Israeli Military Intensify Gaza City Bombing

JAKARTA - Israeli forces destroyed at least 30 residential buildings in the Palestinian city of Gaza and forced thousands of people to flee their homes, Palestinian officials said.

Israel declared its plans to capture the city, where about one million Palestinians took refuge, as part of a declared purpose to eliminate the Hamas militant group, and has intensified attacks on what it calls the last stronghold of the Palestinian militant group.

Israel says it wants civilians to leave Gaza City before Israel sends more ground troops. Tens of thousands of people are expected to have fled, but hundreds of thousands more are still in the region. Hamas has urged residents to stay.

Israeli military forces have been operating in at least four eastern suburbs for weeks, turning most of the three regions into vacant land. Israel is increasingly approaching the central and western regions of the region, where most refugees take refuge.

Many of them were reluctant to leave, arguing there was not enough space or security in the south, where Israel had ordered them to go to a place that had been designated as a humanitarian zone.

Some said they were unable to leave, while others said they hoped a meeting of Arab leaders on Monday in Qatar would pressure Israel to cancel its planned attack.

"The bombings are getting more intensive everywhere and we are tearing down tents, more than twenty families, we don't know where to go," said Musbah al-Kafarna, one of the refugees in Gaza City.

Israel says it has launched five waves of airstrikes in Gaza City over the past week, targeting more than 500 locations, including reconnaissance sites and Hamas snipers, buildings containing tunnel holes, and weapons depots.

Local officials, who did not differentiate between militant victims and civilians, said at least 45 people were killed by Israeli fire in the enclave on Sunday, mostly in Gaza City.

Hamas said Israeli forces had destroyed at least 1,600 residential buildings and 13,000 tents since August 11.

Medical sources in Gaza confirmed that the death toll from Israel's October 2023 aggression until yesterday had reached 64,871 people, the majority of children and women, while the injured reached 164,610 people, quoted from WAFA.

Two other Palestinians have died from malnutrition and hunger in Gaza in the past 24 hours, the regional Health Ministry said on Sunday. This increases the death toll from malnutrition and hunger to at least 422 people, including 145 children.