Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Corporation for Public Broadcasting to Close After Funding Cut, in Blow to Local Media

2 days ago

‘Freedom Week’: California Gun Owners Rush to Buy Ammo After Court Ruling

2 days ago

Wall Street Selloff Sparked by Trump Tariffs, Amazon Results, Weak Payrolls

2 days ago

US Construction Spending Extends Decline in June

2 days ago

Global Shares in Red After US Jobs Data, Trump’s Tariff Salvo

2 days ago

Construction of $200M Trump Ballroom at the White House to Begin in September

2 days ago

US Senate Committee Backs $1 Billion for Ukraine in Pentagon Spending Bill

3 days ago

Trump Says Mexico Trade Deal Extended for 90 Days

3 days ago

Fresno Unified Trustee Susan Wittrup Responds to $162,000 Payout

3 days ago
Heavy Israeli Bombardment in Gaza City Forces Medical Facilities to Close as Thousands Flee
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 1 year ago on
July 9, 2024

As Israeli bombardment intensifies in Gaza City, thousands of Palestinians are forced to flee, and medical facilities are shutting down, escalating the humanitarian crisis. (AP/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Share

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Heavy Israeli bombardment shook Gaza City on Tuesday as thousands of fleeing Palestinians searched for shelter and medical facilities were forced to shut down in the latest offensive in the territory’s north.

Israel’s new ground assault in Gaza’s largest city is its latest effort to battle Hamas militants regrouping in areas the army previously said had been largely cleared.

Large parts of Gaza City and urban areas around it have been flattened or left a shattered landscape after nine months of fighting. Much of the population fled earlier in the war, but several hundred thousand Palestinians remain in the north.

Intense Fighting and Mass Evacuation

“The fighting has been intense,” said Hakeem Abdel-Bar, who fled Gaza City’s Tuffah district to the home of relatives in another part of the city. He said Israeli warplanes and drones were “striking anything moving” and that tanks had moved into central districts.

There was no immediate word on casualties. Families whose relatives were wounded or trapped were calling for ambulances, but first responders could not reach most of the affected districts because of the Israeli operations, said Nebal Farsakh, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent.

“It’s a dangerous zone,” she said.

After Israel on Monday called for an evacuation from eastern and central parts of Gaza City, staff at two hospitals — Al-Ahli and the Patients Friends Association Hospital – rushed to move patients and shut down, the United Nations said. Farsakh said all three medical facilities run by the Red Crescent in Gaza City had closed.

Healthcare Crisis Amidst the Conflict

Scores of patients were transferred to the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, which itself was the scene of heavy fighting earlier in the war. “We do not know where to go. There is no treatment and no necessities for life,” said Mohammad Abu Naser, who was being treated there. “We are dying slowly.”

The Israeli military on Tuesday said it had told hospitals and other medical facilities in Gaza City that they did not need to evacuate. But hospitals in Gaza have often shut down and moved patients at any sign of possible Israeli military action, fearing raids.

In the past nine months, Israeli troops have occupied at least eight hospitals, causing the deaths of patients and medical workers along with massive destruction to facilities and equipment. Israel has claimed Hamas uses hospitals for military purposes, though it has provided only limited evidence.

Only 13 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are functioning, and those only partially, according to the U.N.’s humanitarian office.

Israel’s campaign in Gaza, triggered by Hamas’ Oct 7 attack, has killed or wounded more than 5% of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. Nearly the entire population has been driven from their homes. Many have been displaced multiple times. Hundreds of thousands are packed into sweltering tent camps.

Continued Violence and Attempts at Negotiation

Maha Mahfouz, a mother of two, said she fled twice in the past 24 hours. She first rushed from her home in Gaza City to a relative’s house in another neighborhood. When that became dangerous, she fled Monday night to Shati, a decades-old refugee camp that has grown into an urban district where Israel has carried out repeated raids.

She described vast destruction in the city’s eastern and central parts. “The buildings were destroyed. The roads were destroyed. All has become rubble,” she said.

Israeli airstrikes in the central town of Deir al-Balah and nearby refugee camps on Tuesday killed at least 14 people, including four children and a woman, according to officials at al-Aqsa Martyrs and al-Awda hospitals, where casualties were taken.

One of the strikes hit a police station in an outdoor market in the Nuseirat refugee camp, killing four people and wounding two dozen, half of them women and children. At a hospital, a little boy cried, coughed and wiped his eyes as medics treated him on the crowded floor.

The Israeli military has said it had intelligence showing that militants from Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad group were regrouping in central Gaza City. Israel accuses Hamas and other militants of hiding among civilians. In Shijaiyah, a Gaza City neighborhood that has seen weeks of fighting, the military said it had destroyed 6 kilometers (3 miles) of Hamas tunnels.

Hamas has warned that the latest raids in Gaza City could lead to the collapse of negotiations for a cease-fire and hostage-release deal.

Israel and Hamas had appeared to narrow the gaps in recent days, with the U.S., Egypt and Qatar mediating.

CIA Director William Burns met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi on Tuesday in Cairo to discuss the negotiations, el-Sissi’s office said. More talks were to be held Wednesday in Qatar, where Hamas maintains a political office.

But obstacles remain, even after Hamas agreed to relent on its key demand that Israel commit to ending the war as part of any agreement. Hamas still wants mediators to guarantee that negotiations conclude with a permanent cease-fire, according to two officials with knowledge of the talks.

