Bombing kills dozens in Gaza amid escalating violence

Israeli forces attacked Rafah in southern Gaza on Friday, as well as other areas of the enclave, killing at least 32 Palestinians as troops engaged in hand-to-hand combat with Hamas militants, residents and Israeli military.

Residents said the Israelis appeared to be trying to complete the capture of Rafah, which borders Egypt and has been the focus of an Israeli attack since early May.

Tanks were pushing their way into the western and northern parts of the city, having already captured the east, south and center. Israeli forces fired from planes, tanks and ships in the coastal region, forcing a new wave of displacement from the city, which was home to more than a million displaced people — most were forced to flee again.

Later on Friday, Palestinian health officials said at least 12 Palestinians were killed in Mawasi, west of Rafah, in what Palestinians said was tank shelling that hit a tent housing displaced families.

Palestinian health officials said at least 32 Palestinians were killed in separate Israeli military strikes on Friday.

The Israeli military said it was investigating reported attacks in Mawasi and a separate incident in Gaza City.

A spokesperson also stated that forces were carrying out “precise and intelligence-based” actions in the Rafah area, where troops were involved in hand-to-hand fighting and located tunnels used by militants.

The military also said that over the past week its forces had targeted a university that it said served as Hamas headquarters, from which the militants fired at its soldiers and found weapons and barrel bombs.

In the central Nusseirat area of ​​the Gaza Strip, the military said, soldiers killed dozens of militants last week and found a weapons cache that contained mortars and military equipment belonging to Hamas.

Some Rafah residents said the pace of the Israeli attack had accelerated in the past two days. They said sounds of explosions and gunfire, indicating fierce fighting, have been almost uninterrupted.

“Last night was one of the worst in west Rafah, drones, planes, tanks and warboats bombed the area. We feel that the occupation is trying to complete control of the city,” said Hatem, 45, reached by text message. .

“They are receiving heavy attacks from resistance fighters, which may be slowing them down.”

War progresses with no end in sight

More than eight months after the start of the war in Gaza, Israel’s advance is now focused on the last two areas that its forces had not yet attacked: Rafah, in the extreme south of Gaza, and the area surrounding Deir al-Balah , in the center.

“The entire city of Rafah is an area of ​​Israeli military operations,” said Ahmed Al-Sofi, mayor of Rafah, in a statement carried by Hamas media on Friday.

“The city is experiencing a humanitarian catastrophe and people are dying inside their tents because of Israeli bombing,” he added.

Sofi said there were no functioning medical facilities in the city and that residents living there did not have access to basic items such as food and water.

Palestinian and UN data show that fewer than 100,000 people may have remained in the western edge of the city, which was home to more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people before the Israeli assault began in early May.

The Israeli military has accused Hamas of using Palestinian civilians as human shields, an allegation Hamas denies.

“Soldiers located large quantities of weapons hidden in wardrobes inside a civilian residence, including grenades, explosives, a launcher and anti-tank missiles, ammunition and weapons,” the military said in a statement on Thursday night (20).

Hamas’ armed wing said on Thursday that its fighters hit two Israeli tanks with anti-tank rockets in Rafah’s Shaboura camp and killed soldiers trying to flee through alleys. There was no immediate comment from Israel on Hamas’s claim.

Near Khan Younis, an Israeli airstrike on Friday killed three people, including a father and son, doctors said.

At the same time, Israeli forces continued a new offensive against some suburbs of Gaza City, in the north of the enclave, where they fought with militants led by Hamas. Residents said military forces destroyed many homes in the heart of Gaza City on Thursday.

Later on Friday, an Israeli airstrike on a municipal facility in Gaza City killed five people, including four municipal employees, the territory’s Civil Emergency Service said. The entity also added that rescue teams were searching the rubble in search of more missing victims.

In the nearby Beach camp, an Israeli airstrike on a house killed at least seven people, medics said.

Israel’s ground and air campaign was triggered when Hamas-led militants invaded southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli records.

The offensive left Gaza in ruins, killed more than 37,400 people, according to Palestinian health authorities, and left almost the entire population homeless and destitute.