At least 9 Palestinians, including 6 children, killed in Israeli airstrike in Rafah

An Israeli airstrike hit a house in the southernmost city of the Gaza Strip, killing at least nine people, six of them children, hospital officials said Saturday, as Israel marked the end of its nearly seven-month long siege in the besieged Palestinian territory. Is carrying forward the attack.

Tensions in the already volatile Middle East region, particularly between Israel and Iran, have risen in recent weeks due to Israel’s war against the Hamas rebel group. Now attention is returning to Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population of about 2.3 million live – most of whom have been displaced by fighting elsewhere.

Friday night’s attack hit a residential building in the Tel Sultan neighborhood of western Rafah, according to Gaza’s civil defense. At Al Najjar hospital, where the main morgue is located, relatives were crying and hugging the bodies of children wrapped in white shrouds.

“Hamza my dear. Your hair looks beautiful,” said a sad grandmother.

The victims included Abdel-Fattah Sobhi Radwan, his wife Najla Ahmed Awaida and their three children, said his brother-in-law Ahmed Barhoum, who also lost his wife, Rawan Radwan, and Alaa, their five-year-old daughter. ,

“This is a world devoid of all human and moral values,” Barhoum told The Associated Press on Saturday morning. Crying, he gently hugged Ala’s body and cradled her in his arms. “They bombed a house full of displaced people, women and children. Apart from women and children, no one was martyred.”

Despite calls for restraint from the international community – including Israel’s staunchest ally, the United States – the Israeli government has for months insisted on its intention to launch a ground campaign in Rafah, where it says Hamas Many of the rebels are in hiding.

Some Palestinians left an area of ​​Rafah near the Egyptian border on Saturday after receiving an evacuation alert from the Israeli military. “Guys, they will attack at 3:40. this is happening. What time is it now?” said one. The attack took place a few minutes later. It was not known whether anyone died or not.

Also on Saturday, an Israeli airstrike hit a house in the Bureji urban refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least one person and injuring two, according to officials at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah. Saw other injured victims.

The war broke out on October 7 after an unprecedented attack by Hamas and other rebel groups on southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and about 250 more were captured and taken to Gaza. According to Israel, about 130 hostages remain in the area, although more than 30 are confirmed dead either on the same day of the raid or during their captivity.

The Gaza Health Ministry said on Saturday that in the past 24 hours, hospitals in the area had received the bodies of 37 people killed in Israeli strikes, in addition to 68 injured. He said this brings the total number of Palestinians killed in the war to at least 34,049 and the number of injured to 76,901. Although the Hamas-run ministry does not distinguish between civilian victims and combatants, it says at least two-thirds are women and minors.

The war has stoked regional tensions, sparking a dramatic escalation of violence between Israel and its arch-enemy Iran that threatens to escalate into all-out war.

Both Israel and Iran on Friday downplayed an apparent Israeli airstrike near a major airport and nuclear facility in central Iran, signaling that both sides are taking a step back. In recent weeks, a suspected Israeli attack on the Tehran Consulate in Syria killed two Iranian generals, prompting the Islamic Republic to launch an unprecedented missile attack on Israel in response.

Israel has also clashed with Lebanese rebel group Hezbollah, an ally of Iran, and they frequently exchange rocket and drone attacks along the border. Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who are also backed by Tehran, have joined the fray with attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden in what they say is a campaign of solidarity with Palestinians in the loop.

Tension is also high in the occupied West Bank. The Israeli military attack on the urban Nour Shams refugee camp, which killed at least four people on Friday – three rebels and a 15-year-old – continued on Saturday.

According to the army, its troops killed 10 rebels in and around the camp, while soldiers and border police arrested eight Palestinian suspects. He said that nine of his soldiers were injured.

An Associated Press reporter in the field said intermittent gunfire and explosions could be heard Saturday afternoon. The Palestinian Red Crescent said it was trying to reach several injured people in the area, but the army stopped it and ordered its emergency teams to leave the scene.

This appears to be the biggest discovery made in Nour Shams since the war in Gaza began.

At least 469 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli gunfire in East Jerusalem and the West Bank since October, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

,

Magdy reported from Cairo, Egypt.