dpa
Tel Aviv/Gaza
The situation in the north of the Gaza Strip resembles a "dystopian horror film” and has recently worsened, according to the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).
During a recent visit, Jan Egeland drove through "endless areas with completely destroyed houses.” Despite this, people are still holding on there, he told Germany’s Zeit Online news website.
Aid deliveries are often looted, said Egeland, who witnessed this himself at the Kerem Shalom border crossing near the town of Rafah in the south of the coastal zone.
Published on Saturday, Egeland’s comments come as Israeli forces press home their offensive against the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza.
In Rafah and in the refugee districts of Jabaliya and Beit Lahia in the north, a number of "terrorists” have been killed, positions destroyed and weapons caches dug up, military officials said.
According to Palestinian reports, at least 35 people have been killed since Friday.
Several people have been killed in further Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip in the past day, according to witnesses and media reports, including on a tent encampment.
Five people were killed in the cities of Gaza and Beit Lahia in the north, and two more in Deir al-Balah in the centre of the coastal region, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
The agency also said that two Palestinians were killed near the city of Rafah in the south. The information could not be independently verified.
The Hamas-controlled civil defence said at least seven people had been killed in an attack on a tent of displaced persons in al-Mawasi near Khan Younis in the south of the strip.
Witnesses confirmed the account to DPA, saying they were shocked and feared that the area was not safe. According to their account, the attack took place in an area designated as a humanitarian zone.
Meanwhile, Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has spoken out against more aid deliveries for the civilian population in the Gaza Strip, despite the catastrophic humanitarian situation.