Jerusalem, Oct 11 (EFE).- Israeli fighter jets continued bombing Gaza and Palestinian militants in the Strip fired rockets at the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon and the central city of Tel Aviv on Wednesday, five days after Hamas fighters launched an unprecedented offensive on Israeli territory.
Smoke rises following an Israeli air strike on the Al-Tufah neighborhood, Gaza City, 11 October 2023. EFE/EPA/MOHAMMED SABER
Gaza has been left without electricity or water supplies after Israel imposed a total siege of the narrow Strip.
Israeli soldiers drive along the border with Gaza near the southern city of Ofakim ,11 October 2023. EFE/EPA/ABIR SULTAN
Hospitals are on the verge of collapse amid the general power outage, adding to medical and personnel shortages.
“Our capacity is at its limit and we can only try to save the lives of the wounded,” Dr. Medhat Abbas, spokesman for the Al Shifa Medical Complex, the largest hospital in Gaza City, told EFE.
Since the Islamist movement Hamas – which de facto rules the Strip – surprised Israel last Saturday with an multi-pronged attack by land, air and sea, the Israeli army has counterattacked with relentless bombing of 2,687 targets, many of them militia structures, as well as homes, mosques and other civilian facilities.
In five days, the war has left more than 1,200 dead and 3,000 wounded in Israel, while the bombardment of Gaza has already left 1,055 dead and at least 5,184 wounded.
At least 1,000 Palestinians were killed on Israeli territory in clashes with security forces after infiltrating from the Strip.
Throughout the day, air raid alarms were sounded in the neighboring areas of the Gaza Strip, as well as in central Israel, including Tel Aviv, with 12 people requiring treatment for injuries or trauma.
Israeli warplanes bombed the Islamic University of Gaza where, according to the Israeli army, experts were being trained in military espionage and to develop and produce weapons, in addition to hosting conferences aimed at collecting funding for the Islamist organization.
The relentless bombardment in recent days has caused enormous destruction, completely demolishing more than 500 residential buildings and three schools, according to Gazan authorities.
On Wednesday, an Israeli air strike on an ambulance killed four paramedics and destroyed the vehicle in which they were traveling, reports the Palestinian Wafa news agency.
At least 11 workers from the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza have been killed by the bombing campaign, as well as 30 UNRWA students, the agency said in a statement. EFE
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