Dozens of Palestinians were killed and more than 150 injured after Israeli forces said they launched an attack on Gaza’s largest refugee camp, Jabalia, in the northern part of the occupied Palestinian territory, according to Reuters. The Jabalia refugee camp is the largest of eight refugee camps in Gaza with over 116,000 Palestinian refugees, according to the UN’s refugee agency.
Israel’s military said, according to Haaretz, that they “have taken control of Hamas military stronghold in Jabalia” and announced they had killed a Hamas commander.
This announcement comes as Israel expanded its war to include a ground operation into Gaza in recent days as Western leaders struggle to send a unified message on the Israel-Hamas war and the thousands of civilian casualties.
Israel has gradually increased the number of its troops in the Gaza Strip, as part of what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the “second stage of the war,” without referring to a ground invasion.
The EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell met with the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt, and the secretary-general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation on Monday and Tuesday, calling in a statement later Tuesday for the protection of civilians in line with international law, urging for humanitarian pauses and a call for Hamas to release all hostages. Borrell also condemned attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank.
In the U.S., a Senate hearing On Tuesday on aid for Israel and Ukraine was interrupted by protesters calling for a cease-fire. “Ceasefire now, save the children of Gaza!” one of two dozen protesters yelled. Since the Hamas attack on October 7, Israeli airstrikes have killed more than 8,500 Palestinians, including thousands of children, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
U.S. Secretary Antony Blinken, during the hearing, said: “All of us know the suffering that is taking place as we speak. All of us are determined to see it end. But all of us know the imperative of standing up with our allies and partners when their security, when their democracies are threatened.”
Following the bombardment on Jabalia, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, “I am deeply alarmed by the intensification of the conflict between Israel and Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups in Gaza.”
“With too many Israeli and Palestinian lives already lost, this escalation only increases the immense suffering of civilians.” The UN has said more than 60 of its workers have been killed in Gaza in Israeli airstrikes.
In a correspondence shared on social media, the director of the New York office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Craig Mokhiber, resigned from his post, saying: “This is a text-book case of genocide.”
In a statement that Israel’s prime minister issued to foreign media earlier on Monday, Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed international calls for a cease-fire, saying “Israel will not agree to a cessation of hostilities with Hamas.” He added: “Regardless of who stands with Israel, Israel will fight until this battle is won.”
The U.S., while calling for pauses, has also refused to call for a cease-fire, with President Joe Biden saying Israel should be able to defend itself.
Earlier on Tuesday, the UN said “Gaza has become a ‘graveyard’ for children with thousands now killed under Israeli bombardment, while more than a million face dire shortages of essentials and a lifetime of trauma ahead.”
Since the weekend, the Israeli army has widened its air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip, which has been under relentless airstrikes since the surprise offensive by Hamas earlier in October, killing more than 1,400 people in Israel and with hundreds of Israelis and foreign nationals taken hostage by Hamas.
