GAZA: Israel pounded targets across the Gaza Strip on Saturday while its planes dropped leaflets on the southern area of Rafah urging Palestinians seeking refuge there to help locate captives held in Gaza, residents said.
Palestinian fighters battled tanks trying to push back into the eastern suburbs of the Jabalia area in northern Gaza, where Israel had started pulling out troops and shifting to smaller-scale operations, residents and militants said.
The Israeli military said aircraft struck squads trying to plant explosives near troops and fire missiles at tanks in northern Gaza and said it was striking targets throughout Gaza.
In the southern area of Khan Younis, where Israel says it has expanded its operations, witnesses said tanks shelled areas around Nasser Hospital overnight, describing the bombardment as the most intense in many days.
Nasser is now Gaza's largest functioning hospital. Israel says Palestinian fighters operate from in and around hospitals, including Nasser, which Palestinian groups and medical staff deny.
The Israeli military said that in Khan Younis, it raided a military compound, neutralized ready-to-use rocket launchers and found explosives stashed underground while an aircraft struck two gunmen there.
It did not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants in its daily toll.
In more than 100 days of war, Israel's air, land and sea offensive has laid much of Gaza to waste, displacing most of the 2.3 million population, many forced to move repeatedly and seek refuge in tents that do little to protect them from the elements and disease, according to the United Nations.
In Rafah, where over a million Palestinians are taking shelter, Israel dropped leaflets showing photos of 33 captives, their names written in Arabic, urging the displaced to make contact. "Do you want to return home? Please make the call if you recognise one of them," the leaflets read.
"They are asking people's help because they are unable to get to their captives because of the resistance," said Abu Ali, one north Gaza resident. "End the war, Netanyahu, and get your people back," he said.
More than 100 of the captives seized were freed during a short-lived November truce. Israel says 132 remain in Gaza, 27 of whom have been killed in captivity.
In Israel, families of captives camped outside Netanyahu's residence in the coastal city Caesarea.
"He needs to choose one (deal) and end the captive saga," said Eli Stivi, whose son Idan is being held incommunicado in Gaza. — Reuters
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