Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip. (AP file photo)

New York, October 15 (RHC)-- U.S. investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has revealed that the Israeli military plans to use a new version of Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) bombs capable of killing all people within "one-half mile" from the dropping site during the ongoing aggression against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.  According to Hersh, the attack is scheduled between Sunday and Monday.

"The current Israeli war planners are convinced, the insider told me, that the upgraded version of JDAMs with larger warheads would penetrate deep enough underground before detonating - thirty to fifty meters - with the blast and resulting sound wave ‘killing all within one-half mile’ …depending on the efficacy the forced expulsion of Gazi City and south proceeds, with a ground invasion to follow immediately," Hersh said on his Substack column.

Earlier this week, Hersh warned in another report that an Israeli "national security veteran" said that the occupation is pondering whether to use a "Leningrad approach" to starve out "Hamas forces" in Gaza and avoid an invasion, something the source said may lead to the murder of nearly 100,000 civilians.

"The big debate today… is whether to starve Hamas out or kill as many as 100,000 people in Gaza,” adding that,  “Hamas now only has a two or three-day supply of purified water and that, along with a lack of food … may be enough to flush all the Hamas [forces] out," he said then citing the source.

The Israeli regime keeps pounding the densely-populated Gaza Strip relentlessly for the 9th day in a row, killing civilians and reducing buildings in the besieged Palestinian territory to rubble.  In one of the latest strikes, the regime killed 27 Palestinians in Jabaliya, north of the Gaza Strip.

Medical officials in the Gaza Strip say more than 400 Palestinians have been killed in the past 24 hours as the Israeli military continues its aerial bombardment campaign against the besieged coastal enclave.
Over 2,450 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 10,000 wounded. Over 700 children are among the dead.  At least 15 hospitals have been damaged by Israeli shelling and air raids.

The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas says at least 21 Israelis and foreigners held by the group were also killed in airstrikes.  The territory remains under Israel’s complete siege with no access to electricity, water, food, and medicines.

Raising the alarm on the Israeli atrocities, the Civil Defense spokesperson in Gaza has confirmed that 90% of the Israeli bombings targeted homes and residential buildings.

The United Nations recently stated that the ongoing aggression on the Strip had destroyed over 5,540 housing units and 3,750 were damaged and rendered uninhabitable.

The developments come as water and medical supplies are running out across Gaza, and the health sector is on the brink of collapse due to the blockade.  

Head of Hamas political Bureau, Ismail Haniyeh says Palestinian people will never leave their land despite the recent Israeli bloodshed in the besieged Gaza Strip.  Haniyeh said Palestinians have a country and their country is Palestine.

The Hamas official said the people of Palestine will not emigrate from their land despite the Israeli regime’s barbaric crimes to eliminate the roots of Palestinian people.  Haniyeh said the return of Palestinian people to their ancestral land is close given that the regime’s plan which is assisted by the US is doomed to fail.

The remarks come as the European Union, the United States and the United Kingdom have shown strong support for Israeli aggression.   Meanwhile, the Euro-Med Monitor said the Tel Aviv regime’s aggression has included the dropping of more than 6,000 bombs on the densely populated area with over two million residents.

The Geneva-based organization stated that Israel's relentless aerial and artillery attacks on the Gaza Strip had turned it into a hellhole where death and destruction prevail in extremely complex humanitarian conditions.

Basic services such as electricity, water, communications, and the internet are in short supply, posing unprecedented and serious threats to food security.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says the Israeli military has wiped out entire Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip as it presses ahead with its bombardment campaign against the besieged coastal enclave.
Civilian residents in Gaza find themselves with no shelter, fleeing from one form of death to another in an inhumane reality.

The Israeli army has executed thousands of airstrikes and artillery strikes around the clock, targeting residential neighborhoods and multi-story buildings housing the population in the Gaza Strip.

The Euro-Med Monitor emphasized that Israel continues to intensify its airstrikes and artillery attacks all over the Gaza Strip, including the complete destruction of residential neighborhoods, resulting in the annihilation of at least 82 families in horrific collective killings.

The international human rights monitor documented that Israel's attacks have destroyed 2,650 residential buildings and severely damaged approximately 70,000 residential units. In addition, 65 government buildings were destroyed.

Israel's attacks also caused destruction to at least 71 schools, the destruction of 145 industrial facilities, 61 media headquarters, the demolition of 18 mosques, and the damage to dozens of ancient churches and mosques.

The Gaza Strip was already experiencing a wide-scale displacement as a result of Israel's attacks.

In the absence of a safe haven, tens of thousands of civilians sought refuge in hospitals to protect themselves from Israel's attacks.

In addition to this, the Israeli army has been intimidating the residents of the Gaza and northern regions by warning them of collective evacuations from their residential areas.

The Euro-Med Monitor ighlighted that the evacuation warnings for civilians in Gaza were made without any announcement of halting air raids and aerial attacks and without any safety or return guarantees, amounting to a war crime in the form of forced transfer.

In light of the current events, Euro-Med questioned the position of the The Hague -based International Criminal Court, which initiated in recent years an investigation into the occurrence of crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories without any tangible results so far.