by Nidal al-Mughrabi
CAIRO (Reuters) – The Israeli army intensified its airstrikes on Rafah overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, killing at least six Palestinians, a likely prelude to the evacuation of the civilian population and a ground assault on the city. southern Gaza Strip.
In the seventh month of the conflict against the Palestinian movement Hamas, the IDF also resumed its bombings on the north and center of the enclave, as well as in the east and in Khan Younes, in the south.
Israeli warplanes bombed the northern Gaza Strip for the second day in a row on Wednesday, ending weeks of relative calm.
The Israeli army says it is ready to carry out a large-scale ground operation against Hamas in Rafah, a border area with Egypt which is home to around a million Palestinian civilians.
The fate of civilian refugees in Rafah worries Israel’s Western allies but also Egypt, which has ruled out allowing them to cross the border.
Faced with Israeli threats, families are trying to flee Rafah to head towards the north of the enclave or the coastal area of al Mawasi, residents report.
But these departures are currently marginal.
Mohamed Nasser, a father of three, said he left Rafah two weeks ago. This 34-year-old man now lives in Deir al Balah, in the center of the Gaza Strip, to escape an Israeli invasion.
“We are fleeing from one trap to another, we are looking for places that the Israelis say are safe before bombing us. It’s a bit of a game of cat and mouse,” he testifies via an application. messaging.
“We are trying to adapt to this new reality, hoping it will get better soon, but I doubt it.”
Six people, including a local journalist, were killed in Israeli airstrikes that hit three homes in Rafah, according to doctors in Gaza and Hamas media.
Four people were killed by tank fire near the town of Al Zawaida in the central Gaza Strip, according to local medics.
Furthermore, a Palestinian civil defense association called on the United Nations to investigate alleged war crimes after the discovery, according to it, of a mass grave of nearly 400 bodies in a Gaza hospital.
The Israeli military called the accusations “unfounded.”
RESUMPTION OF BOMBING
In the north of the enclave, Israeli forces continued to bombard Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun, Jabalia and Zeitoun. According to some residents, Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters were confronting Israeli soldiers.
The internet network was cut again in the center and south of the Gaza Strip on Thursday, according to the Palestine Telecommunications Company, which accuses Israel.
These cuts make it difficult to deliver medical aid to civilians in the few centers that have not been bombed.
Israel has purchased 40,000 tents to house the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians whose army must organize the evacuation of Rafah before launching an assault against what it considers to be the last bastion of Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Israel says Rafah is home to four battalions of Hamas’ military wing, as well as thousands of Islamist fighters who have fled other areas of the Gaza Strip.
(French version Zhifan Liu, edited by Sophie Louet)
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