Israel flattens mosque and Palestinian homes in new pounding of border city
Hamas chief Haniyeh arrives in Cairo for renewed ceasefire talks
Israeli bombs flattened a mosque in Rafah on Thursday and destroyed people’s homes in what Palestinians said was the heaviest attacks in the past 10 days of the Gaza war. Mourners wept over at least seven corpses in body bags, laid on cobbles outside a morgue in the city next to the Egyptian border, where up to 1.5 million Palestinians are huddling in tents.
“They took the people I love, they took a piece of my heart,” said Dina Al-Shaer, whose brother and his family were killed in an airstrike on their home.
Gaza health authorities said 97 people were confirmed killed and 130 injured in 24 hours of Israeli assaults, but most victims were still under rubble or in areas rescuers could not reach.
Al-Farouk Mosque in Rafah was reduced to slabs of concrete, the facades of adjacent buildings blasted away. Four houses were struck in the south of the city and three in the center.
“We couldn’t sleep, the sounds of explosions and planes roaring overhead didn’t stop,” said Jehad Abuemad, 34, who is living with his family in a tent. “We could hear children crying in nearby tents, people here are desperate and defenseless.”
To the north of Rafah, smoke rose in the sky above Khan Younis, the enclave’s main battlefield since Israel launched an assault there last month. At least 20 people were also killed when bombs hit two houses in a central part of the Gaza Strip, the only other substantial area yet to be stormed by Israeli forces. In Cairo, the arrival of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh for his first public visit since December was the strongest sign for weeks that ceasefire negotiations remain alive. Haniyeh has met Egyptian mediators, but little has been said in public.
Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas official, said Israel was now backtracking on terms it had accepted weeks ago in a ceasefire deal hammered out with US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators.
“The occupation is not interested in achieving any agreement,” he said. “All Netanyahu is concerned about is continuing the execution of Palestinians in Gaza.”