Oct. 15 (UPI) — The Palestinian death toll in the nine-day-old conflict between Israel and Hamas has reached 2,329, Gaza health officials announced Sunday, as violence spread to Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.
In addition to those killed, 9,042 have been wounded in the Palestinian enclave since the start of the conflict, triggered last weekend when Hamas militants staged an unprecedent rocket and ground attack against civilian targets inside Israel.
Israel casualties in the conflict stand at 1,300 killed and more than 3,400 wounded.
The Gaza Ministry of Health said the number of Palestinian killed in the current conflict already surpasses the death toll of the 2014 Israel-Hamas war which lasted 51 days, which it said “confirms that the crimes they commit against our people have been promoted to ethnic cleansing.”
Meanwhile, the health situation inside the besieged Gaza Strip is quickly deteriorating as Israel forces have massed at the northern border in preparation for an anticipated ground invasion. The Israeli Defense Forces have ordered a mass evacuation of 1.1 million residents from the area ahead of what it promises will be an “attack with great force.”
Electricity and water supplies have been cut off in anticipation of the assault, greatly escalating what aid workers have called a humanitarian disaster in the making.
Palestinian health officials said Sunday that 70% of the residents of both Gaza and North Gaza regions “are deprived of health services for refugees” after UNRWA, the United Nations Palestine refugee agency, evacuated its centers and withdrew its services in the face of a massive Israeli bombardment.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini urged Israel to protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza, declaring that with water supplies running dry and utilities cut off, “it has become a matter of life and death.”
“It is a must,” he said. “Fuel needs to be delivered now into Gaza to make water available for two million people.”
The World Health Organization on Saturday strongly condemned Israel’s order for 22 hospitals in northern Gaza to be evacuated, describing it as a “death sentence” for the sick and injured.
The health organization said the hospitals hold around 2,000 “desperately ill patients” and warned that forced evacuation of patients and health workers “will further worsen the current humanitarian and public health catastrophe.”
Palestinians and foreign nationals struggling to escape the fighting have gathered at the Rafah border crossing into Egypt, which remained closed.
British and American diplomats said Saturday they have “not been successful” in their efforts to negotiate its reopening with Hamas, Egypt and Israel, all of whom control access to the critical chokepoint.
The much-anticipated ground invasion of northern Gaza appeared to be on hold early Sunday as heavy rains pelted the region, adding to the plight of the evacuees.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday visited troops in the border area for the first time since the conflict began. He appeared at the kibbutzim of Be’eri and Kfar Aza to view the homes destroyed in what he called the “horrific massacre” of last weekend, his office said.
“I’ve seen our amazing soldiers who are now on the front line,” he said Sunday before the first meeting of Israel’s emergency Cabinet, during which he vowed to “demolish Hamas.”
The nation’s soldiers, Netanyahu said, know that “the entire nation is behind them. They understand the scope of the mission. They are ready to take action at any time in order to defeat the bloodthirsty monsters who have risen against us to destroy us.”
Also on Sunday, more fighting erupted along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon as the IDF and the militant group Hezbollah traded fire.
One person was killed and three others wounded after Hezbollah fired multiple mortar rounds and anti-tank guided missiles at an IDF post in the border community of Shtula, emergency responders said.
The Magen David Adom ambulance service confirmed that a 40-year-old man was killed in the incident, while the conditions of the injured ranged from moderate to mild.
The Israeli military said at least five anti-tank missiles were fired at its forces, adding that they are “now attacking the area” from which the missiles were launched.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying they were in response to the death of Lebanese journalist Issam Abdallah, who was killed while six other news media members were wounded in shelling on Friday by Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, according to Al Jazeera.
Witnesses told the broadcaster Israeli retaliation followed in the form of targeting several villages on the Lebanese side of the border.
