GAZA: Israeli airstrikes on three houses in the southern Gaza city of Rafah killed at least 25 Palestinians and wounded many others, medics said on Monday.
In Gaza City, in the north of the Gaza Strip, Israeli warplanes struck two houses, killing at least four people and wounding several people, health officials said. The strike on the other house killed two brothers, they added.
The strikes on Rafah, where more than one million people have sought refuge from months of Israeli bombardment, took place hours before Egypt was expected to host delegates to discuss prospects for a ceasefire agreement with Israel. The Israeli military said it was checking the reports.
Israel has vowed to eradicate the Palestinian groups. Its six-month-long military operation has now killed 34,488 Palestinians, 34 of them in the past 24 hours, and wounded 77,643. The war has displaced most of the 2.3 million population and laid much of the enclave to waste.
The conflict was triggered by an attack on Israel on Oct. 7 in which 1,200 people were killed and 253 taken captives, according to Israeli tallies.
An assault on Rafah has been anticipated for weeks but foreign governments and the United Nations have expressed concern that such action could result in a humanitarian disaster given the number of displaced people crammed into the area.
At a hospital in Rafah, relatives of those killed by the Israeli strikes came to take the bodies away for burial. Women and men cried as they paid farewell to the slain relatives wrapped in white and black shrouds. "His name is Deif-Allah and he was indeed a guest. He came as a guest after his parents longed for him for so long, after 10 years," said Abu Taha holding the body of his baby boy, wrapped in a white shroud, in his arms. "Ten people (were killed), the mother, her daughter, her granddaughters, her grandson, her son-in-law, their daughters and relatives, everyone. They're all gone, all 10 of them," Abu Taha said.
Aid agencies, as well as Western allies of Israel, fear an attack there would magnify the humanitarian crisis in Gaza caused by the war, intensifying international pressure for a truce.
Continued fighting makes any effort to improve the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza far more difficult, with the World Food Programme saying last week that northern parts of the enclave were still heading towards famine. — Reuters
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