Attacks on southern Gaza
Israel shells Rafah – Hamas authorities report deaths
February 3, 2024, 9:26 p.m
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The Israeli army continues to advance in the battle for the Gaza Strip. During the night there were air strikes on Rafah – the city on the border with Egypt where around a million people are seeking refuge. Israel does not confirm the attacks, but indicates an expansion of the operation.
The Israeli army has shelled the city of Rafah in the very south of the Gaza Strip. A journalist from the AFP news agency heard heavy air strikes shortly after midnight in the city bordering Egypt, where more than a million Palestinians have sought refuge from fighting in the coastal area. Eyewitnesses said 12 people were killed in an airstrike on a family’s home.
The authorities under the control of the terrorist organization Hamas spoke of 14 deaths in Rafah, but this statement cannot be independently verified. There were further victims in Israeli attacks on the city of Deir Al-Balah. The Israeli military did not comment on whether it had carried out airstrikes. It simply stated that, unlike Hamas’ attacks on Israeli men, women and children, the Israeli military abides by international law and strives to prevent civilian suffering.
The southern city of Khan Yunis, where the Israeli offensive was most recently focused and where, according to Israeli sources, high-ranking Hamas leaders are hiding, was rocked by sustained tank fire and air strikes during the night, according to an AFP journalist.
Israel’s army reports “dozens” of terrorists killed
The Israeli army, for its part, said it had killed “dozens of terrorists” in the north and center of the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours. In the Al-Shati refugee camp in the northern part of the coastal strip, the military discovered a group of fighters who wanted to transport weapons. The squad was eliminated by a targeted airstrike. The military’s information could not be independently verified.
Israeli Defense Minister Joav Gallant indicated last Thursday that Israel would expand its military operation in the Gaza Strip to include Rafah. The Hamas units in Rafah would be “dissolved” just like in Khan Yunis, Gallant said during a visit to Israeli soldiers. Rafah is “a pressure cooker of despair and we are afraid of what comes next,” said UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) spokesman Jens Laerke.
According to WHO information, Rafah, which once had a population of around 200,000, is now home to more than half of the more than two million residents of the Gaza Strip. Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also warned the editorial network Germany (RND) that a military offensive in Rafah was “unjustifiable”.