At least 12 killed as Israeli operation to capture Gaza city ramps up
Aug. 13 (UPI) -- Israeli forces intensified a major aerial assault on Gaza City, killing at least 12 people and causing extensive damage overnight, ahead of a planned military operation to take control of the city, according to Palestinian authorities.
The city's residential districts of Zeitoun and Sabra had been hit by airstrikes for the third straight day, sustaining "massive damage to civilian homes," the Hamas-run Gaza civil defense agency said.
The fatalities, which occurred on Wednesday morning in an airstrike on a house in the east of the city, were among 39 killed across the Gaza Strip, including 19 people who were seeking humanitarian aid, medical sources told Al Jazeera.
The latest casualties came as the foreign ministers of Britain, Japan, Canada, Australia and Switzerland joined the European Union in condemning the use of lethal forces at aid distribution sites and calling for urgent action to address famine "unfolding before our eyes" in Gaza.
Warning that international NGOs might be forced to leave Gaza any day due to new restrictive registration measures being imposed by Israel, which would further exacerbate the humanitarian situation, the countries said in a statement that "urgent action is needed now to halt and reverse starvation."
"We call on the government of Israel to provide authorization for all international NGO aid shipments and to unblock essential humanitarian actors from operating. Immediate, permanent and concrete steps must be taken to facilitate safe, large-scale access for the U.N., international NGOs and humanitarian partners," the statement read.
They demanded all crossings and routes be opened to facilitate a "flood of aid" into Gaza, including food, nutrition supplies, shelter, fuel, clean water and medicine and medical equipment.
"We need a cease-fire that can end the war, for hostages to be released and aid to enter Gaza by land unhindered," the statement added.
Israel blames the United Nations and Hamas for the humanitarian situation, accusing the world body of refusing to distribute aid trucked into Gaza and Hamas of stealing supplies and reselling them to fund its military operations.
The Israel Defense Forces' chief of staff confirmed Monday it was embarking on a new phase in the fighting after the war cabinet of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved his plan to seize control of remaining Hamas "strongholds," including Gaza City.
"We are at the start of a new stage in the fighting in Gaza. We will do everything to protect the hostages and bring them home," Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said in an apparent U-turn after earlier backing a less drastic alternative proposal.
Zamir was reported to have opposed Netanyahu's plan on the grounds his forces were exhausted and doubts over IDF's ability to free the hostages through military force alone, pitching instead an incremental strategy involving laying siege to Gaza city. That idea was rejected because it was deemed less effective in achieving the goal of defeating Hamas.
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