Gaza awaits aid from Egypt as Israel readies troops for ground assault
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Israel pounded the Gaza Strip with airstrikes Thursday, including in the south where Palestinians were told to take refuge, and the country's defense minister ordered ground troops to “be ready” to invade, though he didn’t say when.
Gaza's overwhelmed hospitals tried to stretch out ebbing medical supplies and fuel for generators, as authorities worked out logistics for a delivery of aid from Egypt. Doctors in darkened wards across Gaza stitched wounds by the light of mobile phones and used vinegar to treat infected wounds.
Meanwhile, an unclassified U.S. intelligence assessment delivered to Congress estimated casualties in an explosion at a Gaza City hospital earlier this week on the “low end” of 100 to 300 deaths. The death toll “still reflects a staggering loss of life,” U.S. intelligence officials said in the findings, seen by The Associated Press. It said intelligence officials were still assessing the evidence and their casualty estimate may evolve.
President Joe Biden and other U.S. officials already have said that U.S. intelligence officials believed the explosion at al-Ahli hospital was not caused by an Israeli airstrike. Thursday’s findings echoed that.
The Israeli military has relentlessly attacked Gaza in retaliation for the devastating Oct. 7 Hamas rampage in southern Israel. Even after Israel told Palestinians to evacuate the north of Gaza and flee south, strikes extended across the territory, heightening fears among the territory's 2.3 million people that nowhere was safe.
Palestinian militants fired rockets into Israel on Thursday from Gaza and Lebanon, and tensions flared in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
In a fiery speech to Israeli infantry soldiers on the Gaza border, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant urged the forces to “get organized, be ready” for an order to move in. Israel has massed tens of thousands of troops along the border.
“Whoever sees Gaza from afar now, will see it from the inside ... I promise you," he said. “It might take a week, a month, two months until we destroy them,” he added, referring to Hamas.
Israel’s consent for Egypt to let in food, water and medicine provided the first possible opening in its seal of the territory. Many of Gaza’s residents are down to one meal a day and drinking dirty water.
Egypt and Israel were still negotiating for the entry of fuel for hospitals. Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Hamas has stolen fuel from U.N. facilities and Israel wanted assurances this won’t happen. The first trucks of aid were expected to go in Friday, Egypt’s state-owned Al-Qahera news reported.
With the Egypt-Gaza border crossing in Rafah still closed, the already dire conditions at Gaza’s second-largest hospital deteriorated further, said Dr. Mohammed Qandeel of Nasser Hospital in the southern town of Khan Younis. Power was shut off in most of the hospital and staff members were using mobile phones for light.
At least 80 wounded civilians and 12 dead flooded into the hospital after witnesses said a strike hit a residential building in Khan Younis. Doctors had no choice but to leave two to die because there were no ventilators, Qandeel said.
“We can’t save more lives if this keeps happening,” he said.
The Gaza Health Ministry pleaded with gas stations to give fuel to hospital and a U.N. agency gave some of its last fuel supplies to the medical centers.
The agency's donation to Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, the territory’s largest, would “keep us going for another few hours,” hospital director Mohammed Abu Selmia said.
Al-Ahli Hospital was still recovering from Tuesday's explosion, which remains a point of dispute between Hamas and Israel. Hamas quickly said an Israeli airstrike hit the hospital. Israel denied it was involved. The AP has not independently verified any of the claims or evidence released by the parties.
The blast left body parts strewn on the hospital grounds, where crowds of Palestinians had clustered in hopes of escaping Israeli airstrikes. The U.S. assessment noted “only light structural damage,” with no impact crater visible.
The Gaza Health Ministry said 3,785 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, the majority women, children and older adults. Nearly 12,500 were injured, and another 1,300 people were believed buried under the rubble, health authorities said.
More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, mostly civilians slain during Hamas’ deadly incursion. Roughly 200 others were abducted. The Israeli military said Thursday it had notified the families of 203 captives.
More than 1 million Palestinians, roughly half of Gaza’s population, have fled their homes in the north of the territory since Israel told them to evacuate. Most have crowded into U.N.-run schools-turned-shelters or the homes of relatives.
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