As Israeli airstrikes expanded in Gaza on Sunday evening, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said that troops have encircled Gaza City and split the enclave into two parts as telecommunication services were cut for the third time since the war.

IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said, “Today there is north Gaza and south Gaza.” He announced that Israeli forces have also reached Gaza’s coastline and holding it and that the military is carrying out “widespread strikes on terror infrastructure, below ground and above it”, reported The Times of Israel. Israeli troops are expected to enter Gaza City within 48 hours.

Meanwhile, a Hamas official said that “for more than an hour, intense bombings have been taking place around hospitals”. Airstrikes particularly targeted Al-Shifa, Gaza’s largest hospital, which Israel claims to be Hamas’ main base of operations.

Israel is working on a two-pronged strategy in Gaza, urging civilians to head south as it carries out heavy bombing raids and a large ground offensive on the north, where Hamas is believed to have an extensive network of underground tunnels that help in their activities.

What is happening in Gaza?

Israeli airstrikes hit two refugee camps, killing at least 53 people and wounding dozens in central Gaza. Airstrikes hit the Maghazi refugee camp, killing at least 40 people, including eight children and a baby, and wounding 34 others, as per data provided by the Hamas-run Health Ministry.

At least 800,000 Palestinians have fled to the south from Gaza City and other northern areas following repeated Israeli calls to evacuate, but hundreds of thousands remain in the north, including many who left and later returned, citing Israeli strikes in the South.

On Sunday, the Israeli military said it facilitated the opening of a humanitarian corridor on the Gaza Strip’s main north-south artery to allow Palestinian civilians in northern Gaza to evacuate to its south.

In the meantime, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, a day after meeting Arab foreign ministers in Jordan. Abbas called for a “comprehensive political solution” establishing an independent state that includes the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

What is the US doing?

The United States military has acknowledged positioning a nuclear-capable submarine in the Middle East amid the war, although it has not provided other details apart from posting an image of the submarine in the Suez Canal.

The heads of 11 UN agencies and six humanitarian organizations issued a joint plea for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza and the swift entry to Gaza of food, water, medicine and fuel. They called the Hamas attack “horrific” but said that the current bombardment of Gaza is an “outrage”.

“An entire population is besieged and under attack, denied access to the essentials for survival, bombed in their homes, shelters, hospitals and places of worship,” the joint statement said.

The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war surpassed 9,700 with more than 4,000 of them children and minors, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. In the occupied West Bank, more than 140 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids.

(with agency inputs)

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