Dozens injured in attacks in Bureij, Maghazi, the only functioning hospital in an area “overflowed” with patients, health official says.
At least 15 people have been killed in Israeli ground and air strikes on the Bureij and Maghazi refugee camps in central Gaza, a Palestinian health official said.
“More than 15 martyrs and dozens of wounded arrived at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the last few hours,” a Health Ministry spokesperson told reporters from outside the hospital compound in Deir el-Balah, central from Gaza.
If the “aggression” in the central areas of Gaza does not stop, the death toll is expected to rise rapidly, he said.
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital is the only medical center currently serving more than one million people in the area, the spokesperson said.
The center does not have the capacity to receive more patients, he warned, adding that the hospital is already “overwhelmed with injured people,” many of whom are being treated on the floor.
An attack on another house in the neighboring Maghazi refugee camp killed two people, according to officials at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
Earlier, the Israeli military said in a statement that planes were attacking Hamas targets in central Gaza while ground forces operated “in a concentrated manner with the guidance of intelligence” in the al-Bureij area.
Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Deir el-Balah, said medical staff at the hospital are overwhelmed by the casualties arriving.
“Doctors are running everywhere, searching for remaining medical supplies, including antiseptics and anesthetics, to perform urgent operations and save lives,” Mahmoud said.
“We can still hear explosions from ongoing attacks and heavy machine gun fire in the eastern area of central Gaza, including the densely populated Maghazi and Bureij camps,” he added.
“We are learning from the victims' relatives that there are entire families still trapped inside bombed houses in those fields.”
Is the ceasefire proposal wavering?
Israeli forces waged an offensive earlier this year for several weeks in Bureij and several other nearby refugee camps in central Gaza.
Troops withdrew from Jabalia camp in northern Gaza last Friday after weeks of fighting that caused widespread destruction in the already devastated area. Rescuers have recovered the bodies of 360 people, mostly women and children, a spokesman for Gaza's civil defense said.
The Israeli airstrikes and ground offensives across the Gaza Strip come as international mediators wait for Israel and Hamas to respond to a new ceasefire and a proposed captive exchange.
A senior Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, said Tuesday that the group will not accept an agreement with Israel that does not clearly establish a permanent ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
“The Israeli response talks about opening the door to negotiations above all without an end or timetable… this confirms that Israel only wants a phase, in which it takes prisoners and then resumes its aggression and war against our people,” Hamdan said.
“As long as there is no clear preparedness posture on the part of the Zionist occupation for a permanent ceasefire and a complete withdrawal from Gaza… we cannot accept an agreement that does not guarantee a permanent ceasefire, a complete withdrawal and a subsequent exchange of prisoners. ”He added.
Announcing the plan last week, US President Joe Biden said the three-phase plan was proposed by Israel; However, Israeli leaders have since appeared to distance themselves from the proposal and have pledged to continue fighting Hamas until the group is destroyed.
Israeli bombing and ground operations in Gaza have killed more than 36,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry.
Israel is expanding its offensive on the southern Gaza city of Rafah and has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and other supplies to Palestinians facing widespread hunger.
More than a million Palestinians have fled Rafah, mostly to tent camps that have sprung up in central and southern Gaza.
