Israel continues bombardment of Gaza Strip, loses 15 soldiers in ground offensive

Israeli attacks kill 8,796, including 3,648 children and 2,290 women as Israel drops 18,000 tons of bombs on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7

Muslim Network TV Desk with inputs from agencies

GAZA, Palestine – Israeli airstrikes hit the Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip for the second time in less than 24 hours on Wednesday, killing scores of people and destroying an entire apartment block.

Jabalia is the largest of the U.N. refugee camps in the Gaza Strip, home to people forcibly displaced by the Zionist militia and Israel in 1948.

The bombs hit the residential area of Faluja.  Another attack killed 12 people in the Khan Yunis area early this morning.

On Tuesday evening, a massive Israeli attack in Jabalia left 50 people dead. Another attack in al-Nuseirat refugee camp in the center of the Gaza Strip also claimed several lives.

Meanwhile, Palestinian fighters and Israeli forces reportedly engaged in heavy fighting south of the Zeitoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City.

Israeli attacks were reported from the north and northwest of the Gaza Strip and from the south and southeast of Gaza City.

According to Israeli media, 15 Israeli soldiers were killed in these ground offensives.

Four soldiers were confirmed dead on Wednesday, while the deaths of 11 others were announced on Tuesday.

At least 14 other soldiers were wounded, including seven in critical condition, according to Yedioth Ahronoth.

The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said Palestinian militants killed three Israeli soldiers in a cross-border attack Wednesday.

In a brief communiqué, Izz al-Din al-Qassam said fighters clashed at close range” with Israeli infantry forces near Erez, northeast of the Gaza Strip.

Israeli military officials admitted that troops are paying “a heavy price” in their ground operations in the Gaza Strip amid “fierce fighting” with Hamas militants.

UN convoy attacked

According to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, three staff members were killed in the last 24 hours. So far, 67 U.N. staff members have been killed.

They were “killed in ongoing attacks while they were in their homes with their families”,” the agency said.

The number of people killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza has risen to 8,796, including 3,648 children and 2,290 women.

At least 22,219 people have been wounded and 2,030 people are missing, including 1,020 children buried under rubble.

In the occupied West Bank, 128 Palestinians were killed and at least 1,980 wounded.

In Gaza, 130 medics and medical personnel were also killed, and 28 ambulances destroyed.

Health facilities reported 270 attacks, putting 16 of the total 35 hospitals out of commission.

The director of the Turkish Friendship Hospital told Al-Aqsa TV that the facility ran out of fuel, leaving it “completely out of service.”

The Israeli army has dropped 18,000 tons of bombs on the Gaza Strip since October 7.

According to Salama Marouf, head of the Hamas-controlled government press office, this is equivalent to 1.5 times the weight of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in Japan during World War II.

He said Israeli forces destroyed 85 government buildings, 47 mosques, and three churches.

The attacks also damaged 200,000 buildings, of which 32,500 were rendered uninhabitable. 203 schools were severely damaged, and 45 schools are now completely unusable.

The General Authority for Gaza Border Crossings told media outlets that 76 wounded Palestinians and their companions had so far entered Egypt through the Rafah crossing, in addition to 335 people with foreign passports.

Meanwhile, the number of journalists killed in the ongoing hostilities is the highest since the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) began tracking the deaths of journalists covering conflict.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said Wednesday that it has filed a war crimes complaint against journalists in Gaza.

“These reporters were victims of attacks that constitute – at the very least – war crimes that warrant investigation by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court,” the organization said in a statement.

RSF’s complaint, filed Tuesday with the ICC Prosecutor’s Office, details the cases of nine journalists killed since the Oct. 7 cross-border Hamas attack, who have faced air and ground assaults, as well as two other journalists injured in the course of their work.

At least 26 Palestinians and one Lebanese journalist have been killed by Israeli shelling, CPJ said.

At least four Israeli journalists were killed in attacks by Palestinians.

Another eight journalists were wounded, and nine others are missing or detained.

“CPJ stresses that journalists are civilians who do important work in times of crisis and should not be targeted by warring parties,” Sherif Mansour, coordinator of CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program, said Tuesday.

International response

Internationally, Jordan has recalled its ambassador to Israel with immediate effect over the war in Gaza.

Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi had instructed the ministry to inform the Israeli Foreign Ministry that the ambassador, who had previously left the kingdom, would not return.

The return of the ambassadors to their posts is conditional on Israel ceasing its war against the Gaza Strip, the statement said.

Bolivia has also taken an important step by severing diplomatic relations with Israel due to the rising death toll in Gaza.

In addition, Colombia and Chile recalled their ambassadors for consultations to strongly condemn the loss of life in Gaza and call for an immediate ceasefire.

U.S. Secretary of State Blinken will visit Israel again on Friday and hold important talks with Israeli officials.

Turkey and Iran have called for a regional conference to prevent an expansion of the war in the Middle East.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the inhumane sieges and attacks on Gaza are a clear violation of international law.

He raised the question of why the international community rallied around that country after the Russian invasion of Ukraine but remained largely silent on the fate of Gaza.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said the U.S. was trying to pressure the country over its stance on Israel’s war in Gaza.

In a speech to the Malaysian parliament, Ibrahim said: “The Malaysian envoy to the United States was called by the American authorities who questioned our stance on the conflict and especially on the violence perpetrated by Israel in Gaza.”

“Our ambassador has emphatically stated our position,” he added, according to the Straits Times.

The U.S. had apparently taken offense at Malaysia’s refusal to condemn Hamas.

“I was informed by the State Department that Malaysia received a demarche from the U.S. Embassy twice, on Oct. 13 and Oct. 30, asking Malaysia to use diplomatic channels to urge a country not to exploit the conflict by appointing a proxy to interfere in the Gaza conflict,” he added.

The country in question is widely believed to be Iran, according to the Straits Times.