The Israeli military continued its shelling of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, signaling that the passage of a United Nations resolution calling for a ceasefire for the holy month of Ramadan on Monday had not shaken Israel’s determination to keep fighting.
The military said its warplanes had hit “more than 60 targets” in Gaza the previous day. It added that its forces were also operating in central Gaza, where it said it had killed “a number of terrorists”. Wafa, the Palestinian Authority news agency, said on Tuesday that the Israeli army had struck homes and buildings and that dozens of people had been killed.
In a statement, the Israeli military added that it was continuing its “operational activity” around Al-Amal Hospital and the town of Al-Qarara, in the Khan Younis district of southern Gaza, adding that its forces were “neutralizing terrorists and carrying out targeted raids in terrorist infrastructures”.
Al-Amal Hospital was shut down on Monday night after Israeli forces besieged it a day earlier and forced everyone inside to flee before sealing off its entrances with earthen barriers, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent, which runs the hospital. . The group said on Monday that two people were killed and three others wounded when Israeli forces opened fire during the evacuation.
The Israeli army also said on Tuesday it was continuing its attack on Al-Shifa hospital in the north for a ninth day. It said its forces there “found weapons and had engaged and killed several terrorists in the hospital area.” Witnesses have described days of fear in the compound, with regular shootings, airstrikes and explosions, and several patients dying as a result of the attack.
Israel has long accused Hamas, the armed group that led the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, of using hospitals in Gaza for military purposes, a claim Hamas and hospital administrators have denied. The Israeli military provided evidence that Hamas built a large tunnel under Al-Shifa, Gaza’s largest hospital.
A later New York Times analysis found that Hamas had used the Shifa compound for military purposes. The Israeli military, however, struggled to substantiate its claim that Hamas maintained a command and control center under it.
Wafa reported on Tuesday that dozens of Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike on a family home near Al-Shifa, citing medical sources. He did not specify the time frame. The agency also reported that the Israeli army had struck other houses and buildings around Al-Shifa and shot people moving in the streets around the hospital, killing and wounding dozens.
Ambulances were unable to take the injured to nearby hospitals because of fighting in the area, the agency said. He added that a drone opened fire on dozens of people who tried to approach Al-Shifa and its surroundings to retrieve those killed and wounded, injuring some of them.
The Palestinian news agency also reported Israeli strikes in northwest Gaza City, Beit Lahia in the north and the southern city of Rafah, where it said a house where displaced families lived was hit, killing more than a dozen Palestinians and injuring dozens more.
Those reports could not be independently verified, and the Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on them.
