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Key Points
- Gaza health officials say Israeli tanks have moved into Jabalia
- Israel says the operation was to prevent Hamas from regrouping
- Families continue to flee Rafah after new evacuation orders
Israel sent tanks into eastern Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip after a night of heavy aerial and ground bombardments, killing 19 people and wounding dozens of others, Palestinian health officials said.
The death toll in Israel’s military operation in Gaza has now passed at least 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
The bombardment has laid waste to the coastal enclave and caused a deep humanitarian crisis.
Israel has bombarded Gaza since , according to the Israeli government.
The 7 October attack was a significant escalation in the.
Israel says 620 soldiers have been killed in the fighting, more than half of them during the initial Hamas assault.
Jabalia is the biggest of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps and is home to more than 100,000 people, most of whom were descendants of Palestinians who were driven from towns and villages in what is now Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war that led to the creation the state of Israel.
The Israeli military said forces operating in Jabalia were preventing Hamas, which rules Gaza, from re-establishing its military capabilities there.
Israeli military’s spokesperson Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters Israeli forces operating in Gaza City’s Zeitoun district killed about 30 Palestinian militants.
Israeli forces thrust deep into Jabalia camp, deeper than the first time when they invaded northern Gaza, with tanks close to the local market, residents said.
“They were bombing everywhere, including near schools that are housing people who lost their houses,” Jabalia resident Saed, 45, told Reuters via a chat app. “War is restarting, this is how it looks in Jabalia.”
The army sent tanks back into Zeitoun, as well as al-Sabra, where residents also reported heavy bombardments that destroyed several houses, including high-rise residential buildings.
The army had claimed to have gained control of most of these areas months ago.
The Israeli Defence Forces said air sirens had sounded in the southern Kerem Shalom area and it had successfully intercepted two rockets launched from the vicinity of Rafah.
Palestinians search for bodies and survivors among the rubble of the Jabalia refugee camp. Source: AAP / Mohammed Saber
It said there were no injuries and no damage reported.
Sirens sounded in the Israeli city of Ashkelon as a result of incoming rocket fire from Gaza, which signalled militants there were still able to launch rocket attacks after over seven months of war.
Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV said on its telegram account, the rockets were launched from Jabalia, despite the active army raid.
The armed wing of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said their fighters attacked Israeli forces in several areas inside Gaza with anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs, including in Rafah, previously the Palestinians’ last refuge where more than a million people were sheltering.
On Sunday, more families, estimated in the thousands, were leaving Rafah as the Israeli military pressure intensified.
Israel’s military said it had opened a new crossing in northern Gaza, called “Western Erez”, to transfer humanitarian aid to the strip.
Burai, a Palestinian businessman, said the Palestinians had been abandoned by the world, with world powers failing to end hostilities and international mediation efforts to reach a ceasefire collapsing over Hamas and Israel disputes.
Egypt’s foreign minister Sameh Shoukri said Cairo would continue its mediation between Israel and Hamas and urged the two sides to show the flexibility and the will needed to reach a deal.
It is heartbreaking to see the escalating violence in Rafah. The situation is dire for the families forced to flee their homes. We must find a peaceful resolution to end this senseless bloodshed.