Israel bombards central Gaza, tanks drive deeper into Rafah

Relatives of Palestinians killed by Israeli attacks on a United Nations Relief and Works Agency school mourn amid the destroyed tents and shelters in Nuseirat Refugee Camp in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, last weekend. Photo / Getty Images

Israel is continuing to bombard central and southern Gaza as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the pressure is yielding results.

Israeli forces have bombarded the Gaza Strip’s historic refugee camps in the centre of the enclave and struck Gaza City in the north, killing at least 21 people. Meanwhile, tanks pushed deeper into Rafah in the south, health officials and residents said.

A barrage of Israeli air strikes killed 16 in Zawayda town, Bureij and Nuseirat camps on Thursday and the overcrowded city of Deir-Al-Balah, the last urban centre in Gaza not to be invaded by Israeli forces, health officials said.

Netanyahu, who is due to address the US Congress next week, made a surprise visit to Israeli troops in the area around Rafah, telling them that military pressure combined with a demand to bring back 120 hostages still held in Gaza was producing results.

“This double pressure is not delaying the deal, it is advancing it,” he said, according to a statement from his office.

The Israeli military said in a statement that its forces killed two senior Islamic Jihad commanders in two airstrikes in Gaza City, including one whom it said had taken part in the October 7 attack in southern Israel that triggered the war.

Palestinian medics said five people were killed in the two strikes.

In Rafah, residents said Israeli tanks advanced deeper into the western side of the city and took positions on a hilltop there. The Israeli military said forces found several tunnels and killed several gunmen.

At Al-Amal Hospital, run by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, Palestinian health officials exhumed at least 12 bodies for reburial elsewhere.

Reuters journalists saw medical workers digging up bodies from graves inside the hospital, wrapping them in white shrouds before placing them inside vehicles for transfer to a new burial site as some relatives watched, some in tears.

The fighting has pushed the 60-bed Red Cross field hospital in Rafah to the brink of capacity, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a statement on Thursday.

The destruction in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Yunis last weekend after an Israeli airstrike that killed at least 71 people. Photo / Getty Images

“The repeated mass casualty events resulting from the unrelenting hostilities have stretched to breaking point the response capacity of our hospital – and all health facilities in southern Gaza – to care for those with life-threatening injuries,” said William Schomburg, head of the ICRC’s subdelegation in Gaza.

More than a million people had sought shelter in Rafah from fighting further north, but most have scattered again since Israel launched an offensive in and around the city in May to root out Hamas brigades.

More than nine months into the war, Palestinian fighters led by Hamas are still able to attack Israeli forces on the ground, occasionally firing rocket barrages into Israel.

Islamic Jihad said it fired missiles at two southern Israeli communities on Thursday and the armed wing of Hamas said it fired mortar bombs at Israeli forces in southwest Rafah. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Israel vowed to eradicate Hamas after its militants killed 1200 people and took more than 250 hostage in the October attack, according to Israeli tallies. At least 38,848 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory offensive since then, Gaza health authorities say.

On Tuesday, Israel said it had eliminated half of the leadership of Hamas’ military wing and killed or captured about 14,000 fighters since the start of the war. Israel says 326 of its soldiers have been killed in Gaza.

Hamas does not release figures of casualties among its ranks and said Israel was exaggerating to portray a “fake victory”.

Diplomatic efforts by Arab mediators to halt the hostilities, backed by the United States, appear on hold, though all sides say they are open to more talks, including Israel and Hamas.