GAZA, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- At least 33 Palestinians were killed and dozens of others injured in the past 24 hours as the Israeli army intensified its military operation in the Jabalia refugee camp of northern Gaza, sources said on Saturday.
The Civil Defense Authority in Gaza said in a press statement that Israeli warplanes bombed several inhabited homes in the Jabalia area and its camp.
It added that artillery shelled Jabalia and its outskirts intensively overnight while drones fired at homes and schools housing displaced people.
According to local sources and eyewitnesses, the Israeli army carried out extensive house-to-house bombing operations, causing huge explosions.
Paramedics told Xinhua that medical teams and the civil defense apparatus recovered the bodies of 25 Palestinians, including children and women, and found 96 injured others. They said some missing persons are still under the rubble.
In Gaza City, eight people were killed and several others wounded in an Israeli attack on a house and a gathering of Palestinians, all of whom were taken to hospitals, the sources added.
Doctors Without Borders, a global medical charity, said in a press statement on Friday that thousands of Palestinians are still trapped in the Jabalia area due to Israel's military operation.
Meanwhile, highlighting Israel's complete siege on northern Gaza, the Palestinian presidency held the U.S. administration responsible for the ongoing war in Gaza.
In a statement carried by the official news agency WAFA, presidency spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh said U.S. support has allowed Israel to continue its "aggression" and to defy international law and all resolutions of international legitimacy.
He urged the U.S. administration to stop backing Israel's "brutal crimes," which are leading the region to a "comprehensive explosion" that has unbearable consequences.
Meanwhile, Hamas denounced the killings in Jabalia as "a continuation of the ongoing criminal war of extermination" and "revenge against defenseless civilians with U.S. support."
Expressing concern over the latest escalation in northern Gaza, the Central Committee of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah) stressed the need to implement UN resolutions and called for the "broadest" international action to save people there.
The Israeli army renewed Saturday its orders for residents in large areas of northern Gaza to evacuate their homes as it is pressing on with its fresh military operation in the area that began last Sunday, which it said aims to prevent Hamas from regrouping.
Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee, in a statement on Saturday, called for residents in some areas in northern Gaza to evacuate to the area in southern Gaza designated by the military as a humanitarian zone.
"The army is operating with great force against the terrorist organizations and will continue to do so for a long time. The area, including shelters there, is considered a dangerous combat zone," he warned.
Israel has been conducting a large-scale offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on Oct. 7, 2023, during which 1,200 people were killed and about 250 others taken hostage.
The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks in Gaza has risen to 42,175, local health authorities said in a statement on Saturday. ■
