“We will not give in to Hamas until we dismantle the last battalion,” said the Israeli army chief of staff. Civilians have been trapped in Khan Younis for five days, without food or water.
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On Friday, the Israeli army continued its bombings in the Gaza Strip, focusing on the cities of Khan Yunis and Rafah, south of the enclave, and the prospects for a possible ceasefire remain at a standstill, according to the Efe news agency.
In the first city, Israeli forces launched a new assault on Monday in the eastern part of the city, where they ordered the transfer of civilians, after reporting that the Islamist movement Hamas was firing projectiles into Israeli territory.
Since then, the army has claimed that around 100 Palestinian fighters have been “eliminated” in the humanitarian zone of Mawasi, west of Khan Yunis, where the bodies of five hostages were recovered “after 30 hours” of operation.
“We brought the five hostages, otherwise we could not guarantee their recovery. We will not give in to Hamas and we will recover all the hostages. We will not give in to Hamas until we dismantle the last battalion,” said the army chief of staff, Herzi Halevi, addressing the soldiers on Thursday.
Palestinian media reported that Many civilians have been trapped in Khan Yunis for five days, without food or water.Emergency crews reported removing the bodies of six civilians from the rubble in the east of the town.
Al Jazeera television reported Friday that fresh Israeli airstrikes have killed 18 people.
“The occupation tanks and snipers remain east of the Khan Younis area, and Rumors of withdrawal are not reliable.”We advise people not to travel to the eastern regions to avoid putting their lives at risk,” said the Hamas-run Gaza Civil Defense.
In Rafah, where most of the local population moved to Khan Younis more than two months ago, fighting is centred on the Tal Al Sultan neighbourhood, where the army claimed the death of several fighters and the detection of “new tunnels and weapons” including long-range rocket launchers and explosives.
“Our army attacked around 45 terrorist targets, including cells, tunnels, military structures and launch pads,” the military statement added.
You Israeli strikes also hit the north and centre of the enclave, including the Nuiserat refugee camp. early Thursday morning, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
“Medical sources reported that the bodies of two civilians and seven wounded people were recovered from the rubble of the al-Bana family home in the Daraj neighborhood of Gaza City following Israeli shelling,” Wafa said.
The High Commissioner of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, expressed his concern on Friday over the detection of an outbreak of type 2 polio in different regions of Gaza, as confirmed by the World Health Organization (WHO).
WHO to send 1 million polio vaccines to Gaza
“This is another important situation in the never-ending journey of misery. Polio is caused by a crumbling health system, a lack of clean water and hygiene products, overcrowded shelters and very poor sanitation,” he said on his social media account X, adding that “only a ceasefire and an increase in the flow of vaccines” could stop the polio outbreak.
And now #polio ……
According @WHOSix samples of type 2 polio have been detected in parts of #Loop
Fortunately, no cases of paralysis have yet been detected.This is another important step forward in the never-ending journey of misery.
Polio arises from a crumbling health…
—Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) July 26, 2024
The ongoing war between Israel and Hamas was triggered by an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist group on Israeli soil on October 7, 2023, which left around 1,200 dead and more than two hundred hostages, according to Israeli authorities.
Following the Hamas attack, Israel launched a large-scale offensive in the Gaza Strip, which has already caused more than 39,000 deaths, mostly civilians, and 90,000 injuries, as well as a humanitarian disaster, destabilizing the entire Middle East region. Thousands of civilian bodies remain under the rubble.
In May, the UN said women and children accounted for at least 56 percent of those killed since the start of the current conflict, according to data from the Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
The number of casualties in the ranks of the Israeli army is also increasing, with at least 328 dead, according to a military statement.
Source: Observadora
