The israeli forces At least 38 Palestinians were killed on Thursday in air and ground bombardments throughout the Gaza Strip. They also engaged in hand-to-hand combat with Hamas militants in areas of the southern city of Rafah, health officials and Hamas media reported.
The Israeli tanks advanced southeast of Rafah, They approached the western district of Yibna and continued operating in three eastern suburbs, according to residents.
Bombing by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip
“The occupation (Israeli forces) are trying to advance further west, they are on the edge of Jibna, which is densely populated. They haven’t invaded it yet,” said one resident, who asked that his name not be revealed. “We hear explosions and see black smoke coming from the areas that the army has invaded. It has been another very difficult night,” she told Reuters via a chat app.
The simultaneous Israeli assaults on the northern and southern edges of Gaza This month they sparked a new exodus of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fleeing their homes, and cut off major aid access routes, increasing the risk of famine.
Israel launched its assault on Gaza following a Hamas-led attack on communities in southern Israel on October 7, in which Fighters killed 1,200 people and captured more than 250 hostagess, according to Israeli calculations. Since then, the Israeli offensive on Gaza has killed more than 35,000 people, and thousands more are feared buried under rubble, according to Gaza health authorities.
Israel says it has no choice but to attack Rafah to wipe out the last battalions of Hamas fighters believed to be taking refuge there.
People must escape from Ráfah
“Hamas is in Rafah, Hamas has been holding our hostages in Rafah, that’s why our forces are maneuvering in Rafah. We are doing it selectively and precisely,” Israeli chief military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a statement Thursday. . UNRWA, the main United Nations agency in Gazaestimated as of Monday that more than 800,000 people had fled Rafah since Israel began attacking the city in early May, despite international calls for containment.
Suze van Meegan, Emergency Response Manager at the Norwegian Refugee Council in Gazastated that many civilians were still trapped.
“The city of Ráfah is now made up of three completely different worlds“The east is an archetypal war zone, the center is a ghost town and the west is a congested mass of people living in deplorable conditions,” he said in a statement.
Source: Ambito
