Israeli tanks reenter northern Gaza, warplanes strike Rafah

Palestinian health authorities and Hamas media confirmed that 11 people, including children, were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza

Israeli tanks reentered parts of the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday after a weekslong absence, accompanied by airstrikes targeting Rafah, the Palestinians’ last refuge in the south of the territory.

Rafah, mirroring the devastation seen across Gaza, lies mostly in ruins. The relentless Israeli airstrikes have systematically demolished homes and claimed the lives of thousands of Palestinians in the region.

Reports from residents indicated an internet outage in Beit Hanoun and Jabalia areas in northern Gaza, where tanks advanced, encircling some schools housing displaced families, according to both residents and Hamas-affiliated media outlets.

“Occupation soldiers ordered all families inside the schools and the nearby houses where the tanks had advanced to evacuate. The soldiers detained many men,” a resident of northern Gaza informed reporters.

Beit Hanoun, a community of 60,000 people, faced severe damage during Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza last October, transforming much of the area, once known as “the basket of fruit” for its orchards, into a desolate landscape of rubble.

With the resurgence of Israeli presence, families who had recently returned to Beit Hanoun and Jabalia began fleeing once more, citing concerns over safety.

In Rafah, home to over half of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents, Israeli airstrikes claimed lives and caused injuries, raising fears of an imminent ground incursion into the city, situated along the Egyptian border.

Tragedy struck late at night when an Israeli airstrike hit a house in Rafah, resulting in the deaths of seven individuals, including children, and injuring several others, as reported by Palestinian health officials.

‘I swear we didn’t do anything’

Additionally, Palestinian health authorities and Hamas media confirmed that 11 people had been killed, including children, due to an Israeli airstrike in the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza.

Wafaa Issa al-Nouri, who lost her son and husband in the strike, expressed her anguish, stating, “My brothers were sitting by the door, my brother was injured, and his cousin too, and I lost my son. I do not have a house, nor a husband, nor anything anymore.”

“He was playing by the door, we didn’t do anything, I swear we didn’t do anything,” she said. 

The Hamas-run interior ministry reported that a police car in Gaza City’s Tuffah district was targeted by an Israeli airstrike, resulting in the deaths of seven police officers.

Source: Newsroom