Ahead of feared Rafah invasion, Palestinians mourn their dead
Palestinians yesterday mourned over people killed in Israeli bombardment of Rafah, the southern Gaza city where Israel says it is advancing plans for a ground invasion.
Global concern has mounted over the looming operation against Hamas militants in Rafah, where much of Gaza’s population has sought refuge from more than six months of war in the narrow coastal strip.
Aid groups warn any invasion would add to already-catastrophic conditions for civilians.
Israeli officials have for more than two months vowed to enter Rafah, near the Egyptian border, but even before any ground operation the area has been regularly bombed, including overnight Wednesday-yesterday.
At the city’s Al-Najjar Hospital yesterday, two men knelt in front of a white body bag in
nd grief, among other mourners gathered at the site.
Elsewhere in the city, Palestinians tried to salvage belongings from the rubble of bombarded buildings.
Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said Israel was “moving ahead” with its operation to go after four Hamas battalions in Rafah. “They will be attacked,” he said. The war began with an unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7 that resulted in the deaths of about 1,170 people in Israel, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
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Israel vowed to destroy Hamas, with a retaliatory offensive that has killed at least 34,305 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamasrun territory’s health ministry.
Yesterday’s toll included at least 43 more deaths over the previous day.
During their attack militants seized hostages, 129 of whom Israel estimates remain in Gaza, a figure that includes 34 presumed dead.
Hamas on Wednesday released a video of an IsraeliAmerican man who was one of those captured.
Also on Wednesday, US President Joe Biden signed a law authorising $13 billion in additional military aid to close ally Israel.
Much of that funding is to support the country’s air
defences, which received an unprecedented test this month with Iran’s first-ever direct strike against its foe.
Iran fired more than 300 drones and missiles towards Israel, the Israeli military said, but most were shot down by that country and its allies.
The Iranian barrage followed what it said was a deadly Israeli strike against Tehran’s embassy consular annex in Syria.
The US legislation also included $1 billion in humanitarian aid for Gaza, with Biden demanding it reaches reach Palestinians “without delay”. (AFP)