The current draft says mediators “will do their best” to ensure that negotiations lead to an agreement to wind down the war. Israel has rejected any deal that would force it to end the war with Hamas intact. Hamas on Monday accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of “putting more obstacles in the way of negotiations.”

Hamas’ cross-border raid on Oct. 7 killed 1,200 people in southern Israel, most of them civilians, according to Israeli authorities. The militants took roughly 250 people hostage. About 120 are still in captivity, with about a third said to be dead.

Israel’s bombardment and offensives in Gaza have killed more than 38,200 people and wounded more than 88,000, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

India Will Buy Russian Oil Despite Trump’s Threats, Officials Say

DON'T MISS

The US Said It Had No Choice but to Deport Them to a Third Country. Then It Sent Them Home

DON'T MISS

Trump Reaffirms Support for Morocco’s Sovereignty Over Western Sahara

DON'T MISS

Fresno’s Dog Daze Fest Returns With The Chainsmokers Headlining

DON'T MISS

Willow the Streetwise Poodle Mix Gets a Second Chance

DON'T MISS

Newsom Wants Voters to Weigh In on New Congressional Districts in November

DON'T MISS

Kia America Recalls 201,149 US Telluride Vehicles

DON'T MISS

US Reviewing Visa Denial for Venezuelan Little League Players, State Department Says

DON'T MISS

Hamas Says It Won’t Disarm Unless Independent Palestinian State Established

DON'T MISS

Gifford Fire Grows to 23,588 Acres in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo Counties

UP NEXT

The US Said It Had No Choice but to Deport Them to a Third Country. Then It Sent Them Home

UP NEXT

Trump Reaffirms Support for Morocco’s Sovereignty Over Western Sahara

UP NEXT

Fresno’s Dog Daze Fest Returns With The Chainsmokers Headlining

UP NEXT

Willow the Streetwise Poodle Mix Gets a Second Chance

UP NEXT

Kia America Recalls 201,149 US Telluride Vehicles

UP NEXT

US Reviewing Visa Denial for Venezuelan Little League Players, State Department Says

UP NEXT

Hamas Says It Won’t Disarm Unless Independent Palestinian State Established

UP NEXT

Gifford Fire Grows to 23,588 Acres in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo Counties

UP NEXT

Fresno Donates Firefighting Gear to Sister City Guadalajara

UP NEXT

Corruption Scandal Puts Mexico’s President on Defense Against Trump

Fresno’s Dog Daze Fest Returns With The Chainsmokers Headlining

15 hours ago

Willow the Streetwise Poodle Mix Gets a Second Chance

15 hours ago

Newsom Wants Voters to Weigh In on New Congressional Districts in November

16 hours ago

Kia America Recalls 201,149 US Telluride Vehicles

16 hours ago

US Reviewing Visa Denial for Venezuelan Little League Players, State Department Says

16 hours ago

Hamas Says It Won’t Disarm Unless Independent Palestinian State Established

16 hours ago

Gifford Fire Grows to 23,588 Acres in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo Counties

16 hours ago

Fresno Donates Firefighting Gear to Sister City Guadalajara

17 hours ago

Corruption Scandal Puts Mexico’s President on Defense Against Trump

17 hours ago

US Judges Speak Out About Death Threats, ‘Swattings,’ and ‘Pizza Doxings’

1 day ago

India Will Buy Russian Oil Despite Trump’s Threats, Officials Say

NEW DELHI — Indian officials said Saturday that they would keep purchasing cheap oil from Russia despite a threat of penalties from Presiden...

11 hours ago

A view shows oil pump jacks outside Almetyevsk in the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia June 4, 2023. (Reuters File)
11 hours ago

India Will Buy Russian Oil Despite Trump’s Threats, Officials Say

A Lao man deported from the U.S. holds up his non-national ID card - a document that defines his legal status in the country he left behind decades ago, and to which he has now returned, in Vientiane, Laos, July 31, 2025. REUTERS/Phoonsab Thevongsa
13 hours ago

The US Said It Had No Choice but to Deport Them to a Third Country. Then It Sent Them Home

President Donald Trump boards Air Force One on his way to New Jersey from Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., August 1, 2025. (Reuters File)
13 hours ago

Trump Reaffirms Support for Morocco’s Sovereignty Over Western Sahara

15 hours ago

Fresno’s Dog Daze Fest Returns With The Chainsmokers Headlining

After surviving more than six months alone on the streets, a 15-pound poodle mix named Willow is now safe and learning to trust humans again. (Mell's Mutts)
15 hours ago

Willow the Streetwise Poodle Mix Gets a Second Chance

California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks to the press after a hearing on the use of National Guard troops amid federal immigration sweeps, at the California State Supreme Court in San Francisco, California, U.S., June 12, 2025. (Reuters FIle)
16 hours ago

Newsom Wants Voters to Weigh In on New Congressional Districts in November

2025 Kia Telluride is displayed during the Los Angeles Auto Show, in Los Angeles, California, U.S., November 21, 2024. (Reuters File)
16 hours ago

Kia America Recalls 201,149 US Telluride Vehicles

Venezuelan baseball player Abraham Gutierrez, a member of Cacique Mara, a baseball youth team that will not be participating in the 2025 Little League World Series after their U.S. visa was denied, prepares for a practice session in Maracaibo, Venezuela, August 1, 2025. REUTERS/Gaby Oraa TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
16 hours ago

US Reviewing Visa Denial for Venezuelan Little League Players, State Department Says

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend