At least 27 Palestinians died Friday in renewed Israeli tank and air attacks against northern and central Gaza, said Palestinian medics. The escalation: Israeli tanks advance further into the northwestern outskirts of Rafah, near the Egyptian border, to intensify their ground assault in the coastal enclave.
While hostilities continue between Israeli forces and Hamas militants in Gaza, a parallel conflict has been playing out along the Israel-Lebanon border. Hezbollah, considered a key ally of Hamas, has been battling Israeli forces there.
Civilian Casualties Mount
Eight people were killed in the Nuseirat refugee camp in Israeli tank shelling, with several more left injured. Six others died when an airstrike hit a residential building in Gaza City. More casualties were caused by another strike on a vehicle in the north town of Beit Hanoun, but it was too early to tell whether they were combatants or civilians.
Israeli troops, meanwhile, push into Rafah, which townspeople described as marked by rocket fire and explosions. Israel has reportedly bulldozed several houses, local eye-witnesses as well as media allied to Hamas reported.
In a statement, Hamas’ armed wing confirmed that its fighters were under intense fighting with Israeli troops in the Tanour neighborhood of Rafah.
International Diplomacy Falters
In the last weeks, negotiations over a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas have deadlocked once again. After multiple attempts by the US, Qatar, and Egypt to conclude a truce, there is simply too much distance between the two sides. Prisoner exchanges between Israel and Hamas are another point of friction, as is the stumbling block of retaining control over the Philadelphi corridor, a strategic strip along the southern boundary of Gaza with Egypt.
Displaced Palestinians Face New Challenges
Apart from the violence, environmental hazards are now being inflicted on the displaced Palestinians in Gaza. Thousands of them have fled to makeshift camps near the beach in the Al-Mawasi area. Rising sea levels and high waves, however, have already started flooding their temporary shelters. Many are afraid that if the same thing that flooded the ground last week, destroying several tents, occurs again, they would have nowhere to go.
Background and Humanitarian Crisis
This is the latest round of violence, which began after Hamas launched on October 7 a deadly attack against Israel, killing more than 41,000 Palestinians, Gaza’s health ministry reported. Israel’s death toll from the Hamas attack stood at 1,200, reports said. The fighting has thrust into severe hunger crisis nearly the entire population of Gaza, as many as 2.3 million people, and displaced nearly the entire population of the coastal territory.
Israel had bluntly dismissed allegations of genocide at the World Court, asserting that its armed operations were meant to disarm Hamas, which was deemed a real threat to its existence.