At the very least six Palestinians have been killed in Gaza’s southern metropolis of Rafah, based on the Palestine Pink Crescent Society (PRCS), and a number of other properties have been destroyed as Israeli forces pushed deeper into the town and pressed additional into Shujayea in northern Gaza.
Israeli tanks, which re-entered Shujayea 4 days in the past, fired shells in the direction of a number of homes, leaving households trapped inside and unable to go away, residents stated.
The United Nations Workplace for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that “60,000 to 80,000 folks have been displaced” from Shujayea in current days.
For many who stay, “our lives have change into hell”, stated 50-year-old resident Siham al-Shawa.
She instructed the AFP information company that folks have been trapped as strikes might occur “wherever” and “it’s tough to get out of the neighbourhood beneath hearth”.
“We have no idea the place to go to guard ourselves,” she stated.
Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah, stated residents who managed to flee the neighbourhood say the size of destruction is “large”.
He stated the central areas of Gaza Metropolis have additionally been “pounded” by Israeli forces.
“Previously hour, a residential flat was focused. Medical sources we’ve talked to say a minimum of 15 folks have been killed at this time within the north after folks’s properties have been instantly hit by artillery shells,” Abu Azzoum stated.
He famous that in Rafah, there was a continuation of “indiscriminate Israeli assaults as residents flee for his or her lives”.
“Within the al-Mawasi district – declared a ‘protected zone’ by Israel’s navy – they’ve been setting hearth to makeshift tent camps the place displaced Palestinians have been sheltering,” he added.
Talking at a weekly cupboard assembly on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his stance that there was no substitute for victory within the conflict in opposition to Hamas.
“We’re dedicated to preventing till we obtain all of our goals: Eliminating Hamas, returning all of our hostages, making certain that Gaza by no means once more constitutes a risk to Israel and returning our residents securely to their properties within the south and the north,” he stated.
‘Empty shells’
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan in the meantime stated there’s been no progress in ceasefire talks. He stated on Saturday that the Palestinian group continues to be prepared to debate any truce proposal that ends the practically nine-month assault.
Whereas the offensive centered on Gaza, within the Israeli-occupied West Financial institution, one man was killed and 5 have been wounded in an Israeli strike close to the town of Tulkarem, based on the Palestinian well being ministry.
The armed wing of Hamas and the allied Palestinian Islamic Jihad reported fierce preventing in each Shujayea and Rafah, saying their fighters had fired antitank rockets and mortar bombs in opposition to Israeli forces working there.
Arab mediators’ efforts, backed by america, have stalled. Hamas says any deal should finish the offensive and convey a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Israel says it can settle for solely momentary pauses within the preventing till Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, is eradicated.
The Palestinian well being ministry stated 43 our bodies of slain Palestinians arrived at hospitals within the final 24-hour reporting interval. At the very least 111 others have been wounded.
Israel’s offensive has to date killed a minimum of 37,877 folks, based on the Gaza well being ministry, and has left the closely built-up coastal enclave in ruins.
Israeli tanks pushed deeper into a number of districts within the east, west and centre of Rafah, close to the border with Egypt, on Sunday, and medics stated six folks had been killed in an Israeli strike on a home in Shaboura, within the coronary heart of the town.
Six our bodies from the Zurub household have been transferred to Nasser Hospital within the close by metropolis of Khan Younis, the place dozens of kinfolk paid their respects.
🚨The Palestine Pink Crescent crews retrieved the our bodies of six martyrs from the Zourab household after their residence was focused by Israeli occupation forces in western Rafah, southern #Gaza Strip.
📷Filmed by PRCS volunteer: Mohamed Al-Saksik. pic.twitter.com/lpxJGfJaew— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) June 30, 2024
Residents stated the Israeli military had torched the Al-Awda mosque within the centre of Rafah, one of many metropolis’s finest identified.
Israel has stated its navy operations in Rafah are geared toward eradicating the final armed battalions of Hamas. It continues to severely prohibit the entry of much-needed humanitarian assist, medication, and gasoline into the enclave, which is on the verge of famine.
The United Nations and different aid businesses have voiced alarm over the dire humanitarian disaster and the specter of hunger that the assault and Israeli siege have introduced for Gaza’s 2.4 million folks.
“Every little thing is rubble,” stated Louise Wateridge from the UN Aid and Works Company for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), talking Friday from the town of Khan Younis.
“There’s no water there, there’s no sanitation, there’s no meals. And now, individuals are dwelling again in these buildings which might be empty shells.”
