Israeli aerial bombardment of southern Gaza continued into the weekend, sparking fears that ground attacks could extend to the last few areas where evacuees have found shelter.
Israeli airstrikes killed at least 18 Palestinians in Rafah and Deir Al-Balah, Gaza health officials claimed on Saturday.
Fourteen of the victims – including four women and three children – were members of the Hijazi family whose home was hit in Rafah, hospital workers said.
“Two children are still under the rubble, and we don’t know, still we don’t know anything about them,” Ahmad Hijazi’s brother said about the incident.
Four more people were killed in a separate attack on a house in Al-Balah, the official added.
Israel has not confirmed recent airstrikes on any city.
Palestinians inspect the debris of a building after an Israeli airstrike in the town of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Xinhua/Shutterstock
“In contrast to Hamas’ deliberate attacks on Israeli men, women and children, the IDF abides by international law and takes feasible precautions to reduce the danger to civilians,” a military spokesman stressed.
Rafah is the southern border of the Gaza Strip with Egypt. More than half of the region’s 2.3 million people fled there over the past four months, as the Israel Defense Forces continued a counter-offensive in the north.
A new wave of new arrivals came this week, as Israeli forces launched a massive offensive on the nearby town of Khan Younis.
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An injured Palestinian child is carried by Egyptian Red Crescent paramedics after being evacuated from the Gaza Strip via Rafah on Saturday. AFP via Getty Images
There is a growing fear among Palestinians huddled in Rafah about an impending Israeli ground attack in the area they have been told to flee to shelters. Israeli Defense Minister Yoava Gallant said on Thursday following vidist to Khan Younis that forces will continue the campaign to Rafah. “The intense pressure exerted by our forces on Hamas targets brings us closer to the return of the abducted victims, more than anything else. [we can do]. We will continue until the end, there is no other way.”
The latest military action in southern Gaza comes amid news that Hamas has begun to re-emerge in areas where Israel withdrew most of its troops a month ago.
The terror group allegedly deployed police officers and also made salary payments to some of its civil servants in Gaza City, according to four residents and a senior Hamas official.
A Palestinian girl inspects the debris of a building in Rafah on Saturday. Xinhua/Shutterstock
Hamas leaders have been given orders to re-establish the status quo in the northern part where Israeli forces have retreated – including by preventing the looting of abandoned shops and houses, the anonymous official told the Associated Press.
A resident of Gaza City, Saeed Abdel-Bar, said that his cousin received funds from a Hamas temporary office that distributed $200 payments to government employees.
The partial salary payment could signal that Israel has not dealt a major blow to the terror group – despite claims that it killed more than 9,000 Hamas fighters.
Israeli forces and Hamas have been locked in battle since mid-October, shortly after a deadly terrorist attack in southern Israel on October 7.
Debris in Rafah early Saturday. Xinhua/Shutterstock
Aside from a brief November truce, the past four months have seen almost non-stop fighting as Israel seeks to destroy Hamas’s network of underground tunnels and eliminate its top officials.
As the fighting continues, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to travel to the Middle East – including stops in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Israel and the West Bank – on Sunday, the State Department announced.
The four-day visit will be Blinken’s fifth visit to the region since Oct. 7.
With Postal wire
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
