RAFAH – An Israeli airstrike on a space in Gaza’s southernmost city killed at least 9 folks, six of them children, health center government mentioned Saturday, as Israel pursued its just about seven-month offensive in the besieged Palestinian territory.
Israel’s conflict towards the Islamic militant staff Hamas has resulted in a dramatic escalation of tensions in an already risky Middle East.
The strike overdue Friday hit a residential development in the western Tel Sultan community of the city of Rafah, in line with Gaza’s civil protection. The our bodies of the six children, two girls and a person had been taken to Rafah’s Abu Yousef al-Najjar health center, the health center’s data confirmed.
At the health center, kin cried and hugged the our bodies of the children, wrapped in white shrouds, as others comforted them.
The fatalities integrated Abdel-Fattah Sobhi Radwan, his spouse Najlaa Ahmed Aweidah and their 3 children, his brother-in-law Ahmed Barhoum mentioned. Barhoum additionally misplaced his spouse, Rawan Radwan, and their 5-year-old daughter Alaa.
(*6*)sc-dkzDqf dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-2 gLFytU itaLjB”>No victims were registered from a second overnight strike in the city.
Rafah, which lies on the border with Egypt, currently hosts more than half of Gaza’s total population of about 2.3 million people, the vast majority of whom have been displaced by fighting further north in the territory.
Despite requires restraint from the global neighborhood, including Israel’s staunchest ally, the United States, the Israeli executive has insisted for months that it intends to push a ground offensive into the city, the place it says many of the remainder Hamas militants are holed up.
Such a ground operation has not materialized so far, but the Israeli military has repeatedly carried out airstrikes on and around the city.
The war was sparked by an 130 hostages remain in Gaza, although more than 30 have been confirmed to now be dead, either killed on Oct. 7 or having died in captivity.
The Gaza Health Ministry said Saturday the bodies of 37 people killed by Israeli strikes were brought to hospitals in Gaza over the past 24 hours. Hospitals also received 68 wounded, it said. The latest figures bring the overall Palestinian death toll from the Israel-Hamas war to at least 34,049, and the number of wounded to 76,901, the ministry said. Although the Hamas-run health authorities do not differentiate between combatants and civilians in their count, they say at least two thirds have been children and women.
The war has sent regional tensions spiraling, leading to a dramatic eruption of violence between Israel and its archenemy Iran that threatened to escalate into a full-blown war.
On Friday, both Iran and Israel played down an apparent Israeli airstrike near a major air base and nuclear site in central Iran, indicating the two sides were pulling back from what could have become an all-out conflict. Over the past several weeks, an alleged Israeli strike killed two Iranian generals at an Iranian consulate in Syria and used to be adopted by way of an unprecedented Iranian missile barrage on Israel.
Israel has also faced off with the Hezbollah militant group, an Iranian proxy operating from Lebanon, with the two sides there frequently trading rocket and drone attacks across the Lebanese-Israeli border. Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have also joined the fray, launching strikes against merchant ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden in what they say is a campaign of solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza.
Tension has also been high in the occupied West Bank, where an Israeli military raid Friday in the Nur Shams refugee camp killed at least four Palestinians, including three militants, according to the Israeli military, Palestinian health officials and a militant group.
Palestinian health authorities said one of those killed was a 15-year-old boy shot dead by Israeli fire. The Islamic Jihad militant group confirmed the deaths of three members, including one who it said was a local military commander. The Israeli military said four Israeli soldiers were slightly wounded in the operation.
Saraya al-Quds, the military arm of Islamic Jihad, said its fighters had engaged in heavy gun battles Saturday morning with Israeli forces in the town of Tulkarem, adjacent to Nur Shams. No further details were immediately available. Residents in Tulkarem went went on a general strike Saturday to protest the attack on Nur Shams, with shops, restaurants and government offices all closed.
Since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel, more than 460 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank, Palestinian health officials say. Israel stages frequent raids into towns and cities in the volatile territory. The dead have included militants, but also stone-throwers and bystanders. Some have also been killed in attacks by Israeli settlers.
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Magdy reported from Cairo
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