by Nidal and al-Mughrabi
CAIRO (Reuters) – The Israeli army continued its aerial and ground bombardments in the Gaza Strip on Friday, killing several dozen Palestinians, the IDF and Palestinian officials reported.
In the east of the enclave, a peripheral district of Gaza City, Al Chejaia, was the target of two Israeli strikes which left 17 dead. In the Al Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, eight people were killed by bombing.
The Hamas-affiliated Gaza Media Office said at least ten police officers responsible for securing the distribution of humanitarian aid to refugee populations in the northern Gaza Strip were among those killed in Al Chejaia.
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Fighting also continued around Al Chifa hospital in Gaza City, with the Israeli army ensuring “mitigation of the consequences for civilians, patients, hospital staff and medical equipment”. The IDF says it has killed several armed men and found weapons and military infrastructure in the area in the past 24 hours.
Al Chifa, the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip before the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7, was still partially operational before the latest clashes. It also housed displaced people.
The Israeli army specifies in a press release that it has also concentrated its operations on Khan Younes and Al Qarara. Exchanges of fire pitted Israeli soldiers against armed Palestinians, who were killed, according to the statement.
Hamas’ military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, said its fighters targeted Israeli soldiers near Nasser Hospital, which is surrounded by the Israeli army.
The bombings also targeted the Rafah area, in the south of the Gaza Strip, where more than a million civilians have sought refuge. On Thursday evening, 12 Palestinians died in an aerial bombardment of a house.
ISRAEL SENDS DELEGATIONS TO CAIRO AND DOHA
More than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the Israeli offensive against Hamas, including 71 in the last 24 hours, according to the territory’s medical authorities.
The Israeli government maintains its objective of attacking Rafah, which it considers to be Hamas’s last pocket of resistance, despite warnings from the United States, which warns of a “mistake” with disastrous humanitarian consequences.
A US State Department official told Reuters on Friday that Washington had been informed of “certain aspects” of Israel’s humanitarian plan for the civilian population of Rafah, which it plans to evacuate before any military offensive, but that he was still waiting for a “global” plan.
He once again warned of the famine situation which is emerging in the Gaza Strip, particularly in the North.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Thursday ordered Israel to take all necessary measures to enable the immediate distribution of basic food aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
On the diplomatic front, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to send delegations to Egypt and Qatar to work for a ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages still held in the Gaza Strip, reports said. Friday his services.
Delegations from Shin Bet, domestic intelligence, and Mossad, foreign intelligence, are expected in the coming days in Doha and Cairo, it was indicated.
(Nidal al-Mughrabi, with contributions from James Mackenzie in Jerusalem; French version Sophie Louet, edited by Kate Entringer)
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