Tuesday, January 2, 2024
Year : 1, Issue : 18
A total of 22,185 Palestinians have been killed and 57,035 wounded in Israeli strikes on Gaza since October 7, the enclave’s health ministry said yesterday, as fighting between Hamas and Israeli troops rages on despite partial troop withdrawal.
Some 207 Palestinians were killed and 338 were wounded in the past 24 hours, the health ministry added.
Israel said yesterday its troops had killed dozens of Hamas fighters in the north of the Gaza Strip in the past day, while its aircraft and tanks stepped up strikes in the south of the Palestinian enclave.
Residents said heavy fighting was also raging in central areas, citing shelling by Israeli tanks of parts of the Al-Bureij refugee camp.
The actions took place after Israel announced plans to pull back some troops, signalling a new phase in the nearly three-month-long war against Hamas.
Gaza residents said Israeli war planes and tanks stepped up bombardments of the eastern and northern areas of Khan Younis, where tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought refuge after being forced from their homes elsewhere in the densely-populated territory, reports Reuters.
In another sign of the offensive spreading beyond Gaza’s borders, Israeli soldiers mounting a raid in the occupied West Bank killed four Hamas fighters who had fired at them from a house in the Palestinian village of Azzun, the military said. At a house in the centre of Khan Younis, medical teams retrieved the bodies of two women killed in an Israeli air strike yesterday morning, health officials said.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad said in separate statements they had fired mortar bombs and anti-tank rockets against Israeli forces in Khan Younis and were stopping them advancing to the western area. Tanks have been stationed east, north and at the centre. Hamas’ armed wing on Monday claimed to have killed 15 Israeli soldiers after triggering an explosive minefield east of the Tuffah neighbourhood in Gaza City.
Source: Agencies
