Twelve Palestinians killed in Israeli attack on south Gaza
Our correspondents on the ground say Israeli forces have bombed a house in the city of Khan Younis, killing at least 12 Palestinians.
Dozens of families trapped in Rafah issue distress call
Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting that dozens of Palestinian families trapped in the southern city are calling on the international community to help evacuate them. The appeal comes after Israel announced expanding its ground assault on Rafah.
According to AJA, the families are currently trapped in the Khirbet al-Adas area of Rafah.
Residents of Rafah flee as Israel expands ground offensive
The Israeli military has issued forced displacement notices for all areas of Rafah and is now expanding its ground operation to control the entire city. They say that this operation aims to compel Hamas to reach a ceasefire deal and release the Israeli captives.
We have also heard from the Israeli defence minister that this operation is not just about maximising pressure on Hamas, but also on Gaza’s population in order to force them to eliminate Hamas.
Now, people were given a very short time to leave. They are being forced to flee, taking what little they can find of their personal belongings and moving again to al-Mawasi. That is a 14km strip of land, which is now overcrowded and which has been repeatedly targeted by the Israeli forces.
Rafah has been the focus of Israel’s latest attacks, alongside some parts of Khan Younis.
One of the attacks there targeted a residential building packed full of civilians. Palestinian Civil Defence says 15 Palestinians were killed in that strike and that the morgues of both the Nasser Hospital and the European Hospital are overwhelmed with bodies.
US has given Israel ‘complete green light now to act with impunity”
Tahani Mustafa, from the International Crisis Group, says most analysts aren’t surprised Israel has expanded its military assault to seize more land in Gaza and “depopulate” Palestinians from the territory.
“Many of us anticipated these evacuation zones were going to be expanded in the coming weeks and months in order to concentrate Palestinian populations into these so-called ‘safe zones’, which we know over the last 17 months of open warfare that there is no such thing as safe zones,” Mustafa told Al Jazeera.
Israel’s “expansionist government” filled with politicians from the far right is now fully backed by the US government of Donald Trump, she noted.
“[The US] really doesn’t see the need to deal with the facade of trying to broker any sort of rhetorical peace here, or try to pretend to be an impartial broker in this conflict. The Trump administration itself has already hailed the depopulation of Gaza.”
The US attitude gives Israel “the complete green light now to act with impunity”, said Mustafa.
