The Israeli military continued its shelling of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, signaling that the passing of a United Nations resolution calling for a ceasefire for the holy month of Ramadan the previous day was not shaking Israel’s determination to keep fighting.
The military said its warplanes had hit “more than 60 targets” in Gaza the previous day. It added that its forces were also operating in central Gaza, where it said it had killed “a number of terrorists”. The military also said on Tuesday it had confirmed the death of a senior Hamas leader. Wafa, the Palestinian Authority news agency, said on Tuesday that the Israeli army hit homes and buildings and that dozens of people were killed.
In a statement, the Israeli military added that it was continuing its “operational activity” around Al-Amal Hospital and the town of Al-Qarara, in the Khan Younis district of southern Gaza, adding that its forces were “neutralizing terrorists and carrying out targeted raids in terrorist infrastructures”.
Al-Amal Hospital was shut down on Monday night after Israeli forces besieged it a day earlier and forced everyone inside to flee before sealing off its entrances with earthen barriers, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent, which runs the hospital. . The group said on Monday that two people were killed and three others wounded when Israeli forces opened fire during the evacuation.
The Israeli army also said on Tuesday it was continuing its attack on Al-Shifa hospital in the north for a ninth day. It said its forces there “found weapons and had engaged and killed a number of terrorists in the hospital area.” Witnesses have described days of fear in the complex, with several patients dying as a result of the attack.
Ezzeldine al-Dali, who lives less than a mile from Al-Shifa, said airstrikes and gunfire had intensified in the area on Monday night, before calming down on Tuesday morning, which residents took as a sign that Israeli forces had completed their raid.
He said people he knew went to the hospital thinking the raid was over, but they were “wrong” and people were shot and injured. His account could not be independently verified. The Israeli military said it was in control.
Israel has long accused Hamas, the armed group that led the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, of using hospitals in Gaza for military purposes, a claim Hamas and hospital administrators have denied.
An analysis by the New York Times found that Hamas had used the Shifa compound for military purposes. The Israeli military, however, struggled to substantiate its claim that Hamas maintained a command and control center under it.
At a press conference on Tuesday, a military spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said Israel had killed Marwan Issa, the deputy commander of Hamas’s military wing in Gaza, in a targeted strike.
Admiral Hagari said on March 11 that Israel had targeted Mr Issa, an alleged mastermind of the October 7 attacks, and another official. The United States had confirmed his death last week, making him the highest-ranking Hamas leader killed in Gaza since the war began.
Although a UN resolution had been passed, Mr al-Dali, 22, said it did not give him or those around him any hope that the Israeli bombardment would stop soon. “We’ve lost hope in every way,” he said by phone Tuesday.
“The International Court of Justice, Biden and all the Arab and Western countries could not stop Israel,” Mr al-Dali said. “So why would the United Nations be able to stop them?”
The International Court of Justice in late January ordered Israel to ensure that its actions do not amount to genocide and to increase humanitarian aid to Gaza. But the court did not order an end to the fighting in the Gaza Strip.
Wafa reported on Tuesday that dozens of Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike on a family home near Al-Shifa, citing medical sources. He did not specify the time frame. The agency also reported that the Israeli army had struck other houses and buildings around Al-Shifa and shot people moving in the streets around the hospital, killing and wounding dozens.
The Palestinian news agency also reported Israeli strikes in northwest Gaza City, the northern community of Beit Lahia and the southern city of Rafah, where it said a house where displaced families lived was struck, killing more than a dozen Palestinians and injuring dozens more.
Those reports could not be independently verified, and the Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on them.
Aaron Boxerman contributed to the report.
