Intense fighting in Rafah, air strikes on Gaza City residential homes
It is still intensifying and escalating in Rafah where it is a battlefield right now between the Palestinian resistance factions and the Israeli army.
Fighting is taking place in the Shaboura refugee camp and also in the Saudi neighbourhood. At least 65,000 Palestinians remain in Rafah and refuse to evacuate despite the endless air strikes and artillery shelling.
It is also the same in the northern parts of the Gaza Strip, where air strikes continue to target residential homes in the Shujayea neighbourhood in the heart of Gaza City.
The Palestinian civil defence teams were able to recover the bodies of four Palestinians after four days of being targeted … four days ago in the Nuseirat camp. We just received their bodies in Al-Aqsa Hospital, and Palestinians are still being displaced from one place to another, striving to find water and food.
Israeli military carries out deadly strikes across the Gaza Strip
The Wafa news agency has reported several deadly Israeli military attacks across the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours, they include:
- At least eight people have been killed after the Israeli military bombed a house in the Zeitoun neighbourhood, southeast of Gaza City.
- At least two people have been killed and 12 injured in an Israeli strike on the al-Hasayna area in Nuseirat, central Gaza.
- At least one person was killed and others injured in an Israeli strike on Deir el-Balah.
- Rescue crews have recovered the bodies of three children and their mother from under the rubble of the al-Rai family home, which the Israeli military bombed two days ago in the Nuseirat refugee camp.
Relatives of Palestinians, who died after an Israeli strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp, mourn at the morgue of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah, Gaza, on June 18
Israeli tanks, artillery, air strikes hit targets in Gaza’s north, south and centre overnight
Israeli forces are pounding targets in the vicinity of the Saudi neighbourhood in the west of Rafah city and also blowing up residential buildings in the area, our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic report.
Israeli tanks are also firing on eastern areas of Khan Younis in the central Gaza Strip, while artillery fire has hit northern areas of the Nuseirat refugee camp, which is also located in Gaza’s centre.
In the north of the territory, overnight air strikes have resulted in casualties, including the bombing of a house in Gaza City’s eastern Shujayea neighbourhood.
Israeli military announces two soldiers killed in northern Gaza
The Israeli military has announced that two soldiers were killed in a mortar attack in northern Gaza on Thursday. Both men, a 25-year-old and a 27-year-old, were reservists fighting in the Alexandroni Brigade. A further three soldiers from the same brigade were seriously wounded in the same incident.
Hamas has claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it targeted a military position with mortar fire near the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City.
The latest deaths bring the total number of Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza – or along its border – to at least 312 since the start of the ground invasion of the Palestinian territory in October. A further 1,950 Israeli soldiers have been injured in the war so far.
Video clip captures terrifying moment of Israel strike near Khan Younis hospital
Palestinian people are going about their business in the vicinity of the Nasser Medical Complex in central Gaza’s Khan Younis when the Israeli strike rips into a nearby building sending a dark cloud of smoke, sparks and pulverised masonry into the night sky.
It is not known from the video, which was obtained and verified by our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic, if there were casualties from the attack on the house.
لحظة استهداف الاحتلال أحد المنازل جوار مجمع ناصر الطبي في خان يونس#حرب_غزة pic.twitter.com/SBModXYHFc
— الجزيرة فلسطين (@AJA_Palestine) June 21, 2024
Three killed in Khan Younis; Israeli helicopter and warplanes blast Rafah: Reports
Three people have been killed in an early morning Israeli attack in the east of Khan Younis, the Palestinian state news agency Wafa reports.
The bodies of the two adults and a child were taken to the European Hospital in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis. Two people were also injured in an Israeli attack on two homes in the Tuffah and Shujayea neighbourhoods of Gaza City in the north.
Israel artillery shelling hit the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City, the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, and areas around Deir el-Balah, including the Maghazi refugee camp, Wafa reports.
An Apache attack helicopter used machineguns against eastern areas of Rafah city and an Israeli warplane hit Rafah’s centre, the news agency also reports.
Five killed in Israeli attack on municipal building in Gaza City
There has been yet another attack that happened within the past hour when an Israeli air strike targeted a Gaza municipality facility in the heart of Gaza City in al-Wehda Street, a very important area in the Gaza City, where a large number of people from both the eastern and western part of Gaza City have sought refuge.
Initial reports say that four municipality employees and one passer-by were killed in the attack, and multiple others injured.
It’s important to emphasise that we’re not looking at an area that is only being used by the municipality and their employees, but also by people who have been pushed and forcibly displaced and who have been sheltering inside a residential home close by.
Their family members who work for the municipality, happened to be inside this facility when it was targeted. It’s a public garage of the municipality where they keep their trucks and most of the equipment that they use during the cleanup of areas struck by the Israeli military.
They have all been transported to al-Ahli Arab Hospital (Baptist Hospital), despite the fact that the location of this public facility is very close to al-Shifa Hospital, but since al-Shifa is no longer functioning, this was the only option.
