Israel’s military said it was “operating with great force” against Hamas and allied groups and issued new evacuation orders, as it also continued its campaign in Lebanon.
The humanitarian crisis in the northern Gaza Strip deepened on Saturday as an Israeli bombardment killed at least 20 people, trapped thousands more and prompted one of the area’s last functioning hospitals to issue desperate pleas for assistance.
Israeli airstrikes overnight and into Saturday hit the Jabaliya area of northern Gaza, even as the Israeli military is also pressing ahead with its campaign in Lebanon, where it warned residents of 23 more towns to evacuate on Saturday.
Roughly 400,000 people remain in northern Gaza, according to the United Nations, and many have been trapped in their ruined neighborhoods by Israeli airstrikes, which the military says are targeting Hamas and other allied groups.
Doctors Without Borders said in a statement late Friday that five of its staff members were trapped in Jabaliya, and that one of them had relayed that “about 20 people” were killed in an airstrike on Al-Yemen Al-Saeed Hospital. The Palestinian health ministry said that at least 49 people had been killed across Gaza since Friday, and that 219 wounded people had arrived at hospitals in the enclave.
Israel’s military has issued evacuation warnings for the area in recent days, but aid workers said the fighting made it difficult to follow those instructions.
“Nobody is allowed to get in or out,” Sarah Vuylsteke, a project coordinator for Doctors Without Borders, said in the group’s statement. “Anyone who tries is getting shot.”
