Israel expands attacks in northern Gaza to Beit Lahia

Israel has killed 22 people across the Gaza Strip, expanding its attack on northern Gaza into Gaza City Beit Lahiaan area in Gaza that has been heavily bombed since the start of the Israeli attack in October 2023.

Early Thursday, Israeli forces killed at least 14 people in northern Gaza, the Palestinian News Agency reported Wafa reported.

Six people were killed by Israeli shelling west of the Jabalia camp, while three others were killed by an Israeli drone in the market street of the Beit Lahia project, local sources told the agency.

Another five people were killed and others injured when Israeli forces bombed the Al-Asi family home in the Beit Lahia project.

Many dead and injured are believed to still be trapped under the rubble, while rescue teams have halted operations after being targeted by Israel.

Gaza’s Civil Defense said Thursday that its operations in the north remain suspended for a sixteenth day.

The Israeli assault also included attacks on hospitals and shelters, and kidnappings of medical staff, with facilities for newborn babies targeted.

“The Kamal Adwan Hospital northern Gaza has become a besieged war zone,” UNICEF Middle East and North Africa said in a post on X on Thursday.

“The last neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) remaining in the north has been damaged by heavy attacks in recent days. Over the past year, 4,000 babies have been cut off from life-saving newborn care due to ongoing attacks on hospitals.”

Gaza’s Health Ministry has called on civilians remaining in the north to donate blood, and urged the UN and international agencies to intervene to facilitate medical assistance and the transport of the wounded.

The Israeli army has killed more than 1,800 Palestinians since the renewed attack on northern Gaza in early October. It has also forcibly expelled tens of thousands of Palestinians from northern Gaza, forcing them south.

Israel is accused of implementing the so-called ‘General Plan’ for the ethnic cleansing of northern Gaza – a claim made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. refused to publicly deny it.

On Tuesday, Israeli Army Brigadier General Itzik Cohen told reporters that residents of northern Gaza would not be allowed to return home, in what appeared to be the first admission that Israel was ethnically cleansing the north.