The Israeli military pressed on with its bombardment of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, signaling that the passing of a United Nations resolution calling for a cease-fire for the holy month of Ramadan on Monday had not shaken Israel’s determination to keep fighting.
The military said its fighter jets had struck “over 60 targets” in Gaza over the previous day. It added that its forces were also operating in central Gaza, where it said they had killed “a number of terrorists.” Wafa, the Palestinian Authority’s news agency, said Tuesday that the Israeli military has struck residential 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 area of southern Gaza, adding that its forces were “eliminating terrorists and carrying out targeted raids on terrorist infrastructure.”
Al-Amal Hospital went out of service on Monday night after Israeli forces besieged it a day earlier and forced everyone inside to leave before closing off its entrances with earthen barriers, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society, which runs the hospital. The organization said on Monday that two people had been killed and three others wounded when Israeli forces opened fire as they were being evacuated.
The Israeli military also said on Tuesday that it was pressing on with its assault on Al-Shifa Hospital in the north for a ninth day. It said its forces there had “located weapons, and engaged with and eliminated several terrorists in the hospital area.” Witnesses have described days of fear at the complex, with regular gunshots, airstrikes and explosions and several patients dying as a result of the assault.
Israel has long accused Hamas, the armed group that led an attack into southern Israel on Oct. 7, of using hospitals in Gaza for military purposes, a claim that Hamas and hospital administrators have denied. The Israeli military has provided evidence that Hamas constructed a lengthy tunnel under Al-Shifa, Gaza’s largest hospital.
A later analysis by The New York Times found that Hamas had used the Shifa complex for military purposes. The Israeli military, however, has struggled to prove its claim that Hamas maintained a command-and-control center under it.
Wafa reported on Tuesday that dozens of Palestinians had been killed in an Israeli strike on a family home near Al-Shifa, citing medical sources. It did not specify the timing. The agency also reported that the Israeli military had struck other residential homes and buildings around Al-Shifa and fired on people moving on the roads around the hospital, killing and wounding dozens.
Ambulances were unable to transport the casualties to nearby hospitals because of the fighting in the area, the agency said. It added that a drone had opened fire on dozens of people who tried to approach Al-Shifa and its surroundings to retrieve those who were killed and wounded, injuring some of them.
The Palestinian news agency also reported Israeli strikes in the northwest of Gaza City, Beit Lahia in the north and the southern city of Rafah, where it reported that a home where displaced families were living was struck, killing more than a dozen Palestinians and wounding dozens more.
These reports could not be independently verified, and the Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on them.
