Twenty dead in Gaza as Israel intensifies its attacks on the centre

At least 20 people have been killed in recent hours in different Israeli bombings across the Gaza Strip, while the army has stepped up its attacks in the centre and south of the enclave after detecting the presence of military infrastructure and Palestinian militants.

“Based on accurate army intelligence indicating the presence of terrorist infrastructure and Hamas terrorists in the area of ​​Khan Yunis (south) and the outskirts of Deir al Balah (center), the troops have intensified their activities in the area,” detailed a military statement on Thursday.

At least 11 people were killed after midnight in an Israeli bombardment of a family home in the northern Gazan town of Beit Lahia, according to Mahmoud Basal, spokesman for the Gaza Civil Defense.

Displaced Palestinian Hayat Abu Hatab sprinkles water on tombstones she made from stones collected from destroyed houses

Most of the victims were women and children

Palestinian state news agency Wafa, citing medical sources, said most of the victims of the attack were women and children, who arrived at the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia with severe burns.

Three other bodies were unearthed by Civil Defence rescue teams following an attack on an apartment building in the Yabalia refugee camp, also in northern Gaza.

Meanwhile, at least six people were killed and four others wounded in an Israeli strike overnight on a house in the Maghazi refugee camp in the centre of the Gaza Strip, very close to the town of Deir al Balah, which is the target of a ground incursion.

Thousands of people flee

The humanitarian group Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reported on Thursday that thousands of people from Deir al-Balah and Khan Yunis, including its staff, are fleeing to the ever-shrinking “humanitarian” zone of Mawasi, on the Gaza coast, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people are crammed in inhumane conditions, following the latest Israeli evacuation orders.

50 suspected Palestinian fighters eliminated

The Israeli army said it had eliminated some 50 suspected Palestinian fighters in the Tal al-Sultan neighborhood of Rafah, the southernmost town in the Strip, where troops have been carrying out a ground incursion since early May to eliminate the so-called “Rafah brigade” of Hamas.

Yesterday, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced that the four battalions that make up the brigade have been eliminated, but without mentioning a possible end to hostilities in the area, and where they have closed the border crossing to Egypt, through which most humanitarian aid previously entered the enclave.

Israeli troops remain on the border with Egypt

The presence of Israeli troops on the Gaza border with Egypt is one of the main issues preventing the signing of a ceasefire agreement with Hamas, as the Israeli authorities refuse to abandon it, considering that the crossing could be used by the Islamist group to resupply.

Hamas, for its part, rejects any agreement that does not involve the complete withdrawal of Israeli soldiers from the Strip.

The current war broke out on October 7 last year after a Hamas attack on Israel that left some 1,200 dead and 251 kidnapped.

Since then, Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip have left more than 40,100 dead, more than 92,800 injured, 10,000 missing under the rubble and 1.9 million displaced people surviving an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.

At least three dead in the West Bank

At least three Palestinians were also killed during an Israeli army raid involving the use of explosive drones in the town of Tulkarem, the sixth drone attack in the northern occupied West Bank so far in August, officials said.

The Palestinian Red Crescent emergency services confirmed two of the deaths and said the forces were preventing their ambulances from reaching the scene, a common practice by Israeli authorities during raids in the Palestinian territory.

Israeli troops “ransacked a mosque, shops and houses in the village of Ar Ras, south of the city of Tulkarem” early Thursday morning, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

Israeli forces later brought in bulldozers to “razed” the streets and “deliberately destroyed public and private property, including homes and businesses,” Wafa said.

Revenge for the death of Al Maqdah

Israeli military vehicles take part in a military operation in the Tulkarem refugee camp

For its part, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, part of the armed wing of the secular Palestinian party Fatah, said in a statement that its militants are engaged in “fierce clashes against the Zionist invasion in Tulkarem.”

The Al Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamist group Hamas, are also taking part in the clashes, saying they are “in response to the assassination of the martyred leader Khalil Al Maqdah,” who died yesterday when an Israeli drone attacked the vehicle in which he was travelling in the city of Sidon, south of Beirut (Lebanon).

Spiral of violence in the West Bank

Funeral of Avraham Munder and his son Roi Munder at Kibbutz Nir Oz

The occupied West Bank is experiencing its worst spiral of violence since the Second Intifada (2000-05), and so far in 2024 at least 292 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, most of them militants or attackers, but also civilians, including at least 70 minors, according to EFE’s count, after closing 2023 as the deadliest year in two decades, with more than 520 dead.

The Israeli army stepped up its already frequent incursions into the occupied West Bank following the Hamas attack on 7 October and since then some 637 Palestinians have been killed in violent incidents with Israel – including at least 150 children – mainly with troops and a dozen of them at the hands of settlers.

Four Israeli settlers arrested

Four Israeli settlers, including a minor, were arrested on suspicion of involvement in an attack last week on the Palestinian village of Jit in the occupied West Bank, which left at least one person dead and several homes and cars destroyed, officials said Thursday.

Jerusalem / EFE