ANKARA (AA): The number of Palestinians killed by a massive Israeli air assault on the Gaza Strip has risen to 2,329, the Gaza Health Ministry said Sunday. 500 children and 248 women were killed in the Israeli bombing in Gaza.

In a statement, the ministry said that the number of wounded has also risen to 9,042.

The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said Saturday that Israeli bombing on the eighth day of attacks on the enclave has left 300 Palestinians dead.

Spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said most of those killed Saturday were children and women.

He added that 800 Palestinians were wounded in Israeli attacks.

Israel’s Government told 1.1 million people in northern Gaza to south Gaza withing 24 hours were condemned by UN, human rights bodies, however, the UK, the US and Europe are supporting this move.

However, when Gazans began to flee north Gaza, an Israeli airstrike on a convoy fleeing northern Gaza killed 70 people, mostly women and children, according to Hamas.

The vehicles were hit as they headed away from Gaza City on Friday after the army ordered 1.1 million Gazans to move to south Gaza.

Forcing Gaza civilians to relocate amounts “to the war crime of forcible transfer,” the Norwegian Refugee Council said.

Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres, announced that the IDF informed the UN before midnight Gaza time Thursday that the entire population north of Wadi Gaza should “relocate to southern Gaza within the next 24 hours.”

The U.N. “considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences,” Dujarric said, and it “strongly appeals for any such order, if confirmed, to be rescinded, avoiding what could transform what is already a tragedy into a calamitous situation.”

World Health Organization on Saturday “strongly” condemned Israel’s repeated orders for evacuation of hospitals in northern Gaza.

The WHO “strongly condemns Israel’s repeated orders for the evacuation of 22 hospitals treating more than 2,000 inpatients in northern Gaza,” the organization said in a statement.

It stressed that forced evacuation of patients and health workers will further “worsen the current humanitarian and public health catastrophe.”

“Forcing more than 2,000 patients to relocate to southern Gaza, where health facilities are already running at maximum capacity and unable to absorb a dramatic rise in the number of patients, could be tantamount to a death sentence,” the UN health agency warned.

In contrast, the UK Defence Secretary has defended Israel’s decision to give just 24-hour notice for the evasion of over a million people.

Grant Shapps said Israel had done the right thing to give advance notice of the offensive, though he refused to say whether he thought it would be possible for so many people to leave their homes in such a short space of time.

Ten paramedics have been killed and 27 others injured since the start of the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip last Saturday, the Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip announced on Saturday.

“The Israeli occupation killed 10 paramedics and wounded 27 others with injuries at various levels since the start of the aggression,” the ministry said in a statement.

It added that 23 ambulances were destroyed as a result of the continuous airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.

Amnesty International published evidence Saturday about the Israeli military’s use of white phosphorus in densely populated civilian areas in the Gaza Strip.

Videos and photos verified by Amnesty International’s Crisis Evidence Laboratory show Israel used white phosphorus on the enclave it has been bombing since Oct. 7.

M109 155 mm type howitzers can be seen in the picture of ammunition that the army stockpiled in the city of Sderot, which lies 1 kilometer (0.62 miles) from the Gaza border, where Hamas launched its Al-Aqsa Flood Operation.

Also pictured are M825 and M825A1 artillery shells labeled D528, which is the US Department of Defense Identification Code for “white phosphorus-based munitions.”

M109 howitzers that have a range of 18 to 22 kilometers, stationed in Sderot, put the northern half of the Gaza Strip within the striking range of the Israeli army.

In a dramatic escalation of Middle East tensions, just over a week ago Israeli forces launched a sustained and forceful military campaign against the Gaza Strip, a response to a military offensive by the Palestinian group Hamas in Israeli territories.

The conflict began last weekend when Hamas initiated Operation Al-Aqsa Flood against Israel, a multi-pronged surprise attack including a barrage of rocket launches and infiltrations into Israel via land, sea, and air.

Hamas said the operation was in retaliation for the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem and Israeli settlers’ growing violence against Palestinians.

The Israeli military then launched Operation Swords of Iron against Hamas targets within the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s response has extended into cutting water, medical, fuel and electricity supplies to Gaza, further worsening the living conditions in an area that has endured a crippling siege since 2007, as well as ordering over 1 million Gazans in the northern strip to evacuate to the south.

Meanwhile, the Israeli general death toll have so far stood at 1,300 while the number of confirmed injured Israelis exceeds 3,400.

Additional report by Agencies

[Photo: Palestine Injured Palestinian girl recieves medical treatment at Aqsa hospital after Israeli airstrikes in Deir El Balah, Gaza on 15 10 23.
Photojournalist Ashraf Amra /AA]