CAIRO: On Thursday, Israeli forces killed at least 35 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip through airstrikes and battles on the ground. In some parts of the southern city of Rafah, they were also fighting with Hamas resistance fighters.
More than 35,000 people have died since Israel invaded Gaza, and many more are thought to be hidden under the rubble.
Residents said that Israeli tanks moved forward in the southeast of Rafah, made their way toward Yibna in the western part of the city, and continued to work in three eastern areas.
“The occupation is trying to move further to the west; they are on the edge of Yibna, which has a lot of people living in it.” “They haven’t broken in yet,” a neighbor who did not want to be named said.
“We can hear explosions and see black smoke rising from the places where the army has taken over.” “It was yet another very hard night,” he told Reuters through a chat app.
This month, Israel attacked both the northern and southern edges of Gaza at the same time. This caused hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to leave their houses, and the main routes for aid have been cut off, which increases the risk of famine.
It says that it attacked Rafah to get rid of the groups of Hamas freedom fighters that it thinks are hiding there. Since the beginning of the month, its men have been slowly moving into the eastern edges of Rafah.
UNRWA, the main UN agency in Gaza, said on Monday that more than 800,000 people had left Rafah since Israel started bombing the city in early May, even though the rest of the world asked Israel to stop.
At the same time, Israeli forces stepped up their ground attack in Jabalia, destroying several residential areas. They also hit the nearby town of Beit Hanoun, where Israel had announced major operations months ago. Israel says it had to go back to stop Hamas from getting together again there.
In a statement, the Israeli military said that its troops started carrying out specific raids in Beit Hanoun.
The army says that three of its men were killed on Wednesday.
