The Gaza Strip: The most dangerous place in the world, and Israel’s response to the Israeli-Jawa Strip cease-fire

The situation is getting worse every minute. There is no ‘safe’ zone, the entire Gaza Strip has become one of the most dangerous places in the world. The agency said there was nowhere to go as shelters were overflowing.

TEL AVIV, Israel — Nearly 1.9 million Palestinians have fled their homes in the Gaza Strip in two months of war between Israel and Hamas, according to the United Nations. That’s 85% of the population in the besieged enclave.

Lloyd Austin, the Secretary of Defense, warned Israel last week that it risked “strategic defeat” if it didn’t protect Palestinians in Gaza.

“The center of gravity is the civilian population and if you drive them into the arms of the enemy, you replace a tactical victory with a strategic defeat,” Austin said.

“We are asked a lot about the destruction in Gaza,” Halevi said. “Hamas is the [answer] to those questions,” adding, “Our forces find weapons in almost every house, terrorists are found in many houses, we fight them.”

“These things require a wide range of fire, both to damage the enemy and to protect our forces.” That is why they operate powerfully” while still going to “great efforts to minimize harm” to civilians, Halevi said.

Carter said clearing operations take a long time. They still have to conduct military operations in some areas that have already been cleared as Hamas fighters attack their positions.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and ministers of his war cabinet met with some hostages released in a brief cease-fire last month after being held for weeks in Gaza by Hamas.

The Israeli government officials were castigated by the released hostages, for their bombing of Hamas locations. They said during captivity they were more afraid of Israeli bombs than their militant captors.

NPR’s Scott Neuman and Eleanor Beardsley reported from Tel Aviv and Brian Mann from Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. A producer from NPR contributed from the Gaza Strip.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), the IDF said on Wednesday that Israel’s air force had hit 250 targets in the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, and that ground troops “continue to locate and destroy weapons, underground shafts, explosive charges and other terrorist infrastructures.”

It is the first time that Israel has admitted that ground forces were involved in the fighting around Khan Younis. Israel released video it said showed soldiers operating in northern Gaza.

He said the Israel Defense Forces on Tuesday were taking part “in the most intense day since the beginning of the ground operation, in terms of terrorists killed, the number of firefights, and the use of firepower from the land and air.”

“We are in the heart of Jabaliya, in the heart of Shujaiya, and now also in the heart of Khan Younis,” the head of Israel’s Southern Command, Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman said at a news briefing on Tuesday. There is a refugee camp located in Gaza’s north. The south end of the Strip is believed to be occupied by a Hamas stronghold.

In the middle of the day Wednesday, some of the heaviest fighting since Israel launched its assault on Gaza in mid-July could be heard through the Palestinian territory’s second-largest city.

A Gazan Crisis During the Biden War: Israel’s Response to the Gaza Strip and its Post on X-Newton

Israel’s former attorney general, Avihai Mandelblit, says he thinks Israel’s intention is to ensure civilians escape harm’s way, despite the humanitarian crisis associated with urging mass evacuations to Gaza’s south.

I am not saying it is nice to be there, but the only thing that we try to do is protect their lives. If they stay in Khan Younis, they will end up losing a lot of lives. They will not die, that is the most important thing. Gaza’s second-largest city is where Israel’s bombardment is focused now, according to Mandelblit.

The flyers that Israeli warplanes dropped on neighborhoods gave directions to either flee or seek shelter. This isn’t the first time residents of Gaza have experienced this kind of warning — in 2014, a similar tactic was used ahead of an Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip from the north and again in 2021.

This divides the territory of the Gaza Strip. The residents of Gaza are expected to orient themselves and understand their instructions, and should leave specific areas for their safety if necessary.

The map came about as a result of the Biden administration’s insistence that Israel minimize civilian casualties. After a tour of Israel and the West Bank, the Secretary of State called on Israel to establish safe zones.

It can be difficult to see the map due to the lack of electricity or internet in Gaza. And those who have identified their zone according to the map have received mixed messages from both the Israeli military and other residents about whether their zone had been ordered to evacuate.

My house was in a different area. The last zone on the evacuation list was 54,” 29-year-old Heba Usrof told NPR. Heavy fighting is taking place in her hometown of Khan Younis.

She says that the next day they hit again. An Israeli soldier contacted our neighbor and told him to leave, telling everyone else to do the same.

Israeli military Arabic spokesman Avichay Adraee has been posting information on social media in order to convince people that Hamas was responsible for their suffering during the war.

He said in the post on X that the military was operating in the area and warned that the road leading to the south was a combat zone. He said Israeli forces would suspend military activities in a neighborhood of Rafah until 2 p.m.

Adraee’s first announcement declaring a safe passage out of northern Gaza in early November was followed by another announcement the following day: He said that the safe passage had been rendered unsafe by the gunfire of Hamas.

After 20 days, when he was critical of Hamas and afraid of being retaliated against, his family and his belongings were left in northern Gaza to Khan Younis and then the other side of the Mediterranean to Rafah.

The Israelis ordered us to go south. We came here and found no place to go. He told NPR that they are all in the streets. The people should have been secured first by Hamas. They should have secured the people and secured a place for them.

The Israel Defense Forces is going to begin a strong attack on your residence to destroy the Hamas terrorist organization.

In the past few days, many cellphones in Rafah flashed with messages on their screens calling on people to evacuate from Khan Younis, as a “dangerous battle” was expected:

Internet and cellphone service has been down in Gaza for more than a week. Israel, which maintains a blockade on Gaza, has declined to answer NPR’s request for comment on whether these communications cuts are deliberate.

The robocalls have been confusing to residents. NPR spoke to several people who received calls from the Israeli military listing zones to evacuate that weren’t their neighborhood.

Israel was requested by the United States to establish safe zones to minimize civilian casualties from its air assaults in response to the Hamas attack. Palestinians and aid groups say those zones don’t provide a guarantee of shelter to people who escape.

They are being squeezed into smaller and smaller areas — as Israel urges Palestinians to escape its air-and-ground campaign, which has left more than 16,000 dead in Gaza, according to health officials in the Hamas-run territory.