The Palestinian local health authorities on Monday said Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed no fewer than 21 Palestinians as Israeli forces operated in Rafah near the border with Egypt, escalating a week-long aerial and ground offensive.
According to health officials, Israel has killed almost 700 Palestinians since it resumed attacks on Gaza last Tuesday, ending weeks of relative calm after a ceasefire in January. They said the deaths included at least 400 women and children.
While the Islamist group Hamas said several of its senior political and security officials had also been killed, Israel stated that it resumed its military operations to force Hamas to release the remaining hostages it is holding in Gaza.
Israel added that it does its best to minimize harm to civilians and has questioned the death toll reported by health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said his country was fighting against Hamas, not Gaza civilians.
“But when Hamas fights in civilian dress, from civilian homes, and from behind civilians, it puts civilians in danger, and they pay a horrible price. That is why we are urging Gazans to evacuate combat zones,” Katz said on X.
Meanwhile, Hamas denied using the civilian population and property for military purposes.
In Rafah, the municipality said thousands of people were trapped inside the Tel Al-Sultan area, where the Israeli military had sent some of its forces.
“Contacts with the neighborhood are cut off completely, and the fate of [people] is unknown. Families are trapped among the ruins, with no water, no food, no medicine, amid a total collapse of healthcare services,” it said in a statement.
According to Israeli tallies, Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking more than 250 hostages.
