According to Israeli air strikes, at least 31 people are dead in the Gaza Strip

CAIRO – Israeli airstrikes killed at least 31 people in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, Palestinian medics said, with nearly half of the deaths in northern areas where the army has reportedly waged a month-long campaign aimed at preventing Hamas from regrouping .

Palestinians said the new air and ground offensives and forced evacuations were “ethnic cleansing” aimed at stripping two northern Gaza towns and a refugee camp of their populations to create buffer zones. Israel denies this and says it is fighting Hamas militants who launch attacks from there.

Medics said at least 13 Palestinians were killed in separate attacks on homes in the town of Beit Lahiya and Jabalia, the largest of the enclave's eight historic camps and the focus of the army's new offensive.

The rest were killed in separate Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City and southern areas, including one in Khan Younis that health officials said killed eight people, including four children.

Later on Sunday, health officials at Kamal Adwan Hospital near Beit Lahiya said the facility came under Israeli tank fire and a child hospitalized at the hospital was critically injured.

Hussam Abu Safiya, the hospital's director, said the incident occurred after a World Health Organization delegation visited the facility and evacuated some patients.

He said that while evacuating the wounded was important, what was more important was sending specialized medical teams to hospitals in northern Gaza, which are now overwhelmed by the number of injured.

Abu Safiya said the tank fire hit the water supply, the courtyard and the neonatal intensive care unit.

COGAT, the Israeli army's Palestinian civil affairs authority, said the explosion was due to an explosive device planted by Palestinian militants and not an Israeli attack.

“The terrorist organizations continue to exploit civilian infrastructure, medical facilities and international aid organizations for their terrorist activities,” a COGAT statement said late Sunday.

Hamas has repeatedly denied using civilian facilities such as hospitals, schools and mosques for military purposes.

On Saturday, the Israeli military sent a new army division to Jabalia to join two other operating battalions, a statement said. It said hundreds of Palestinian militants had been killed in the “fighting” since the crackdown began on October 5.

Meanwhile, COGAT said it facilitated the launch of the second round of a polio vaccination campaign in northern Gaza on Saturday and that 58,604 children had received a dose.

The Gaza Strip Health Ministry said the Israeli military offensive in northern Gaza was preventing them from vaccinating thousands of children in Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun.

It said a clinic came under Israeli fire as parents brought their children for anti-polio doses on Saturday, and four children were injured.

“Armistice!”

The head of the World Health Organization said in a statement that the incident at the clinic took place despite the two warring parties, Israel and Hamas, agreeing to a humanitarian pause to allow the vaccination campaign.

“A @WHO team was on site shortly beforehand. “This attack during a humanitarian pause threatens the sanctity of children’s health protections and could deter parents from bringing their children for vaccination,” Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X on Saturday.

“It is important to respect these important pauses in the humanitarian sector. Ceasefire!” he said.

The Israeli military, which had no immediate comment on Tedros' comments, said it was reviewing the report on the clinic.

A major ceasefire that would end the war and allow the release of Israeli and foreign hostages held in Gaza, as well as Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, remains a long way off due to disagreements between Hamas and Israel.

Hamas wants a deal to permanently end the war and is rejecting recent offers of temporary ceasefires, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the war can only end if Hamas is wiped out.

The war broke out after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and returning 251 hostages to Gaza, according to Israel.

Israel's retaliatory offensives have killed more than 43,300 Palestinians and reduced most of the Gaza Strip to rubble.