U.S. Environmental Protection AgencyThe Israeli military said it had begun ground operations against Hamas in the central Gaza corridor east of the Brighi refugee camp and the town of Deir al-Balah.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that the troops, supported by airstrikes, targeted “terrorists and terrorist infrastructure both on the ground and underground.”
Médecins Sans Frontières said at least 70 dead and 300 wounded, mostly women and children, had been admitted to a hospital in Deir al-Balah since Tuesday.
Meanwhile, U.S., Egyptian and Qatari mediators met in Doha and Cairo to discuss how to hammer out a new ceasefire and hostage release deal.
The United States said on Tuesday it was still awaiting a response from Hamas to what it called Israel’s overtures Overview of US President Biden on Friday.
Qatar said it had submitted the plan to Hamas representatives, noting that it was still awaiting a clear position from the Israeli government.
On October 7, Hamas launched a cross-border attack on southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking another 251 people hostage. Israel launched a military operation in Gaza to destroy Hamas.
Since then, at least 36,580 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
Brighi is one of the youngest of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps. It covers an area of 0.5 square kilometers (0.2 square miles) and had 46,000 residents registered with the United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa) before the war.
The camp is located south of the Wadi Gaza River bed and the IDF’s “Central Gaza Corridor.” The “Central Gaza Corridor” is a section of land controlled by the Israeli army, extending eastward from the border with Israel to the Mediterranean Sea, dividing Gaza in two.
The Nuseirat and Maghazi refugee camps are also located near Bureij, while the town of Deir al-Balah is about 5 kilometers (3 miles) to the southwest.
The four areas are currently crowded with people displaced by fighting elsewhere, including many of the more than a million people who have fled the southern city of Rafah since the war began. Israeli ground operations a month ago.
Earlier this year, IDF troops Conducted ground operations Fighting has raged for weeks against Hamas militants in refugee camps in central Gaza.
On Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces said new “targeted” operations in eastern Brej and Deir al-Balah aim to dismantle “above and underground terror infrastructure located several kilometers away from the Israeli border”.
The statement added: “The campaign began with a series of airstrikes against terrorist targets, including military compounds, weapons storage facilities and underground infrastructure. During the course of the airstrikes, several Hamas terrorists were eliminated.”
U.S. Environmental Protection AgencyA man from Brej told BBC Arabic program Gaza Today that his family fled the camp as Israeli bombing intensified on Tuesday.
“We are shocked that the military is once again conducting ground operations in Brij,” he said. “We were hit by shells coming from all directions, falling on citizens’ homes, on the streets… causing some citizens to be killed.”
“The overall situation is very difficult,” he added. “We left our homes to protect our own lives and the lives of our children.”
One young woman said: “Debris fell into our home, into some of the residential apartments in our building… We survived because we were all on the lower floors.”
“There are about 40 people in the residential building where we are, some of them residents of the building itself and others displaced from north and south Rafah… Where should we go from Bureij now?”
On Wednesday morning, Palestinian news agency Wafa quoted medics and rescue workers as saying that at least 11 people were killed in Israeli air strikes on several houses in Magazi overnight.
Reports said two other people were killed when a house near the entrance to Bureij was attacked, and two people were killed by artillery fire in the Abu al-Ajen area southeast of Deir Bala.
Later, Médecins Sans Frontières said its local medical team described the situation at Deir el-Balah Al-Aqsa Hospital, one of the last fully functional medical facilities in central Gaza, as “apocalyptic.”
The charity said most of the 70 dead and 300 injured taken to hospitals in the past 24 hours were women and children, with many suffering severe burns, shrapnel wounds, fractures and other trauma.
“When I entered the emergency room, there was a smell of blood [this morning] It’s just overwhelming. People were lying on the floor. People were lying outside…bodies were brought in in white plastic bags. The family stands beside them and prays,” MSF medical reference Karin Hust said in the audio message.
“It’s just an emotionally overwhelming situation. It’s too much for anyone to handle.”
ReutersWhen the IDF began its operation in Rafah on May 6, it asked civilians to evacuate to an “expanded humanitarian area” stretching from the coastal Mawasi area to Deir al-Balah, saying they would find tents, Field hospitals and medical facilities.
But UNRWA warned on Monday that “very little space is left for displaced families in Deir al-Balah as people continue to flock in, seeking safety where there is no safety”.
“Living conditions are simply unsuitable for families and key services are in limited supply,” it said.
The Israel Defense Forces also said on Wednesday that troops were continuing “targeted operations” in Rafah. It added that they “recovered weapons and neutralized armed terrorists” but gave no further details.
Residents told Reuters that Israeli tanks had launched attacks into central Rafah and deeper to the west before retreating to areas to the east and south.
