Gaza civil defense says unable to reach Jabalia camp due to intense Israeli fire

By Hosni Nadim

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - Gaza civil defense has said its teams are unable to access the Jabalia refugee camp and Gaza City where Israel on Sunday launched fresh bombings.

“The direct and deliberate Israeli targeting of civil defense crews prevents us from reaching some of the targeted places in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood in Gaza City," spokesman Mahmoud Basal told Anadolu.

He said the teams were unable to reach 16 members of a family who were trapped under the rubble of a house in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood.

"The Israeli army is targeting innocent civilians in the neighborhoods of Gaza and the northern Gaza Strip, most of whom are women and children,” he added.

Even rescue workers are not spared in the bombing, he said.

“All the hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip are out of service,” he added.

Israel has pounded Gaza following a cross-border attack by the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas, on Oct. 7, which killed less than 1,200 people.

Nearly 35,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have since been killed, and over 78,600 injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.

Seven months into the conflict, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). An interim ruling in January said it is "plausible" that Tel Aviv is committing genocide in Gaza, ordering it to stop such acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

South Africa on Friday asked the ICJ to order Israel to withdraw from Rafah as part of additional emergency measures over the war.

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi