Three houses were hit and at least 20 Palestinians were killed in Israeli rocket and air strikes on the Rafah area in southern Gaza, Gaza health officials said.
Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have piled into Rafah, on Gaza’s border with Egypt, to escape Israeli bombardment further north, despite fears that they will not be safe there either.
Residents of Khan Younis, a city in the south of Gaza, reported this morning about fierce fighting between Hamas fighters and Israeli forces. Israeli tanks and planes bombarded areas near the city center, residents said.
A World Health Organization (WHO) official said Monday that the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, where Israeli soldiers raided last week, is no longer working and that patients, including babies, have been evacuated.
“We cannot afford to lose any hospital,” said Richard Peeperkorn, the WHO representative for Gaza.
Gaza’s health ministry said Monday that 19,453 Palestinians have been killed and 52,286 wounded in an Israeli assault on the Hamas-ruled enclave in more than two months of war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to achieve total victory over Hamas, whose fighters killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostages in a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, according to Israeli reports.
Israel’s increasing retaliation against Hamas has raised concerns among governments and international organizations over the number of civilian deaths, hunger and homelessness.
At least 19,453 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since October 7, the Ministry of Health announced today.
Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told a news conference that 52,286 people were injured.
Israel bombarded the Gaza Strip from the air and from the ground, imposed a siege and launched a ground offensive in retaliation for a cross-border attack by Hamas on October 7.
About 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.
