Since the week-long truce in November, repeated attempts to achieve a ceasefire have failed.
Rafa:
Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday killed at least 17 Palestinians in two of the Gaza Strip’s historic refugee camps and Israeli tanks advanced deeper into the enclave’s southern city of Rafah, residents and medics said.
Residents reported heavy shelling from tanks and planes in several areas of Rafah, where more than a million people took refuge before May. Most of the population has since fled north when Israeli forces invaded the city.
“Rafah is being bombed without any intervention from the world, the occupation (Israel) is acting freely here,” a Rafah resident and father of six told Reuters via a chat app.
Israeli tanks operated in the areas of Tel Al-Sultan, Al-Izba and Zurub in western Rafah, as well as in Shaboura in the city center. They also continued to occupy the eastern neighborhoods and outskirts, as well as the border with Egypt and the vital Rafah border crossing.
“There are Israeli forces in most areas, there is also strong resistance and they are making them pay dearly, but the occupation is unethical and they are destroying the city and the refugee camp,” said the resident.
Palestinian health officials said a man was killed in the morning by Israeli fire on the east side of Rafah. Doctors said they believe many more people have been killed in recent days and weeks, but rescuers have been unable to reach them.
The Israeli military said it continued “precise, intelligence-based activities” in Rafah, killing many Palestinian gunmen over the past day in close-quarters fighting and seizing weapons. The air force hit dozens of targets across the Gaza Strip over the past day, he added.
In the central Gaza Strip, two separate Israeli air strikes on two homes killed 17 Palestinians in Al-Nuseirat and Al-Bureij, two designated refugee camps housing families and descendants of people who fled to Gaza in the 1948 war over creation of Israel, the doctors said.
“With every hour of delay, Israel kills more people, we want a ceasefire now,” said Khalil, 45, a teacher from Gaza, now displaced with his family in the city of Deir Al-Balah, in the center of the Strip. Gaza.
“Enough of our blood, I say this to Israel, to America and to our leaders too. The war must stop,” he told Reuters via a chat app.
The Israeli military statement did not comment directly on the 17 deaths, but said forces continued to operate against factions in the central areas of Gaza.
The commander of an Islamic Jihad sniper cell was killed by an Israeli warplane, and troops also “eliminated” a militant cell, he said.
The armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said fighters confronted Israeli forces in combat zones with anti-tank rockets and mortars, and in some areas detonated pre-planted explosive devices against army units.
Israel’s ground and air campaign was triggered when Hamas invaded southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli records.
The offensive left Gaza in ruins, killing more than 37,400 people, according to health authorities, and leaving much of the population homeless and destitute.
Since the week-long truce in November, repeated attempts to achieve a ceasefire have failed, with Hamas insisting on a permanent end to the war and Israel’s full withdrawal from Gaza. Netanyahu refuses to end the war until Hamas is eradicated and the hostages are freed.
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