At least 37 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli army attacks in the Gaza Strip since dawn, especially in the area of Khan Yunis, in the south of the enclave, where hospitals have received 32 bodies in the last few hours, according to Palestinian medical sources.
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In the Al-Amal neighbourhood in western Khan Younis, an attack on the home of the Kalakh family claimed the lives of eleven people, including four children; while a drone strike in the Katiba area in the city centre killed eight people. Also in Katiba, five people were killed by an Israeli strike on a motorised tuk-tuk, according to the Gaza Civil Defence.
In addition, one man was killed by artillery fire on tents of displaced people in the Khan Yunis area, which has suffered up to 12 evacuation orders so far in August, forcing the displacement of some 250,000 people in the face of the return of the Israeli military offensive.
Gazan authorities reported today that since the beginning of the war, the “humanitarian zone” supposedly safe for civilians has been reduced from 230 square kilometres (63% of the surface area) to 35 km, equivalent to 9.5% of Gazan territory.
Civil Defense teams also recovered three bodies in Rafah, the southernmost part of the Strip, where Israeli troops entered in May and this week claimed to have defeated the four battalions that make up Hamas’ Rafah Brigade, in addition to having destroyed some 150 tunnels in the area.
The Israeli army reported on its operations over the past day in the centre and south of the Gaza Strip, where it said it had killed “dozens of terrorists in hand-to-hand combat”, many of them in the Tal al-Sultan neighbourhood in Rafah.
He also confirmed having killed Taha Abu Nada, head of Hamas’s weapons manufacturing department, in a “precise strike” whose location he did not specify.
“He was responsible for the production of military equipment and additional weapons for the Hamas terrorist organization. These weapons are used by Hamas to fire on Israeli territory and troops operating in Gaza,” a military statement said.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa also reported several Israeli air strikes around the city of Deir al-Balah, in the centre of the enclave, including camps for displaced people, although there is still no clear toll of deaths and injuries.
In Gaza City, shelling could be heard this morning as Israeli troops partially withdrew from the Zaytun neighbourhood, where they destroyed a school yesterday that they said served as a Hamas command centre.
In more than ten months, the Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip has caused more than 40,200 Palestinian deaths and 93,100 injuries; in addition to some 10,000 missing under the rubble, according to figures from the Gaza authorities.
Ninety percent of Gaza’s population, more than 2 million, has been displaced during the war, while infectious and skin diseases spread rapidly through the camps for displaced people amid overcrowded conditions and a lack of sanitation, drinking water and hygiene items. EFE
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