The Israeli Army announced today that it “bombed 150 underground targets” in the north of the Gaza Strip during the early hours of the morning and assured that as a result of these attacks “several Hamas terrorists were killed,” among them, apparently, a person responsible for the extraordinary offensive. of October 7 that the Islamist movement perpetrated on Israeli territory.
“During the early hours of the morning, Tsahal (Israeli Army) fighter jets bombed 150 underground targets in the northern Gaza Strip, including tunnels used by terrorists, underground combat sites and other infrastructure,” the statement said.
Newspaper reports said that this afternoon the attacks on the defenseless and impoverished civilian population of the enclave continued, an action that has been repeated for three weeks and considered by the UN as war crimes and that until yesterday had caused more than 7,300 deaths, the majority civilians (including more than 3,000 children).
Israel claimed to have killed in the early morning attacks an official of the Palestinian Islamist movement who was in charge of “paramotors, drones, detection and air defense equipment.”
“Asem Abou Rakaba participated in the organization of the massacre in the communities bordering the Gaza Strip on October 7,” said the statement, reported by the AFP news agency.
The militiaman “led the terrorists infiltrated into Israel with paramotors (paragliders) and was responsible for the drone attacks against the IDF” (Israeli army) surveillance posts, added the statement released today after an intense night of bombings that continued. in the Gaza Strip, the target of unprecedented Israeli attacks three weeks after the Hamas attack on October 7.
The Gaza Strip has been isolated from the rest of the world since yesterday, as telecommunications and the Internet have been interrupted.
Medical sources said they fear large numbers of casualties and significant damage following the intense nighttime attacks.
An AFP journalist could hear this morning sporadic explosions inside the Gaza Strip, bombed by air, sea and land.
An intense fog covered entire areas of northern Gaza, indicated a chronicler stationed in Ashkelon, southern Israel, less than 10 kilometers from the border with the Palestinian enclave.
The intense and incessant bombardments carried out by the Israeli Army during the night shook the windows and the ground of Ashkelon until 4 in the morning, while smoke and a penetrating smell of burning filled the air at dawn in Ashkelon and Sderot, a kilometer from the border with Gaza.
The Islamist movement and the Palestinian Red Crescent denounced last night that Israel “cut off communications and most of the internet” in the enclave.
Hamas attributed the decision to Israel seeking to “perpetrate massacres with retaliatory bombings by air, land and sea.”
The international community fears the consequences of a large-scale ground offensive in the 362 square kilometer Palestinian enclave, controlled since 2007 by Hamas and where international aid barely reaches 2.4 million inhabitants.
The United Nations General Assembly yesterday approved by a majority a non-binding resolution calling for an “immediate and lasting humanitarian truce” in the Gaza Strip and unhindered aid access to bring food, goods and essential services to the civilian population of the Gaza Strip. enclave.
The vote ended with 120 votes in favor, 14 against and 45 abstentions regarding the text proposed by Jordan and which does not name either Hamas or Israel.
Previously, the UN had warned that the bombings against densely populated areas and the blockade of the Gaza Strip constitute war crimes.
“We are very concerned that war crimes are being committed. We are concerned about the collective punishment inflicted on Gazans in response to the heinous attacks by Hamas, which also constitute war crimes,” said Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, during a UN briefing in Geneva.
Since the attack perpetrated by the Palestinian group Hamas on October 7 in southern Israel, which caused some 1,400 deaths and the capture of some 220 hostages, the Israeli Army has bombed this Palestinian enclave daily, which it keeps blocked, and mobilized thousands of reservists to the border with the Strip, where a large ground incursion is expected.
The last official death toll in Gaza released by the Hamas Ministry of Health was 7,326, but it is feared that in the next balance there will be dozens more due to the intense attacks this morning.
Source: Ambito
