Israeli forces are advancing deeper into Gaza, a day after 274 Palestinians were killed during a hostage rescue operation, as targeting continues.
The IDF’s objective is to isolate a part of the city, residents say and Hamas media reports.
Palestinians remain in a state of shock after yesterday’s toll, the worst 24-hour toll on the Gaza war in months, including many women and children, according to Palestinian doctors.
In a new update today, the Gaza Health Ministry said 274 Palestinians were killed – 210 had been announced yesterday – and 698 were injured when Israeli special forces commandos stormed the densely populated al-Nuseirat camp to free four hostages held by militants. of Hamas in October.
Sixty-four of the dead were children and 57 were women, the Gaza government press office said.
Israeli army: “Less than 100 Palestinians killed”
The Israeli military said a member of the Israeli special forces was killed in a shootout with militants and that it knows “fewer than 100” Palestinians were killed, although it does not know how many were militants and how many civilians.
In central Gaza today, separate Israeli attacks on homes in the city of Deir al-Balah and neighboring al-Burayj killed three Palestinians in each area, while tanks pounded areas of al-Nushirat and al-Maghazi, medics said.
The Israeli army announced in a statement thatits forces continue operations in al-Burayj and Deir al-Balah, where several Palestinian militants were killed and military infrastructure was destroyed.
Discharge
Today the tanks were pushed into two new districts in an apparent attempt to complete the siege of the entire eastern side of Rafah, provoking clashes with armed groups led by Hamas, according to reports from residents trapped in their homes.
By June 5, almost all of the 100,000 displaced people who took refuge in eastern Rafah after fleeing to escape Israeli operations further north in Gaza had left, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency ( UNRWA).
“All UNRWA shelters in Rafah have been evacuated. Many people who lived in Rafa left seeking safer areas in Khan Younis and central (Gaza),” UNRWA said in a statement.
Palestinian doctors said an Israeli airstrike on a house in Tel al-Sultan, west of Rafah, killed two people.
The Israeli army said its 162nd division was carrying out attacks in some districts of Rafah, where they found “numerous terrorist tunnel shafts, mortars and other weapons” belonging to Palestinian Islamic insurgents.
Source: AMPE