Author: Nidal Mugrabi
CAIRO (Reuters) – Israeli forces struck again in central Gaza on Sunday, a day after killing 274 Palestinians in a hostage rescue raid, as tanks moved into more areas of Rafah in an attempt to seal off parts of the southern city , residents and Hamas media said.
Palestinians remain shocked by Saturday’s death toll, the worst in 24 hours in months in the Gaza war, including many women and children, Palestinian medics said.
Gaza’s health ministry said in an update on Sunday that 274 Palestinians were killed as Israeli special forces commandos stormed into the densely populated Nuseirat camp to rescue four hostages held by Hamas since October. deaths (the death toll reported on Saturday was 210) and 698 others injured.
The Israeli military said a special forces officer was killed in a firefight with militants who emerged from a residential bunker and that “less than 100” Palestinians were killed, but it did not know how many were militants or civilians. .
On Sunday, an Israeli airstrike on a house in Al-Bureij, central Gaza, killed three Palestinians and wounded several others, while tanks shelled parts of nearby Al-Maghazi and Al-Nuseirat. All of these are historic established refugee camps.
The Israeli military said in a statement that its forces were continuing operations in the city of Deir al-Balah east of Brej and in the center of the coastal enclave, killing several Palestinian gunmen and destroying militant infrastructure.
Israel sent troops to Rafah in May, saying it was a mission to eliminate Hamas’s last intact fighting forces. In ruins.
Since then, Israeli tank troops have occupied Gaza’s entire border with Egypt, stretching from Rafah to the Mediterranean coast, and invaded several areas of the city, causing some 1 million displaced people who had taken refuge in Rafah to flee elsewhere. .
Israeli tanks advance further in Rafah
Tanks rolled into two new areas on Sunday in an apparent attempt to complete the siege of Rafah’s entire eastern side, sparking clashes with armed groups led by Hamas, residents trapped in their homes said.
As of June 5, all but about 100,000 displaced people who had taken refuge east of Rafah after fleeing Israel’s offensive in northern Gaza had left, according to UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees.
“All UNRWA shelters in Rafah have been vacated,” UNRWA said in a statement. “Many people based in Rafah have fled to the coast to Khan Younis and central (Gaza) areas in search of more safe place.
Palestinian medics said an Israeli airstrike on a house in Tel Sultan in Rafah West killed two people.
The Israeli military said troops from the 162nd Division were raiding areas of Rafah, where they had discovered “numerous additional terror tunnel shafts, mortars and (other) weapons” belonging to Palestinian Islamist militants.
According to Israeli statistics, Hamas launched a lightning cross-border attack on Israel on October 7 last year, killing about 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages, triggering the war. About half of the hostages were released during a brief truce in November.
Israel’s ensuing air and ground war in Gaza has killed at least 37,084 Palestinians, the health ministry in the Hamas-controlled region said in an update on Sunday. The ministry said thousands more people were feared buried under the rubble.
The United States and regional countries are trying to reach a deal to release all remaining hostages in exchange for a ceasefire, but Israel and Hamas are stubborn on terms to end the war.
The conflict in Gaza has destabilized the entire Middle East, attracting Hamas’ main backer Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah. worry.
(Reporting and writing by Nidal Mugrabi; Additional reporting by Dan Williams in Jerusalem; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
