Qassam Brigades claim attacks on Israeli troops in northern and southern Gaza
The armed wing of Hamas, the Qassam Brigades, has claimed blowing up a house in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, after an Israeli unit took shelter in it. The group later said it targeted a building housing Israeli troops with an anti-personnel mortar shell in Gaza City in the north of the territory.
Flood of sewage forces displaced Palestinians out of tents
Displaced people in Gaza used empty plastic bottles to try to remove raw sewage from their tents after a pipeline burst in the main southern city of Khan Younis.
Residents removed sodden carpets from their makeshift shelters as they began the long process of getting rid of the filthy water as children waded through a river of sewage that cut through a main road.
The spill made it almost impossible to live in the city where piles of debris and massive concrete slabs from bombed-out buildings line the streets. Workers in Khan Younis say they lack the proper equipment to repair the pipeline properly.
About 1.7 million people are now sheltering in Khan Younis and in central areas of the Gaza Strip, according to the United Nations. Tens of thousands have sought shelter there after being forced out of Rafah in the south by the Israeli military.
A garbage dump in Khan Younis city
Israeli air raid hits residential tower in central Gaza
Footage of the attack shared by Palestinian journalists, including Al Jazeera Arabic’s Anas al-Sharif, shows an Israeli bomb hitting a multistorey building in the Bureij refugee camp, causing an enormous explosion.
It’s unclear how many people were harmed in the attack. Previous Israeli strikes on Bureij have killed at least 11 Palestinians, including three children, over the past 24 hours.
لحظة استهداف طائرات الاحتلال لبرج سكني في مخيم البريج pic.twitter.com/57QdDWfZZH
— أنس الشريف Anas Al-Sharif (@AnasAlSharif0) June 3, 2024
Translation: The moment [Israeli] occupation jets targeted a residential tower in the Bureij camp.
Four more Israeli captives die in Gaza: Army
The Israeli military says four more of the Israeli captives abducted by Hamas on October 7 have died and their bodies are being held. The army identified the four men as Haim Perry, Yoram Metzger, Amiram Cooper, and Nadav Popplewell, all of whom were filmed alive previously in videos posted by Hamas.
“We estimate the four of them were killed together in the area of Khan Younis a number of months ago … at the time [military] forces were operating in Khan Younis,” army spokesman Daniel Hagari said. “We are thoroughly examining the circumstances of their deaths and checking all possibilities.”
Last month, Hamas’s armed wing the Qassam Brigades released a video announcing Popplewell’s death, saying the British-Israeli national died of wounds sustained in an Israeli air strike.
The video was released amid growing domestic pressure on the Israeli government to secure the release of the remaining captives – estimated to number more than 120.
‘We do not understand why we have been abandoned here’: More on captives
The army said the decision to announce their deaths was based on “intelligence”. All four of the men declared dead were kidnapped and taken into Gaza still alive, according to the Hostages Forum, a grassroots group representing the captives’ families.
“It is time to end this cycle of sacrifice and neglect,” the group wrote in a statement. “Their murder in captivity is a mark of disgrace and a sad reflection on the significance of delaying previous deals.”
The group called on the government to immediately approve the new ceasefire plan.
Three of the men were aged 80 or older. They appeared in a video in December released by Hamas under the title “Don’t Let Us Grow Old Here.” In the video, the three men appeared gaunt and were wearing thin white T-shirts.
“We are the generation who built the foundation for the state of Israel,” one man said. “We do not understand why we have been abandoned here.”
3 killed as Israel’s bombardment of Bureij refugee camp continues
Three people have been killed and others injured in an Israeli missile attack on a home in the Bureij refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip, this morning, the Wafa news agency reports.
The attack hit the home of the Ghanem family in Block 10 of the Bureij refugee camp, it said. Wafa’s correspondent also reported that Israeli warplanes attacked four residential buildings in Bureij, including the Al-Ahlam Tower where five people were wounded. The injured were taken to Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah.
Earlier, Israeli air attacks on Bureij killed at least 11 Palestinians, including three children.
