Israeli forces have killed at least 50 Palestinians in air and ground bombardments across the Gaza Strip and fought in hand-to-hand combat with Hamas-led fighters in the southern city of Rafah, health officials and the armed wing of the Gaza Strip say. Hamas.
Israeli tanks advanced southeast of Rafah, headed toward the western district of Jibna and continued operating in three eastern suburbs, residents said Thursday.
“The ocupation [Israeli forces] It is trying to move further west. They are on the outskirts of Jibna, which is densely populated. They haven't invaded it yet,” one resident told the Reuters news agency, asking not to be identified.
“We hear explosions and see black smoke rising from the areas where the army has invaded. It was another very difficult night,” she said.
Simultaneous Israeli attacks on the northern and southern edges of Gaza this month have sparked a new exodus of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fleeing their homes and cut off major aid access routes, raising the risk of famine.
The international community, including Israel's closest ally, the United States, warned it not to launch a ground attack on Rafah without a credible plan to protect civilians. It has been widely criticized for its operations in the city, including from the United States, but Israel says it must act against several battalions of Hamas fighters there.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, the main aid agency operating in Gaza, estimated as of Monday that more than 800,000 people had fled Rafah since Israel began attacking the city in early of May.
Suze van Meegan, emergency response leader for the Norwegian Refugee Council in Gaza, said many civilians were still trapped there.
“The city of Rafah is now made up of three completely different worlds: the east is an archetypal war zone, the center is a ghost city and the west is a congested mass of people living in deplorable conditions,” he said in a statement.
'Desperation and hunger will spread'
At the same time, Israeli forces intensified a ground offensive in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, where the army has razed several residential areas. It also affected the nearby city of Beit Hanoon. Israel previously declared an end to major operations in these areas months ago, but says it has had to return to prevent Hamas from regrouping there.
At least 12 Palestinians were killed in an airstrike on a store belonging to the Welfare Ministry east of Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, reported.
Gaza's Civil Defense agency said two pre-dawn airstrikes killed 26 people, including 15 children, in Gaza City.
Civil Defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said one attack hit a family's home, killing 16 people, in the al-Daraj area and another killed 10 people inside a mosque compound.
Another Israeli attack on a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza killed eight more people.
A senior security official, Diaa Aldeen Al-Shurafa, was killed in an Israeli strike while touring residential districts of Gaza City, Gaza's Interior Ministry said.
Israel has imposed severe restrictions on the supply of water, food, medicine and fuel, forcing the closure of several hospitals throughout Gaza.
On Thursday, the Health Ministry said there were “minutes” of fuel left to power the generators at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah, adding that care for 1,300 patients would soon cease.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has warned that “if aid does not begin to enter Gaza in massive quantities, desperation and hunger will spread,” UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric told reporters.
He highlighted that the closure of the Rafah crossing and the limited functionality of the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing in southern Gaza had “choked the flow of vital supplies.” The UN previously said it can no longer distribute food in southern Gaza due to the danger.
Dujarric said Gaza hospitals lack fuel and medicine due to the continued closure of the Rafah crossing. It has been closed since Israeli forces seized the Palestinian side of the crucial transportation route on May 6.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said three soldiers were killed in Wednesday's fighting, bringing to 286 the death toll since ground operations in Gaza began on October 20.
More than 35,800 Palestinians have died in Israel's war on Gaza since October 7, according to Palestinian health officials.
