Relentless Israeli strikes on cut-off northern Gaza continue
Thick black smoke could be seen rising in northern Gaza where famine has reportedly set in because of restrictions on aid by Israeli forces.
Shelling was intense east of Beit Hanoon and Jabalia and continued in areas such as Zeitoun – one of Gaza City’s oldest suburbs – with residents reporting at least 10 strikes in a matter of seconds along the main road.
“The bombing from tanks and planes didn’t stop,” said Um Mohammad, 53, a mother of six living 700 metres from Zeitoun. “I had to gather with my children and my sisters who came to shelter with me in one place and pray for our lives as the house kept shaking.”
Just west of Beit Hanoon in Beit Lahiya, an air strike hit a mosque, killing a boy and injuring several others. A medic was killed in shelling near the town stadium, civil defence officials said.
Children look at a destroyed house in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip
‘Trail of destruction’ in Rafah, Nuseirat, Beit Lahiya
Israeli air strikes continue across the Gaza Strip causing further civilian casualties and leaving a trail of destruction.
Three people were killed in an attack on a home in Rafah with several others wounded. The pattern we’ve been seeing at overcrowded hospitals with few staff and supplies is injured people receiving little medical intervention. So the likelihood of the number of deaths rising is very high.
At the Nuseirat refugee camp – which has been targeted relentlessly over the past few weeks – five people from one family sheltering inside a home were killed. Meanwhile, the Israeli military continues to strike public facilities and homes in Deir el-Balah and the Bureij refugee camp.
In northern Gaza, Israeli forces are attacking the city of Beit Lahiya, giving people as little as five minutes to evacuate from their homes before they find themselves caught in the line of fire from artillery.
A woman searches through the rubble of a collapsed building in Rafah
Beit Hanoon left a ‘wasteland’ after Israeli military operation
The Israeli military has announced pulling out of the northern city of Beit Hanoon after it stormed it yesterday with a large number of ground forces. But it has left trails of destruction on all remaining buildings, including schools and public facilities, to the point that the city has been turned into a wasteland.
Air raids also continue to pound the city of Jabalia, targeting more residential homes and UNRWA facilities. There are reports of many people being injured and transferred to a nearby, privately owned clinic in preparation to move to Ahli Arab Hospital.
‘Several thousand’ Palestinian fighters remain in northern Gaza: Monitors
While Israeli officials signal that a ground invasion of Gaza’s southern Rafah region is imminent, an Israeli defence official was reported as stating that thousands of Palestinian fighters remain operational in the north of the territory.
US-based think tanks the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP) note that their assessment on the continuing presence of Palestinian armed resistance in Beit Hanoon is consistent with an Israeli official acknowledging to US news media that “several thousand” fighters remain in northern Gaza.
Also on Tuesday, the 200th day of fighting, Palestinian armed groups carried out at least five “indirect fire attacks” at Israel with rockets launched from Gaza.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) launched two rocket attacks – including a combined attack with fighters from the Ansar Brigades – towards Israel’s Sderot city, while the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and the National Resistance Brigades carried out an attack on Israel’s Zikim base.
PIJ and National Resistance fighters also fired rockets towards southern Israel’s Nir Am area, according to the ISW/CTP report.
