and more Palestinians sought refuge there.
“We are piled on top of each other in a single tent — me, my husband, our six children and my husband’s elderly parents — 10 people in a small tent,” she said.
Over nearly two years, Israeli military operations in Gaza have killed at least 65,549 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, figures the UN considers reliable.
Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
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