GAZA – At least 39 Palestinians were killed by Israeli shelling of several areas across the Gaza Strip on Saturday, health officials in Gaza said, as tanks pushed into the west and north of the city of Rafah.
A paramedic said local journalist Mohammed Abu Jasser, his wife and two children were killed in an Israeli strike on their home in the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday.
The official media office in the Strip stated that the killing of Abu Jasser raises the number of Palestinian journalists killed by Israeli fire since October 7 to 161.
Shortly before midnight, an Israeli airstrike targeted a camp housing displaced Palestinian families, killing at least 10 people, medics and media said.
An Israeli air strike targeted a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Saturday, killing three and wounding eight, medics said.
Rescuers said an airstrike on a multi-storey building in the camp wounded several people, including two local journalists.
In Rafah, tanks penetrated into positions in the north of the city and took control of a position on a hill in the west amid fierce battles with fighters.
The army said troops continued operations in Rafah, killing several militants over the past day in Tel al-Sultan on the western side of the city. In central Gaza, the army said it launched attacks on militants’ infrastructure.
The Israeli army also said it hit a building used by Palestinian militants in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
Ceasefire efforts led by Qatar and Egypt and supported by the United States have so far failed due to differences between the two sides, who blame each other for reaching a dead end.
Israel has vowed to eliminate the Palestinian militant group following its militants killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages on October 7, according to Israeli statistics.
Gaza health authorities say more than 38,919 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive since then.
Israel said last Tuesday that it had eliminated half of the factions’ leadership, and that it had killed or detained regarding 14,000 fighters since the start of the war.
Israel also announced the killing of 326 of its soldiers in Gaza.
Reuters
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2024-07-22 06:51:02
