Gaza City, October 22 (RHC)-- Israeli forces have barred rescue teams from reaching Palestinians trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings as Israel’s siege on the northern Gaza Strip continues into its 18th day. 

On Monday, Israeli drones equipped with loudspeakers hovered over shelters for displaced Palestinians in Beit Lahia, blaring messages ordering them to flee through military checkpoints. 

Witnesses say Israeli soldiers entered the shelters, separated men from their families at gunpoint and instructed women and children to move southward. The mass expulsion came amid continued unrelenting Israeli attacks, including a strike on Beit Lahia that killed 15 Palestinians, including children.

Gaza’s Health Ministry reports at least 115 Palestinians have been killed over the past 48 hours; 500 more were wounded, bringing the reported number of people wounded in Israel’s yearlong war to more than 100,000, with nearly 43,000 killed — though both figures are likely to be a vast undercount.

Northern Gaza’s last three operational hospitals remain besieged, with more than 350 patients trapped inside Al-Awda, Indonesian and Kamal Adwan hospitals. Dr. Marwan al-Hams is the director of Gaza’s field hospitals.

Dr. Marwan al-Hams: “Israel has not allowed the entry of any medicine, treatment and medical supplies to the north of Gaza. In addition, the Israeli occupation is preventing the entry of food and nutrition for the medical teams and patients inside the hospitals, and it is directly targeting the hospitals.” 

Meanwhile, Gaza officials say Israeli forces have blocked the entry of more than a quarter of a million trucks carrying food and other vital aid into Gaza in the last year, as Israel is accused of using starvation as a weapon of war.

[ SOURCE: DEMOCRACY NOW ]