Israeli tanks re-entered parts of the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, reoccupying areas they had previously withdrawn from weeks ago.
Warplanes carried out airstrikes on Rafah, the southernmost part of the territory and the last refuge for many Palestinians, resulting in casualties, according to medics and residents.
Residents also noted an internet outage in Beit Hanoun and Jabalia in northern Gaza.
Tanks advanced into Beit Hanoun and surrounded some schools where displaced families had sought shelter.
Occupation soldiers ordered families inside the schools and nearby houses to evacuate and many men were reportedly detained, residents and media outlets affiliated with Hamas said, adding to tensions in the region.
Beit Hanoun, home to 60,000 people, was one of the first areas targeted by Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza last October.
Heavy bombardment turned most of Beit Hanoun, once known as “the basket of fruit” because of its orchards, into a ghost town comprising piles of rubble.
Many families who had returned to Beit Hanoun and Jabalia in recent weeks after Israeli forces withdrew began moving out again on Tuesday because of the new raid, some residents said.
Palestinian health officials said an Israeli strike had killed four people and wounded several others in Rafah, where over half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are sheltering and bracing for a planned Israeli ground offensive into the city, which borders Egypt.
Just before midnight, an Israeli airstrike hit a house in Rafah and killed seven people, including children and wounded several others, Palestinian health officials said.
There was no immediate Israeli comment.
Palestinian health officials and Hamas media said an Israeli airstrike had also killed 11 Palestinians, including children, in the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.
“My brothers were sitting by the door, my brother was injured and his cousin too and I lost my son; I do not have a house, nor a husband, nor anything anymore,” said Wafaa Issa al-Nouri, whose son Mohammad and husband were killed in the strike.
“He was playing by the door and we did not do anything. I swear we didn’t do anything,” she said.
The Hamas-run Interior Ministry also said an Israeli airstrike had hit a police car in the Tuffah district of Gaza City, killing seven police officers.
Stalemate
After six months of fighting, there is still no sign of any breakthrough in U.S.-backed talks led by Qatar and Egypt to clinch a cease-fire deal in Gaza, as Israel and Hamas stick to their mutually irreconcilable conditions.
The Israeli military said its forces continued to operate in the central Gaza Strip and that they had killed several Hamas members.
“Furthermore, over the past day, IDF fighter jets and aircraft destroyed a missile launcher along with dozens of infrastructure, tunnels and compounds where armed Hamas members were located,” it added.
In Al-Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, residents said Israeli planes had bombed and destroyed four multistory residential buildings on Tuesday.
Israel is still imposing “unlawful” restrictions on humanitarian relief for Gaza, the U.N. human rights office said on Tuesday, despite assertions from Israel and others that barriers have eased.
The amount of aid now entering Gaza is disputed. Israel and Washington say aid flows have risen in recent days, but U.N. agencies say it is still far below the bare minimum levels.
Israel is under international pressure to allow more aid into Gaza, especially in the northern areas where famine is expected by May, according to the U.N.
Israel’s military said it had facilitated the entry of 126 trucks into northern Gaza late on Monday from the south.
It also said it was working in collaboration with the World Food Programme (WFP) to facilitate opening two more bakeries in northern Gaza after the first began operations on Monday with WFP help.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said more than 33,000 Palestinians have so far been killed by Israeli fire since Oct. 7, including 46 in the past 24 hours.
Israel launched its offensive in Gaza following Hamas’ Oct. 7 incursion that killed 1,200 people and took 253 hostages.
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