After nearly a week of intense Israeli military bombing, the United Nations reported on Saturday that more than 1,300 buildings in the Gaza Strip had been damaged.
“5,540 housing units” in such buildings, according to the UN’s humanitarian organization OCHA, were reportedly demolished, while almost 3,750 additional residences suffered severe enough damage to be uninhabitable.
One week after the worst attack in its history, Israel brutalized northern Gaza with further airstrikes yesterday as a window for Gazans to evacuate closed ahead of an anticipated ground offensive against Hamas terrorists.
The Israeli military allowed north Gazans 24 hours on Friday to leave and seek refuge in the south, close to Egypt’s border.
Reporters from AFP observed forces fire at the heavily inhabited enclave close to the southern Israeli city of Sderot, sending enormous columns of black smoke into the sky.
While doing so, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited troops stationed on the frontier while donning a flak jacket, fueling fears of an impending invasion.
