Israel presses on with strikes despite cease-fire resolution
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military pressed on with its bombardment of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, signaling that the passing of a United Nations resolution calling for a cease-fire for the holy month of Ramadan the day before had not shaken Israel’s determination to keep fighting.
The military said its fighter jets had struck “over 60 targets” in Gaza over the previous day. It added that its forces were also operating in central Gaza, where they had killed “a number of terrorists.” Wafa, the Palestinian Authority’s news agency, said Tuesday that the Israeli military had struck residential homes and buildings and that dozens of people were killed.
In a statement, the Israeli military added that it was continuing its “operational activity” around Al-Amal Hospital and the town of Al-Qarara, in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza, adding that its forces were “eliminating terrorists and carrying out targeted raids on terrorist infrastructure.”
Al-Amal Hospital went out of service Monday night after Israeli forces besieged it a day earlier and forced everyone out before closing off its entrances with earthen barriers, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society, which runs the hospital. The organization said Monday that two people were killed and three others wounded when Israeli forces opened fire as they were being evacuated.
The Israeli military also said Tuesday that it was pressing on with its assault on Shifa Hospital in the north for a ninth day. It said its forces there had “located weapons” and “eliminated several terrorists.”
Ezzeldine al-Dali, who lives less than a mile from Shifa, said airstrikes and gunfire had intensified in the area Monday night before calming Tuesday morning, which residents took as a sign that Israeli forces had concluded their raid.
He said people he knew went to the hospital thinking the raid was over, but “they were wrong,” and people were shot and wounded. His account could not be independently verified. The Israeli military said it was checking into it.
Israel has long accused Hamas, the armed group that led an attack into southern Israel on Oct. 7, of using hospitals in Gaza for military purposes, a claim that Hamas and hospital administrators have denied.
A New York Times analysis found that Hamas had used the Shifa complex for military purposes. The Israeli military, however, has struggled to prove its claim that Hamas maintained a command-andcontrol center under it.
Al-Dali, 22, said that the passage of the U.N. resolution did not give him or those around him any hope that the Israeli bombardment would stop soon.
“The International Court of Justice, Biden and all the Arab and Western countries could not stop Israel,” he said by phone Tuesday. “So why would the United Nations be able to stop them?”
The International Court of Justice in late January ordered Israel to ensure that its actions would not lead to genocide, and to increase humanitarian aid to Gaza. But the court did not order a halt to fighting in the Gaza Strip.