GAZA: Zionist forces battled Hamas militants and bombed more targets in the devastated Gaza Strip Tuesday with the UN General Assembly due to vote on a new demand for a ceasefire. More than two months into the war, visiting chief of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, likened Gaza to “hell on earth”. The health ministry updated its death toll in Gaza to 18,412, mostly women and children.

The Islamist group said Zionist forces raided a hospital in Gaza City, the biggest urban center. “(Zionist) occupation forces are storming Kamal Adwan hospital after besieging and bombing it for days,” health ministry spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qudra said, accusing troops of rounding up men in the hospital courtyard, including medical staff.

The UN humanitarian agency OCHA said earlier that “the hospital remains surrounded by (Zionist) troops and tanks, and fighting with armed groups has been reported in its vicinity for three consecutive days”. It said two mothers were killed in a strike on the maternity ward, and that about 3,000 internally displaced people were trapped in the facility amid reports of “extreme shortages of water, food and power”.

UN agencies and aid groups fear the Palestinian territory will soon be overwhelmed by starvation and disease, and are pleading with the Zionist entity to boost efforts to protect civilians. Air and artillery strikes again rained down on multiple targets in Gaza, a day after Zionist Defense Minister Yoav Gallant reported significant progress in the war, now in its third month.

The war has deepened the suffering in Gaza, whose devastation top European Union diplomat Josep Borrell has compared to that of Germany during World War II. He said the EU was also “alarmed by the violence in the West Bank by extremist settlers” and condemned the Zionist government’s decision to approve 1,700 more housing units in Jerusalem, a violation of international law. Zionist forces killed four Palestinians in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on Tuesday, the Palestinian health ministry reported. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said they were killed in a drone strike on the Old City.

The UN estimates 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced by the conflict, half of them children. Zionist air strikes killed at least 24 people in Rafah near the border with Egypt, where tens of thousands are seeking shelter, the Gaza health ministry said. One strike left a deep crater and gutted surrounding buildings. Teenagers salvaged belongings from the debris with their hands, a young girl retrieving some notebooks. “There are still people under the rubble,” said resident Abu Jazar, 23. “We call on the Arab people and the world to put on pressure to stop the strikes on Gaza.”

At Rafah hospital, bereaved father Hani Abu Jamaa cradled the body of his young daughter Sidal, who was killed by shrapnel. He said there had been strong explosions overnight and he only found she was dead when he tried to wake her on Tuesday morning. “Even if I live 100 years, I will never find another like her,” he said, crying. “May God have mercy on her, oh Lord.”

The Zionist army has lost 105 soldiers in the offensive, it said on Tuesday, including 13 killed by friendly fire and others in accidents. Fighting and heavy bombardment in south Gaza, where the Zionist entity previously urged civilians to seek safety, have left people with few places to go.

In Gaza City, thousands of Palestinians set up camp at a UN agency headquarters after nearby homes and shops were destroyed by Zionist strikes. An AFP correspondent said both the Islamic and adjacent Al-Azhar universities had been reduced to rubble, as had the police station. “There is no water. There is no electricity, no bread, no milk for the children, and no diapers,” said Rami Al-Dahduh, 23, a tailor.

The UN General Assembly was due to vote later Tuesday on a non-binding resolution demanding “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire”. The draft text, seen by AFP, largely reproduces the resolution blocked by the United States, a key ally of the Zionist entity, at a UN Security Council vote on Friday.

“We condemn anyone who encourages (the Zionist entity) to continue its killings,” Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh told a cabinet meeting in Ramallah ahead of the vote. “While claiming to be against the killing of civilians, the United States obstructs the Security Council resolutions to halt the war,” he said.

Fears of a wider conflict continue to grow, with Iran-backed groups targeting US and allied forces in Iraq and Syria, and daily exchanges of fire along the Zionist entity’s border with Lebanon. France said one of its frigates shot down a drone threatening a Norwegian-flagged tanker hit in an overnight missile attack claimed by Iran-backed Houthi rebels. – AFP