Israeli forces have continued their military operations across Gaza, resulting in a significant increase in casualties and raising serious concerns about the humanitarian situation within the territory. On Saturday, Israeli strikes have resulted in at least four Palestinian fatalities, with separate attacks hitting medicine warehouses adjacent to a hospital, which officials state is a lifeline for the region. The attacks, which have been ongoing for several days since a recent United States-brokered disarmament agreement between Israel and Hamas, follow a period of heightened tensions and military activity in the region. Israel has repeatedly violated the ceasefire established since October 2025, killing over 1,200 Palestinians since then, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. An Israeli drone strike killed two people in Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, as reported by the Palestinian Wafa news agency, with the casualties taking the focus to Al-Shifa Hospital, where multiple wounded and several storage facilities were destroyed. A drone strike in Deir el-Balah resulted in one person’s death, hospital sources stated, while another Palestinian was killed in a strike targeting a tent near a school in al-Mawasi, north of Khan Younis. Separately, an overnight strike destroyed medicine warehouses attached to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah, severely impacting intravenous fluids, medicines, and supplies crucial for patients. The Gaza Health Ministry confirmed that two of four storage facilities were completely destroyed and two others suffered significant damage, calling the attack a ‘heinous crime’ and appealing for international intervention to protect medical facilities. Al Jazeera correspondent Moath al-Kahlout visited the site of the attack, where she stood beside a large crater. She stated that the Israeli military issued an evacuation order before striking the facility 15 minutes later, and nearby makeshift shelters and tents housing displaced people were also damaged. Khalil al-Daqran, the spokesperson for the hospital, told the Anadolu news agency that the strike destroyed intravenous fluids, medicines, and supplies used in dialysis and intensive care, highlighting the immediate and critical impact on patients. Witnesses reported tents housing displaced families near the hospital catching fire. Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Gaza, said that Al-Aqsa Hospital is one of the few facilities in central Gaza still able to treat a substantial number of patients, serving as the primary option for displaced families after months of war degraded the territory’s health system. The Israeli army and its security agency, Shin Bet, claimed they destroyed five Hamas weapon depots in Gaza overnight, one near Al-Aqsa Hospital. The Gaza Health Ministry said separately that seven people were killed and 76 wounded across the territory in the past 48 hours, with one more dying of earlier injuries. It put the total death toll since the ceasefire began at 1,222 killed, and the overall death toll since October 2023 at 73,349. Gaza’s Civil Defence reported finishing recovering bodies from a home in Gaza City’s Sabra area, destroyed by Israeli forces roughly two weeks ago. Crews retrieved the remains of 112 people, including 40 children and 38 women, from the site, which belonged to the Husseiniya and Abu Sharia families. Mohammed Abu Dan, who oversaw the operation, said 157 bodies were still missing, and that some remains had been fused into concrete and rebar or destroyed by the explosions’ force. Mark Pfeifle, a former US deputy national security adviser, told Al Jazeera that Israel’s attacks in Gaza, following the announcement of a new roadmap for Hamas’s disarmament and Israel’s withdrawal, are a sign that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu isn’t prepared to accept the agreement in its current form. “I think what Benjamin Netanyahu is doing is sending a signal that he isn’t quite ready yet to come to this framework,” Pfeifle told Al Jazeera. “He still has some issues with it.”
Source: Al Jazeera
