Israeli military continues to bombard southern Gaza Strip
JERUSALEM — Israel’s military pressed on with its bombardment of areas of the southern Gaza Strip that it has told civilians to evacuate to amid fierce fighting, Red Crescent and Gaza officials said Thursday. Palestinian news media reported that a strike had hit a family home and left more than a dozen people dead.
The Gaza government media office said on Thursday that Israeli strikes in six locations in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, had killed more than 30 people over the last three days. The statement said Israel had been bombing areas that it had claimed were safe and where it had been “forcing civilians” to go.
The statement added that attacks on these so-called safe areas had occurred 48 times since the start of the war, underscoring United Nations complaints that Israel’s attacks have left nowhere for residents to seek shelter as the enclave is increasingly plunged into humanitarian disaster.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the specific claims, but it has said that its strikes are part of its efforts to eradicate Hamas and that it does not deliberately target civilians. On Thursday, it described fierce fighting and strikes that killed Hamas fighters across Gaza, including around the southern city of Khan Younis, where intense urban fighting has been raging for weeks.
A strike Thursday on a family home housing displaced people west of Khan Younis killed at least 14 people and injured several others, including women and children, according to Wafa, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency.
Yazan Abu Azzum, who is sheltering in Al-Mawasi — a small seaside village in southern Gaza where Israel has said civilians can find safety — said intense bombardment in the area over the last two days has sent shrapnel flying into the shelter where he is staying.
“Shrapnel and bombs were flying all around us,” he said in a series of voice messages Thursday from a tent he shares with more than 30 members of his family.
“We are staying in a safe area, as they call it,” said Abu Azzum, a senior in high school, referring to the Israeli military. “But the sound of airstrikes is very close by. We are not safe at all.”
The Palestine Red Crescent Society said on Thursday that “intense” Israeli shelling had continued around its headquarters in Khan Younis and the AlAmal hospital next door, causing significant damage to its facilities and “hindering the movement of ambulance crews.” It added that the fifth floor of its headquarters was directly attacked, killing one and injuring several others.
On Tuesday the Red Crescent accused Israel of attacking its headquarters in two consecutive strikes and killing at least five people, including a five-day-old baby. The World Health Organization’s chief condemned the strikes and said UN staff members had witnessed extensive damage.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it was looking into the incident. It said Thursday, that it had been striking Hamas infrastructure around Khan Younis both above and below ground and had dismantled a tunnel shaft in the area.
Israel has long said that Hamas, which led an incursion into Israel on Oct. 7 that killed more than 1,200 people, uses hospitals and other civilian facilities to hide fighters and weapons.