STRIKES ON KHAN YOUNIS AND GAZA CITY
More than eight months into the war in Gaza, Israel's advance is now focused on the two last areas its forces had yet to seize: Rafah on Gaza's southern edge and the area surrounding Deir al-Balah in the center.
"The entire city of Rafah is an area of Israeli military operations," Ahmed Al-Sofi, the mayor of Rafah, said in a statement carried by Hamas media on Friday.
"The city is living through a humanitarian catastrophe and people are dying inside their tents because of Israeli bombardment."
Sofi said no medical facility was functioning in the city, and that remaining residents and displaced families lacked the minimum daily needs of food and water.
Palestinian and U.N. figures show that fewer than 100,000 people may have remained in the far western side of the city, which had been sheltering more than half of Gaza's 2.3 million people before the Israeli assault began in early May.
In nearby Khan Younis, an Israeli air strike on Friday killed three people, including a father and son, medics said.
In parallel, Israeli forces continued a new pushback into some Gaza City suburbs in the north of the enclave, where they fought with Hamas-led militants.
On Friday, an Israeli air strike on a Gaza City municipal facility killed five people, including four municipal workers, the territory's Civil Emergency Service said. Rescue teams were searching the rubble for more missing victims.
In the nearby Beach camp, an Israeli air strike on a house killed at least seven people, medics said.
Palestinian health officials said at least 45 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes across Gaza on Friday.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said its Gaza office was damaged when heavy-caliber projectiles landed nearby, in an area where hundreds of displaced Palestinians are living in tents.
"This grave security incident is one of several in recent days; previously stray bullets have reached ICRC structures," the organization said in a post on X on Friday. "We decry these incidents that put the lives of humanitarians and civilians at risk."
Israel's ground and air campaign was triggered when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
The offensive has left Gaza in ruins, killed more than 37,400 people, according to Palestinian health authorities, and left nearly the entire population homeless and destitute.
The United Nations said on Friday it is Israel's responsibility - as the occupying power in the Gaza Strip - to restore public order and safety in the Palestinian territory so humanitarian aid can be delivered, amid warnings of imminent famine.
REUTERS
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