Six Palestinians Killed as Israeli Forces Intensify Attacks in Gaza

Residents are fleeing from Rafah in the south and Shujayea in the north as Israeli tanks advance further into these areas.

According to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), at least six Palestinians have been killed in Rafah, a city in southern Gaza. Several homes have been destroyed as Israeli forces moved deeper into Rafah and Shujayea in northern Gaza.

Israeli tanks, which re-entered Shujayea four days ago, have been firing shells at multiple houses, trapping families inside, according to local residents.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that between 60,000 to 80,000 people have been displaced from Shujayea in recent days.

For those who remain, life has become unbearable. Siham al-Shawa, a 50-year-old resident, told AFP news agency that people are trapped because strikes can happen anywhere, making it difficult to leave the neighborhood safely.

“We don’t know where to go to protect ourselves,” she said.

Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah, said that residents who managed to escape describe the destruction as “massive.” He added that central areas of Gaza City have also been heavily bombarded by Israeli forces.

“In the past hour, a residential flat was targeted. Medical sources say at least 15 people have been killed today in the north after homes were directly hit by artillery shells,” Abu Azzoum reported.

He also noted that in Rafah, indiscriminate Israeli attacks continue as residents flee for their lives. In the al-Mawasi district, declared a “safe zone” by Israel’s military, makeshift tent camps where displaced Palestinians have been sheltering have been set on fire.

During a weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated that there is no substitute for victory in the war against Hamas.

“We are committed to fighting until we achieve all of our objectives: eliminating Hamas, returning all of our hostages, ensuring that Gaza never again constitutes a threat to Israel, and returning our residents securely to their homes in the south and the north,” he said.

No Progress in Ceasefire Talks

Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said there has been no progress in ceasefire talks. He mentioned on Saturday that the Palestinian group is still open to discussing any truce proposal that ends the nearly nine-month assault.

While the offensive is focused on Gaza, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, one man was killed and five were wounded in an Israeli strike near the city of Tulkarem, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

The armed wing of Hamas and the allied Palestinian Islamic Jihad reported intense fighting in both Shujayea and Rafah, stating that their fighters had fired antitank rockets and mortar bombs at Israeli forces operating there.

Efforts by Arab mediators, backed by the United States, have stalled. Hamas insists that any deal must end the offensive and bring about a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Israel, on the other hand, is only willing to accept temporary pauses in the fighting until Hamas is eradicated.

The Palestinian health ministry reported that 43 bodies of slain Palestinians arrived at hospitals in the last 24 hours, with at least 111 others wounded.

Israel’s offensive has so far killed at least 37,877 people, according to the Gaza health ministry, leaving the densely populated coastal enclave in ruins.

Israeli tanks pushed deeper into several districts in Rafah on Sunday, near the border with Egypt. Medics reported that six people were killed in an Israeli strike on a house in Shaboura, in the heart of the city.

Six bodies from the Zurub family were transferred to Nasser Hospital in the nearby city of Khan Younis, where dozens of relatives gathered to pay their respects.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society tweeted that their crews retrieved the bodies of six martyrs from the Zurub family after their home was targeted by Israeli forces in western Rafah.

Residents said the Israeli army had set fire to the Al-Awda mosque in the center of Rafah, one of the city’s most well-known mosques.

Israel claims its military operations in Rafah aim to eliminate the last armed battalions of Hamas. It continues to severely restrict the entry of much-needed humanitarian aid, medicine, and fuel into the enclave, which is on the brink of famine.

The United Nations and other relief agencies have expressed alarm over the dire humanitarian crisis and the threat of starvation facing Gaza’s 2.4 million people.

“Everything is rubble,” said Louise Wateridge from the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), speaking from the city of Khan Younis on Friday.

“There’s no water, no sanitation, no food. And now, people are living back in these buildings that are empty shells.”