“The smell of blood in the hospital emergency room this morning was unbearable,” Karin Hust, medical adviser for Doctors Without Borders in Gaza, said in a statement. “There were people everywhere, on the ground, outside.”
The Israeli military said it was conducting “above-ground and below-ground” military operations against Hamas militants in the eastern areas of Breji and Deir al-Balah in central Gaza and had “eliminated” several militants.
Hamas has also reported clashes with Israeli forces in the area and said on Wednesday it had fired missiles at Israeli troops east of Brej.
“There is nowhere to escape now,” said Hani Ahmed, a teacher and father of five who lives near the center of Buleja, where two buildings were attacked.
“Khan Younis is in ruins. Rafah has been attacked. The north is destroyed,” said Mr Ahmed. “I will probably take my family on a minibus to the seaside because I don’t have a tent. We are scared.”
As the bloodshed in Gaza continues, there has been increasing talk in Israel of going to war with Lebanon's Hezbollah militants, who have been fighting Israeli troops for months, forcing More than 150,000 people have fled on both sides of the border.
Israeli military officials said this week they were growing increasingly frustrated with Hezbollah attacks. At least nine people were injured in an explosion in the northern Israeli village of Hurfesh on Wednesday, according to Israeli hospital officials.
“We are approaching a point where we need to make a decision, and the IDF is ready,” Israel’s military chief of staff, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, said on Tuesday.
