Aid groups call for stronger efforts to stop Israel’s Gaza City offensive as Israel presses forward

JERUSALEM (AP) — A coalition of leading aid groups Wednesday urged the international community to take stronger measures to stop Israel’s offensive on Gaza City after a commission of UN experts found Israel was committing genocide in Gaza.

That’s as Israel pressed forward with the operation in the territory’s already-devastated north and the Palestinian death toll in Gaza neared 65,000.

“What we are witnessing in Gaza is not only an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, but what the UN Commission of Inquiry has now concluded is a genocide,” read the statement from the aid groups. “States must use every available political, economic, and legal tool at their disposal to intervene. Rhetoric and half measures are not enough. This moment demands decisive action.”

The message was signed by leaders of over 20 aid organizations operating in Gaza, including the Norwegian Refugee Council, Anera and Save the Children.

The statement came a day after Israel launched its offensive in Gaza City in earnest, vowing to overwhelm a city already in ruins from nearly two years of war.

On Wednesday, Gaza hospital officials said overnight Israeli strikes across the territory killed at least 13 Palestinians, including women and children. More than half of the dead were killed in strikes on Gaza City, including a child and his mother who were killed in a strike on their apartment in the Shati refugee camp, according to officials from the Shifa Hospital, which received the casualties.

In central Gaza, the Al-Awda Hospital said an Israeli strike hit a house in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp, killing three, including a pregnant woman. Two parents and their child were also killed when a strike hit their tent in the Muwasi area west of the city of Khan Younis, said officials from the Nasser Hospital, where the bodies were brought.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the deadly strikes, but in the past it has accused Hamas of building military infrastructure inside civilian areas.

The death count in Gaza from Israel’s retaliatory offensive is approaching 65,000. The war has killed more than 64,900 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were civilians or combatants. The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals, says women and children make up around half the dead.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military announced the opening of another route south for those fleeing Gaza City. The military’s Arabic-language spokesman, Col. Avichay Adraee, wrote on social media that the new route, along the Salah al-Din street hugging Gaza’s coastline, will open for those heading south for two days starting Wednesday at 12 p.m. local time.

An estimated 1 million Palestinians were living in the Gaza City region before warnings to evacuate began ahead of the offensive, and the Israeli military estimates 350,000 people have left the city. A U.N. estimate Monday said that over 220,000 Palestinians have fled northern Gaza over the past month. But hundreds of thousands more have stayed behind.

An Israeli military graphic suggested its troops hope to control all of the Gaza Strip except for a large swath along the coast by the end of the current operation.

Israeli forces have carried out multiple large-scale raids into Gaza City over the course of the war, causing mass displacement and heavy destruction, only to see militants regroup later. This time, Israel has pledged to take control of the entire city, which experts say is experiencing famine.

An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with military guidelines, said Tuesday they believe there are 2,000 to 3,000 Hamas militants left in Gaza City, as well as tunnels used by the group. Hamas’ military capabilities have been vastly diminished. It now mainly carries out guerrilla-style attacks, with small groups of fighters planting explosives or attacking military outposts before melting away.

The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 others. Forty-eight hostages, fewer than half believed to be alive, remain in Gaza.

___

Magdy reported from Cairo.