Tel Aviv/Gaza, Nov. 6, (dpa/GNA) – The heads of several UN organizations and humanitarian groups have made a joint call for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas, as Israel pursued its heavy bombardment and ground offensive in the northern Gaza Strip.
The number of Palestinians killed in Gaza since the start of the war on October 7 has risen to 10,022, according to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry.
More than 25,000 people have been injured, the ministry said on Monday. Thousands of women, children and young people were among the dead. The figures cannot be independently verified.
The joint statement signed by the heads of several UN bodies and international charities condemned the “horrific” killing of Israelis and the taking of hostages by Hamas, as well as the firing of rockets from Gaza.
“However, the horrific killings of even more civilians in Gaza is an outrage, as is cutting off 2.2 million Palestinians from food, water, medicine, electricity and fuel,” the statement said.
“It’s been 30 days. Enough is enough. This must stop now,” the joint statement said.
The Israeli air force said on Monday it had once again attacked hundreds of targets in the Gaza Strip and killed several Hamas commanders.
Around 450 targets were bombed from the air in the past 24 hours, the army said. These included tunnels, military installations and launching pads for anti-tank missiles, it added.
Alongside the ground offensive in northern Gaza, Israel has called on Gazans to move to the south of the territory, and on Monday offered a four-hour window for Gazans to move safely on a road southwards.
The army said on Sunday night it had effectively divided up the territory, and that there is now “a northern Gaza and a southern Gaza.” Gaza City, it said, was encircled.
Even as Israel troops advanced, militants continued to fire rockets at Israeli towns and cities from the Gaza Strip.
Warning sirens sounded in several towns in the border area in the morning, the Israeli army said. There were initially no reports of casualties or damage.
According to military figures, more than 8,100 rockets have been fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip since the latest outbreak of violence.
Communications networks in Gaza were partially restored on Monday morning after an outage lasting more than 15 hours.
Landlines, mobile phones and the internet in various areas “gradually” began to function again, according to the Palestinian company Paltel, which is based in the West Bank.
Israel had switched off the main network lines on Sunday evening, it said. There was no confirmation of this from the Israeli side. It was the third telecommunications outage since October 7.
The Gaza Strip has been almost completely sealed off by Israel since Hamas fighters launched an unprecedented assault on Israeli communities, killing more than 1,400 including many women, children and young people and taking some 240 people hostage.
Israel then launched a massive bombardment of the Gaza Strip, aimed at eliminating Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organization by the European Union, the United States and Israel.
This is by far the largest number of deaths among Palestinians during a war in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Tensions due to the conflict appear to have led to an increase in violence in other areas outside Gaza.
A 16-year-old Palestinian was shot after injuring two police officers in an attack near Jerusalem’s Old City, according to Israeli police.
The attacker, a resident of East Jerusalem, was shot dead after the knife attack, the police said on Monday.
According to the paramedics, a 20-year-old Israeli woman was taken to hospital in a critical condition and a 20-year-old man was slightly injured.
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the military arrested prominent Palestinian activist, Ahed Tamimi, accusing her of “inciting violence and promoting terrorist activities” against Israeli settlers.
The 21-year-old was transferred to Israeli security forces for further questioning after her arrest in the morning, the army said on Monday.
GNA