Israel struck the southern Gaza Strip on Monday after 20 rockets were fired against its territory by Palestinian fighters who had been targeted for nearly nine months by a major Israeli offensive.
Published at 7:48 a.m.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Sunday of a “difficult fight” in the besieged Palestinian territory, where his army launched its offensive in response to an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas against Israel on October 7.
In recent months, the army has claimed to have dismantled the command structure of Hamas and its main ally, Islamic Jihad, mainly in northern Gaza and Khan Younes, the largest city in the south, and withdrew its soldiers from these sectors. But it has resumed its operations in some of these regions to combat these two groups.
On Monday, Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for rocket attacks on Israeli communities near Gaza.
The army reported a salvo of “20 projectiles” fired from the Khan Younis region, which was transformed into a field of ruins.
PHOTO MOHAMMED SALEM
A Palestinian man holds his children in his arms as he walks past buildings destroyed in an Israeli strike in Khan Younis on June 30.
“Projectiles were intercepted and others fell in southern Israel,” she said. There were no casualties.
The army then bombarded “the origin of the shots” with artillery.
« Combat difficile »
In the north of the Palestinian territory, Israeli soldiers continued a new operation in Shujaiya, an eastern neighborhood of Gaza City, for the fifth consecutive day.
According to the army, “about twenty terrorists were eliminated there by dozens of airstrikes and many weapons installations dismantled. Many terrorists were eliminated during combats.”
An AFP correspondent saw Israeli helicopters firing on Shujaiya, where Hamas also reported fighting.
Between 60,000 and 80,000 people, according to the UN, fled the east and northeast of Gaza City after the army ordered them to evacuate on Thursday.
“We fled Shujaiya. The situation is very difficult. We have no place to stay. We keep looking for water, but we can’t find it,” said a Palestinian who sought refuge in western Gaza City.
Hamas also claimed to continue fighting in Rafah (South), the target of Israeli strikes. The army launched a ground offensive there on May 7, presenting this city as the last major Hamas stronghold in Gaza.
On Monday, the army announced the death of a soldier “who fell in combat in southern Gaza”, bringing to 317 the number of Israeli soldiers killed since the start of the ground offensive on October 27 in the Palestinian territory. .
“Our forces are operating in Rafah, Shujaiya, all over Gaza,” Netanyahu said.
“Dozens of terrorists are eliminated every day. It is a difficult fight that we are waging on the ground, sometimes hand-to-hand, and also underground,” he said, referring to the tunnels dug underground by Hamas since its takeover of Gaza in 2007.
Accusations of “torture”
On Monday, dozens of Palestinian prisoners, including the director of al-Chifa hospital in Gaza City, Mohammed Abou Salmiya, were released by Israel and transferred to medical centers in Gaza, according to a medical source.
PHOTO BASHAR TALEB, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
The director of al-Chifa hospital in Gaza City, Mohammed Abu Salmiya, detained by Israeli forces since November, is greeted by his relatives after his release on November 1is July at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.
At Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Mr Salmiya said he was subjected to “severe torture” during his seven months in detention.
Other prisoners were reunited with their loved ones at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah (center).
Mr. Netanyahu says he wants to continue the war until the elimination of Hamas and the release of all the hostages kidnapped during the October 7 attack.
This led to the death of 1,195 people, mainly civilians, according to an AFP count established using official Israeli data. Of 251 people kidnapped during the attack, 116 are still held hostage in Gaza, among whom 42 are dead, according to the army.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, which it considers a terrorist group along with the United States and the European Union. Its offensive in Gaza has so far killed 37,900 people, including 23 in the last 24 hours, most of them civilians, according to data from the Hamas-run Gaza government’s health ministry.
Humanitarian disaster
The war has caused massive population displacement and a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, where the Israeli army is besieging the approximately 2.4 million inhabitants who, according to the UN, are living in “dire” conditions.
Humanitarian aid is trickling in and water and food are in short supply. Thousands of children are suffering from malnutrition, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
In mid-June, the WHO reported “32 deaths attributed to malnutrition, including 28 among children under five.”
