PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES, Feb 3 — Israel pressed its blistering assault within the Gaza Strip as we speak as fears grew of a push into Rafah, the southern metropolis teeming with civilians uprooted by the almost four-month conflict.
A continuing barrage of air strikes and tank fireplace rocked Khan Yunis throughout the evening, an eNM journalist mentioned of the principle metropolis in southern Gaza that has been the main focus of the Israeli offensive.
The well being ministry in Hamas-run Gaza mentioned greater than 100 individuals had been killed throughout the Palestinian territory in a single day, principally girls and kids. The Israeli military mentioned its forces killed “dozens of terrorists” in northern and central Gaza over the previous 24 hours.
Hundreds of 1000’s of Palestinians displaced by the fierce preventing have fled south to Rafah for the reason that outbreak of the conflict, with their tents cramming areas alongside streets and in parks.
The metropolis that had been house to 200,000 individuals now hosts greater than half of Gaza’s 2.4 million inhabitants, the World Health Organization mentioned yesterday.
Witnesses in Rafah mentioned 12 individuals had been killed in an air strike on a home owned by the Hijazi household.
“They bombed with none warning,” mentioned 45-year-old Bilal Jad, a neighbour whose home was broken within the assault. “There’s no secure place wherever. The air strikes are in all places.”
Civilians who fled to Rafah have been pushed up in opposition to the border with Egypt, attempting to keep away from components of town uncovered to the preventing in close by Khan Yunis.
One of them, Abdulkarim Misbah, mentioned he fled his house in Jabalia refugee camp within the north and reached Khan Yunis, solely to be uprooted as soon as extra.
“We escaped final week from loss of life in Khan Yunis, with out bringing something with us,” the 32-year-old mentioned.
A person mourns over the physique of his son killed in Israeli bombardment on the Najjar hospital in Rafah within the southern Gaza Strip on February 3, 2024, as preventing continues between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group — eNM pic
‘Pressure cooker of despair’
The United Nations humanitarian company OCHA mentioned it was deeply involved in regards to the escalation of hostilities in Khan Yunis, which has pushed increasingly individuals south.
“Rafah is a stress cooker of despair, and we concern for what comes subsequent,” mentioned OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant had warned on Thursday that the army was set to coach its sights on Rafah.
“We are reaching our missions in Khan Yunis, and we may also attain Rafah and eradicate terror parts that threaten us,” he mentioned in a video message the defence ministry despatched to journalists.
The conflict in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 assault on Israel, which resulted within the deaths of about 1,160 individuals, principally civilians, in accordance with an eNM tally primarily based on official figures.
Militants additionally seized round 250 hostages, and Israel says 132 stay in Gaza, together with a minimum of 27 believed to have been killed.
Vowing to crush Hamas, Israel launched a large army offensive that has killed a minimum of 27,131 individuals in Gaza, principally girls and kids, in accordance with the well being ministry.
The preventing has devastated the slim coastal strip, whereas an Israeli siege has resulted in dire shortages of meals, water, gasoline and medicines.
Women react upon figuring out the physique of a relative killed in Israeli bombardment on the Najjar hospital in Rafah within the southern Gaza Strip on February 3, 2024, as preventing continues between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group. — eNM pic
New push for truce
Image evaluation launched yesterday by the UN satellite tv for pc centre UNITAR primarily based on footage collected on January 6 and seven confirmed “roughly 30 %” of Gaza’s buildings had been affected by the conflict.
The hovering civilian loss of life toll in Gaza, as properly as fears amongst Israelis over the destiny of the hostages, have fuelled requires a ceasefire.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will journey to the Middle East but once more within the coming days to press a brand new proposal involving the discharge of Israeli hostages in return for a pause within the preventing, the State Department mentioned.
Blinken will go to Qatar and Egypt — the mediators of the proposal — as properly as Israel, the occupied West Bank and Saudi Arabia beginning tomorrow, it added.
The journey — his fifth for the reason that conflict broke out — comes after Qatar’s overseas ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari mentioned there have been hopes of “excellent news” a couple of contemporary pause to the preventing “within the subsequent couple of weeks”.
Ansari mentioned a truce proposal thrashed out in Paris had “been accredited by the Israeli facet” and obtained a “optimistic” preliminary response from Hamas as properly.
But a supply near Hamas instructed eNM: “There isn’t any settlement on the framework of the settlement but — the factions have necessary observations — and the Qatari assertion is rushed and never true.”
A lady reacts as she salvages belongings from the rubble of a destroyed home following Israeli bombardment in Rafah within the southern Gaza Strip on February 3, 2024, as preventing continues between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group. — eNM pic
US hits Iran proxies
A Hamas supply mentioned it had been introduced with a plan involving an preliminary six-week pause in preventing that may see extra assist delivered into Gaza and exchanges of sure Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
The leaders of Hamas and its Gaza ally Islamic Jihad, Qatar-based Ismail Haniyeh and Ziyad al-Nakhalah, respectively, mentioned the most recent improvement and mentioned any future ceasefire should result in “a full withdrawal” of Israeli troops from Gaza, Haniyeh’s workplace mentioned.
The conflict has sparked a surge in assaults by Iran-backed teams within the area in help of the Palestinians.
The US army launched a wave of air strikes in opposition to Iranian forces and Tehran-backed fighters in Iraq and Syria yesterday in retaliation for a drone assault in Jordan that killed three US troopers tomorrow.
US forces within the Middle East and their allies have confronted stepped-up assaults for the reason that conflict in Gaza started, coming below fireplace greater than 165 occasions since mid-October.
Friday’s air strikes had been directed on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ overseas operations arm, the Quds Force, and “affiliated militia teams”, and hit “greater than 85 targets”, the US army mentioned.
Also yesterday, the Israeli military mentioned its defence system “efficiently intercepted a surface-to-surface missile that approached Israeli territory within the space of the Red Sea”, with Yemen’s Huthi rebels claiming that they had fired missiles in the direction of Israel. — eNM
