GAZA: Health officials in Hamas-run Gaza reported on Monday more than 24,000 deaths in the war with the Zionist entity which has sent shockwaves across the region, as the fighting passed the grim 100-day milestone. Deadly violence in the Zionist-occupied West Bank and along the Zionist entity’s border with Lebanon as well as strikes by US forces and Iran-backed Yemeni rebels in the Red Sea have raised fears of an escalation beyond the Gaza Strip.

The war has created a humanitarian catastrophe for the 2.4 million people in the besieged strip, the United Nations and aid groups warn, and reduced much of the territory to rubble. The health ministry in Gaza reported more than 60 martyrs overnight, in what the group’s media office described as “intense” Zionist bombardment across Gaza.

The Hamas government media office said two hospitals, a girls’ school and “dozens” of homes were hit. Hospitals in Gaza have been hit repeatedly since the war erupted, and the World Health Organization (WHO) says most of them are no longer functioning. AFPTV footage showed smoke billowing over Khan Yunis, southern Gaza’s main city, as explosions could be heard from nearby Rafah, on the territory’s southern border with Egypt.

In the Zionist entity, a suspected car ramming attack on Monday killed one woman and injured at least 12 other people, police said, announcing the arrest of two Palestinian men. The Zionist entity also arrested students at a university in the occupied West Bank in an early morning raid on Monday because of their alleged support for Hamas, sources on both sides said. The students attend An-Najah National University in Nablus, which called for their immediate release and labelled the army raid a “blatant (Zionist) aggression”.

The university and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, a campaign group, said 25 students had been arrested in the raid. A Palestinian security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the arrests came after the students held prayers for Hamas and praised the Islamist militant group on social media. Violence has surged in the West Bank since Oct 7. Zionist army raids and attacks by settlers have killed at least 343 people in the West Bank since then, according to an AFP tally.

The Palestinian security source said it was clear “the occupation is launching a campaign against everything related to supporting the resistance in Gaza”. More than 520 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank in 2023, according to the Palestinian health ministry. The Zionist entity has occupied the West Bank, home to about three million Palestinians, since the Six-Day War of 1967.

The Zionist entity’s relentless military campaign has killed at least 24,100 people in Gaza, mostly women and children. The UN says more than three months of fighting have displaced roughly 85 percent of the territory’s population, crowded into shelters and struggling to get food, water, fuel and medical care.

“My daughter can’t sleep, she always tells me she’s freezing,” said Hanin Odwan, one of many displaced to makeshift camps in Rafah, where Palestinians huddled together around small fires to keep warm. Echoing earlier warnings of a fast-approaching famine, UN agencies said in a joint statement that “a fundamental step change in the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza is urgently needed”.

The WHO, World Food Program (WFP) and UNICEF called for “safer, faster” supply routes to be opened, warning that the current levels of aid “fall far short of what is needed to prevent a deadly combination of hunger, malnutrition and disease”. The WFP said an aid convoy brought food to the territory’s north on Thursday, the first such delivery since a one-week truce ended on Dec 1. Cindy McCain, the WFP’s director, said: “People in Gaza risk dying of hunger just miles from trucks filled with food. Every hour puts countless lives at risk.”

On Sunday, thousands of Palestinians swamped two aid trucks delivering flour and tinned food to warehouses in Gaza City, an AFP correspondent said. “We are only eating rice, but rice is not enough for a human being,” said 53-year-old Omar Al-Shandogi. The Zionist entity has faced international pressure over surging civilian casualties in Gaza, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under intense domestic pressure to account for political and security failings surrounding the Oct 7 attacks.

In Turkey, a staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause, authorities accused Zionist footballer Sagiv Jehezkel of “incitement” after he celebrated a goal with a message written on a wrist bandage, which read “100 days. 07/10” along with a Star of David. A Turkish court on Monday released the player, who returned to the Zionist entity. In a testimony to the police, reported by private news agency DHA, 28-year-old Jehezkel — sacked by his Turkish team after Sunday’s match — said he “believes that this 100-day period should end now. I want the war to end”. – AFP