Smaller Palestinian armed groups continue to fight as Hamas attacks reduce in Rafah: Monitors
A steep reduction in Hamas’s operations in Gaza’s southern Rafah city appears to indicate that its fighters have been “degraded” by Israel’s months-long ground offensive but smaller Palestinian armed groups continue to target Israeli forces in the area, monitors report.
US-based defence think tanks the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP) note a drop-off in a previously high number of attacks on Israeli forces in Rafah by Hamas, and described recent Hamas operations as appearing to “lack clear tactical or operational objectives”.
Smaller groups such as Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the al-Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades continue to strike Israeli forces in the south and central Gaza, including a combined attack on Thursday involving mortar shelling of Israeli forces in Deir el-Balah and also the detonation of a house-borne improvised explosive device.
The National Resistance Brigades also fired mortars at Israel forces in the Yabna refugee camp, located in eastern Rafah, the ISW-CTP report.
Hamas fighters launched rockets on Thursday towards Israel’s “Mars” military site in southern Israel and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades fired rockets at Israeli forces in the Kissufim area of Israel, ISW-CTP said.
NEW: US and international health officials confirmed on August 29 that Israel has agreed to implement a temporary humanitarian pause in the Gaza Strip to vaccinate children against polio.
Iran has increased its stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels,… pic.twitter.com/BrV4ndLrro
— Institute for the Study of War (@TheStudyofWar) August 29, 2024
Israeli troops pulling out of Khan Younis areas
Israeli forces have begun to move out of some areas of Khan Younis, after weeks of military operations, report our colleagues on the ground. Relief workers are now searching for the bodies of those killed in neighbourhoods from which troops have withdrawn, according to their report.
Footage shared on Palestinian social media channels, verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking unit, shows responders recovering several bodies from the city’s Street 5.
More bodies recovered from Khan Younis after Israeli army pullout
As we’ve been reporting, the Israeli army has withdrawn from areas in the east of the city in southern Gaza after a 22-day military operation. Our colleagues on the ground report that ambulance crews found nine bodies amid the wreckage left behind by the Israeli army.
Three killed in Israeli bombing in Khan Younis: Civil defence
Others at the scene were wounded after the Israeli army at dawn attacked the house of the Abu Daqqa family in the east of the city, according to the spokesman of Gaza’s civil defence.
Israeli army attacks Palestinians in Jabalia camp: Civil defence
A statement by the organisation’s spokesman on Telegram says troops shelled of a group of Palestinians in al-Ajarma Street in the Jabalia refugee camp.
