Day after day, the reality of a terrible war rears its head. On Monday, October 30, 48 hours had passed since the Israeli army had launched – after several weeks of preparation and anticipation – a military operation in Gaza with the aim of "destroying" Hamas, as Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stated on Friday, just before the operation was launched. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have not, however, sent entire divisions to assault the enclave, where Hamas fighters (around 30,000 men, reinforced by volunteers), Islamic Jihad fighters (a few thousand) and small, more marginal groups, await them from within a defensive system that includes a giant underground tunnel network.
The Israeli forces that have entered Gaza, whose numbers have not yet been revealed, are advancing in several points of the enclave, notably in the northernmost part, between the sea and Beit Hanoun. On Sunday, the army was engaged in several ground battles. At the same time, the most massive air strikes since the beginning of the conflict hit the enclave. According to the Israeli General Staff, more than 450 of these bombings had been launched over the previous 24 hours. The first strikes had begun the day after the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7. In Gaza, this has resulted in growing chaos and widespread destruction.
The death toll since the start of the bombings, according to the Ministry of Health in the Hamas-administered Palestinian territory, now exceeds 8,000. On Saturday, Gaza's Civil Defense estimated that "hundreds of buildings and houses have been completely destroyed." The worst is undoubtedly yet to come. The Israeli army has stated that the Islamist movement has established its underground military infrastructure in areas where hospitals, mosques and schools are located above ground.
Strikes had already targeted the outskirts of the Al-Quds hospital on Sunday. "We received strongly worded threats from the [Israeli] occupation forces to immediately evacuate Al-Quds hospital in the Gaza Strip as it will be bombed," said hospital director Bashar Murad, quoted by Agence France-Presse. "We reiterate - it’s impossible to evacuate hospitals full of patients without endangering their lives," warned the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
United Nations warehouses stocking flour and other supplies were looted on Saturday. "This is a worrying sign that civil order is starting to break down after three weeks of war and a tight siege on Gaza. People are scared, frustrated and desperate," warned Thomas White, Director of UNRWA Affairs (the UN agency for Palestinian refugees) in the Gaza Strip. "Supplies on the market are running out," he added, "while the humanitarian aid coming into the Gaza Strip on trucks from Egypt is insufficient. The needs of the communities are immense, if only for basic survival, while the aid we receive is meager and inconsistent."
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