TEL AVIV: The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it struck a high-rise building in Gaza City on Friday, which it claimed contained Hamas lookout posts to coordinate and execute attacks against IDF troops in the area.
In a statement, the IDF said it has issued advance warnings to the population and used precision-guided munitions, aerial surveillance and additional intelligence gathering to minimize civilian harm.
Meanwhile, the non-governmental medical aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said it was forced to suspend lifesaving medical activities in Gaza City “due to the rapidly deteriorating security situation,” including “continued (Israeli) airstrikes and advancing tanks less than one kilometer from our healthcare facilities.”
“This is the last thing we wanted, as the needs in Gaza City are enormous, with the most at-risk people – infants in neonatal care, people with severe injuries and life-threatening illnesses – unable to move and in grave danger,” the MSF said Friday in a statement.
Within 24 hours, Gaza hospitals received 47 bodies and 142 injuries, bringing the total death toll in Gaza since the conflict began in October 2023 to 65,549, with 167,518 injuries, Gaza-based health authorities said Friday.
On Thursday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that with hundreds of thousands of civilians fleeing the Gaza City military offensive, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians remain amid eroding relief operations.
All attempts by the UN on Thursday to coordinate its staff and partners’ access to or within northern Gaza were denied by Israeli authorities, except for a single mission that eventually had to be canceled by the organizers, the OCHA added.
