Israel Kills Dozens of Palestinians in Gaza Strikes, Battle Hamas in Rafah
Editor
24 May 2024 10:48 WIB
UNRWA, the main United Nations agency in Gaza, estimated as of Monday that more than 800,000 people had fled Rafah since Israel began targeting the city in early May, despite international pleas for restraint.
Suze van Meegan, the Norwegian Refugee Council's Emergency Response Leader in Gaza, said many civilians were still stuck.
"The city of Rafah is now comprised of three entirely different worlds: the east is an archetypal war zone, the middle is a ghost town, and the west is a congested mass of people living in deplorable conditions," she said in a statement.
In parallel, Israeli forces stepped up a ground offensive in Jabalia, where the military has razed several residential areas, and struck nearby Beit Hanoun town, areas where Israel declared major operations months ago. Israel says it has had to return to prevent Hamas from regrouping there.
Hamas media said 12 Palestinians were killed in an air strike on a store belonging to the welfare ministry east of Deir Al-Balah city in the central Gaza Strip, and that 10 more were killed in an air strike on a residential building in Gaza City.
Except for the intensive care unit and the neonatal unit, power was stopped at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip amid huge fuel shortages, medics said.
The Israeli military said in a statement forces began conducting targeted raids in Beit Hanoun "to eliminate terrorists, locate and strike terror infrastructure, below and above the ground."
It said its operations had killed Hussein Fiad, the Commander of Hamas’ Beit Hanoun Battalion in an underground area in Jabalia in northern Gaza.
"Fiad was responsible for launching a significant number of the anti-tank missiles that were fired at Israeli territory throughout the war, along with extensive mortar fire toward Israeli communities near the northern Gaza Strip," it said in a statement.
A senior Hamas security official, Diaa Aldeen Al-Shurafa, was also killed in an Israeli strike as he toured residential districts of Gaza City, the interior ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said.
The Israeli military said three soldiers had been killed in the fighting on Wednesday, raising the number killed since Gaza incursions began on Oct. 20 to 286 soldiers.
REUTERS
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