News - Middle East: The Israeli occupation has intensified its assaults on Gaza, with heavy airstrikes, artillery shelling, and urban incursions concentrated over the past 24 hours on the central governorate and Gaza City, particularly Deir al-Balah.

Al-Masirah correspondent Doa'a Rouqa reported that a direct strike targeted the home of the Abu Ghuraba family in Deir al-Balah, killing nine sisters. At least 15 more were reported killed in the city during overnight bombardments.

Heavy bombardments also struck northern areas of al-Nuseirat camp, as well as eastern sections of al-Bureij and al-Maghazi camps. In Gaza City, multiple detonations shook neighborhoods following the Israeli military’s use of booby-trapped robots laden with explosives, planted in Tal al-Hawa and areas surrounding al-Shifa Medical Complex and al-Shati refugee camp. Explosions were also reported along al-Jalaa and al-Nasr Streets.

Israeli tanks and armored vehicles have now established positions in several axes inside Gaza City, enforcing movement restrictions that block residents from traveling northward while permitting only displacement southward. Large sections of Gaza are effectively cut off from food and medical supplies.

Rouqa described the health system as on the verge of collapse. Al-Shifa Hospital, the backbone of Gaza’s medical network, is facing shutdown due to critical shortages of fuel, medicine, and consumables. Only a handful of hospitals remain operational in the city, with three forming the central spine of health services.

In central Gaza, al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah is suffering repeated power cuts, placing patients’ lives at risk. Facilities such as the Red Crescent center in al-Saraya and al-Ma’madani Hospital in the south are surrounded by Israeli armor, restricting access and threatening operations.

The correspondent added that roughly half a million residents remain inside Gaza City despite the intensifying bombardment. Displacement attempts from the south to the center and north were met with direct fire from Israeli tanks, leaving casualties among fleeing civilians. Distribution centers for humanitarian aid have also come under Israeli fire, further disrupting already limited relief supplies.

With electricity outages crippling hospitals in Khan Younis and elsewhere, fears are mounting of a total breakdown of Gaza’s health system. Despite these conditions, residents of Gaza City insist on remaining in their homes, refusing displacement under fire.

The latest massacres come as Israeli enemy faces mounting international criticism for its escalating campaign in Gaza, now approaching two years since the launch of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood by Palestinian resistance factions in October 2023. That operation shattered Israeli security assumptions and triggered an extended regional confrontation involving Lebanon, Yemen, and other actors.

The humanitarian toll has grown exponentially, with UN agencies warning of famine, epidemic risks, and near-total collapse of essential services. Hospitals, already crippled by siege conditions, are being deliberately targeted or encircled.

Simultaneously, Israel’s navy attacked the Fleet of Resilience — an international flotilla of over 50 vessels carrying humanitarian aid — in international waters earlier this night, drawing global protests from European capitals to Latin America. Human rights groups describe Gaza’s blockade as one of the harshest in modern history, and warn that the ongoing war has pushed the enclave into unprecedented catastrophe.