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Al Jazeera's correspondent said on Saturday that the Israeli occupation forces intensified their artillery shelling on Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, and Khan Yunis in the south, while violent clashes took place between the Palestinian resistance and the occupation forces in several areas.

The reporter added that air strikes and artillery shelling targeted Bani Suhaila, Al-Zana and Abasan, east of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip.

In turn, Palestinian media said that occupation aircraft and artillery were intensively bombarding the Al-Amal neighborhood in Khan Yunis.

Video clips broadcast by Palestinian media showed Israeli occupation artillery firing flares in the vicinity of Nasser Hospital in the city of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, while the Palestinian Red Crescent announced that displaced people were injured in the occupation drones’ bombing of the association’s headquarters and Al-Amal Hospital.

The occupation forces also blew up a residential square in the Al-Balad area in the middle of the city of Khan Yunis, and also blew up homes and facilities in the Bani Suhaila area east of the city. Pictures showed plumes of thick smoke rising from those areas.

As a result of bombing operations carried out by the Israeli occupation forces.

The vicinity of Al-Shifa Medical Hospital in Gaza was subjected to Israeli air and artillery bombardment, and Al Jazeera’s correspondent reported that the area targeted by Israel includes residential complexes in which a large number of civilians live, adding that a number of the wounded have not been recovered from the place yet.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza said yesterday, Friday, that the number of martyrs in the Israeli occupation bombing reached 142 martyrs, in addition to 278 injured, in 12 massacres committed by the occupation forces in the Gaza Strip during the past 24 hours.

The ministry added that the total number of victims of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip rose to 24,762 martyrs, in addition to 62,108 injured since the start of the war.

The seriousness of the living situation

For his part, the mayor of Gaza, Yahya al-Sarraj, said that there are more than 50,000 tons of waste accumulating in the streets and in front of hospitals, which threatens the spread of dangerous diseases and epidemics. He called on the international community to intervene urgently and provide fuel, electricity generators, and equipment to provide services.

The municipality is trying hard to provide humanitarian services and drain wastewater, but due to the exhaustion of fuel and the destruction of service facilities;

Such as: wells and electricity generators, which led to almost complete paralysis, posing a great danger to the lives of civilians.

For his part, spokesman for the United Nations Secretary-General, Stephane Dujarric, said that drinking water and water for domestic use in Gaza are shrinking every day, and that the remaining wells are currently operating at a tenth of their production capacity, compared to the period before the escalation of fighting, and it is known that the water that is used from these The wells are salty and substandard.

He pointed out that the World Health Organization reported 152,000 cases of diarrhea in Gaza.

Due to the lack of adequate water, more than half of these cases are seen in children under the age of five, and the disruption of routine vaccination activities and the lack of medicines to treat infectious diseases increase the risk of the spread of diseases.

Dujarric added that women and girls in the Gaza Strip are losing their lives and facing catastrophic levels of humanitarian needs.

He explained that the Israeli army is obstructing the arrival of humanitarian aid shipments to the Gaza Strip, and that Israeli restrictions imposed on the import of vital equipment, including communications devices, are endangering safe and effective relief operations in Gaza.

Dujarric pointed out that only 7 out of 29 planned deliveries in the first two weeks of this January could be fully or partially achieved.

Estimates today indicate that about 70% of those killed in Gaza were women and children, and that at least 3,000 women may have become widows and heads of families after losing their husbands, and that they are in dire need of protection and food assistance, and that at least 10,000 children They lost their parents, and the percentage of displaced children in the Gaza Strip exceeds 90%, and they live in harsh conditions in displacement camps.

Resistance clashes

Meanwhile, clashes are taking place between the Palestinian resistance and the Israeli occupation army east of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, and Al Jazeera's correspondent reported that the Palestinian resistance responded to the attempts of the Israeli occupation forces to advance east of Jabalia, north of the Gaza Strip.

The Al-Qassam Brigades - the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) - said that its fighters were waging fierce battles from zero distance with the Israeli occupation forces, penetrating east of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip.

It added that it targeted Israeli special forces barricaded inside a building in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, and clashed with them with machine guns, killing and wounding its members. It also targeted a building in which the occupation soldiers were barricaded in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, and opened fire on a soldier near him, wounding him directly.

The Brigades said that they destroyed 6 Israeli Merkava tanks with strobe charges east of the city of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, and the Bureij camp, and added that their fighters sniped two Israeli soldiers with a Ghoul rifle east of the city of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip.

For its part, the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement, announced targeting positions of occupation soldiers and vehicles east of Gaza City and the center of the Strip, and broadcast images of its fighters targeting Israeli military crowds east of Bureij.

The Israeli army had previously announced that a soldier from the Givati ​​Brigade was killed as a result of wounds he sustained two days ago, and that three others were seriously injured in battles in the southern Gaza Strip.

This brings the number of Israeli soldiers and officers killed since October 7, 2023, to 530, including 201 since the beginning of the ground operation on the 26th of the same month.

Source: Al Jazeera + agencies