Israel’s military says Palestinian armed groups in Gaza have fired around 20 rockets into Israeli border communities – the heaviest attack in months.
Several projectiles were intercepted and others fell in southern Israel, but there were no reports of injuries. The military said they responded with artillery fire.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) said it launched the dam in response to Israeli “crimes”.
It came as fierce fighting continued for a fifth day in Shejaiya, northern Gaza, and an Israeli soldier was killed in the southern Rafah area.
On Sunday, Israel’s prime minister said his troops were engaged in a “difficult fight” across Palestinian territory.
The Israeli military launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented attack in southern Israel on October 7, during which some 1,200 people were killed and another 251 were taken hostage.
More than 37,900 people have been killed in Gaza since then, including 23 in the past 24 hours, according to the territory’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
On Monday morning, sirens sounded in Israeli communities near the Gaza border fence, many of which have been evacuated since the October 7 attack.
The Eshkol Regional Council later reported that 18 rockets were launched towards the areas it governs, according to the Jerusalem Post. Most fell in open areas, but one fell “in the Kibbutz Holit fence area,” he said. Another rocket was intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system, she added.
The Times of Israel reported that Monday’s dam was Gaza’s largest since Januarywhen at least 25 rockets were launched towards the city of Netivot.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the latest rocket fire came from the area south of Khan Younis and that its artillery hit the springs.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that artillery strikes on Monday killed one civilian and injured several others in the town of Khuzaa, which is southeast of the city of Khan Younis.
Israeli warplanes also attacked a street in Shejaiya, east of Gaza City, and an area north of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, it said.
Meanwhile, Hamas’ military wing said its fighters had targeted two Israeli tanks with explosive devices in Shejaiya.
The IDF said in a statement that its troops “eliminated numerous terrorists in close encounters and located large quantities of weapons” during the attacks in Shejaiya. The airstrikes killed around 20 people and destroyed weapons manufacturing and storage facilities in the area, he added.
A battle has been raging there since Thursday, when Israeli troops returned to the area following what the IDF said was “intelligence indicating the presence of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure.”
Over the weekend, residents said the attack left bodies lying in the streets, while the IDF said two Israeli soldiers were killed in fighting in northern Gaza.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) said that up to 80,000 people in Shejaiya and surrounding areas had been told by the IDF to evacuate and head south, but were being pushed west because they could not pass through Israeli checkpoints. in Wadi Gaza. area.
“The Israeli army completely destroyed the neighborhood,” a woman from the neighboring Tuffah district told BBC Arabic’s Gaza Lifeline program.
“Along with others, I fled while grenades rained around us. We moved from one area to another until we managed to escape the neighborhood. But many residents were trapped and couldn’t get out,” she added.
“We are facing hunger, fear, killing, displacement and total destruction.”
Palestinian fighters regrouped in several northern areas that were the focus of the Israeli ground offensive in the first three months of the war.
Rafah has been the main focus since early May, and the IDF believes this has now degraded the capabilities of three of the four Hamas battalions in the city.
Some of the estimated 10,000 people still in the city told the Reuters news agency that Israeli tanks advanced further into the western and central areas on Monday, a day after they moved within 1 km (0.6 miles ) of the Mediterranean coast.
Meanwhile, the IDF announced that one of its soldiers was killed in fighting in southern Gaza on Monday.
It did not provide further details about the incident, but Hamas previously said its fighters had blown up a booby-trapped house in Rafah after luring Israeli troops there.
In another development on Monday, the head of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza city was released after seven months in Israeli custody. Dr. Mohammad Abu Salmiya alleged that he was tortured in custody. Israel denies mistreating the detainees.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting that Israeli forces operated “across the Gaza Strip” and killed “dozens of terrorists” every day.
“This is a difficult fight that is being fought above ground, sometimes in hand-to-hand combat, and also underground,” he warned.
“We are committed to fighting until we achieve all of our goals: eliminating Hamas, returning all of our hostages, ensuring that Gaza never again poses a threat to Israel, and returning our residents safely to their homes,” he added.
Unrwa planning director Sam Rose told the BBC from the Nuseirat camp that the humanitarian situation was becoming increasingly desperate for Gaza’s 2.2 million people, three-quarters of whom are displaced.
“People need water, people need healthcare. It’s getting hot in here, it’s 35 degrees [Celsius]the bad smell of the sewage, the lack of solid waste management facilities, the area is essentially becoming a garbage dump [for rubbish],” he said.
“Fuel does not reach the crossing points in adequate quantities. Without this, incubators don’t work, water wells don’t work… Doing the simplest things is a real struggle for everyone.”
