Israeli ‘Genocidal’ Strikes on Rafah Kill More Than 100 Palestinians
Citing health authorities in Gaza, Wafa News Agency reported that the strikes has also led to injury of dozens of more civilians.
The strikes targeted the ar-Rahma mosque in Shaboura and al-Huda mosque in the Yabna camp where dozens of people were sheltering, Central Gaza near the headquarters of the Palestinian Red Crescent, and areas close to the border with Egypt.
There have also been reports of heavy shelling in the areas around the Kuwaiti Hospital.
The director of the Kuwaits Hospital, Suhaib al-Hams, has said, “The hospital is full of wounded people in a very dangerous situation, and there is not enough medicine.”.
Injured people have been taken to the Kuwaiti Hospital in Rafah while hundreds of other people have reportedly also fled to the hospital grounds seeking shelter from the Israeli regime's bombardments, according to Wafa.
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Reports of intense bombardment in Rafah come as aid organisations and governments have been warning against Israel’s plans to send ground forces into the city in southern Gaza where more than 1.4 million Palestinians are sheltering.
Although Israel’s ground forces are yet to invade Rafah, Palestinians sheltering there have endured constant air strikes, with reports of 100 people killed per day on average.
Hamas slams ‘massacres’
Hamas has condemned the latest Israeli air strikes on Rafah in southern Gaza, saying they represent an “expansion of the scope of the massacres it is committing against our people”.
“The Nazi occupation army’s attack on the city of Rafah tonight… which have claimed the lives of more than a hundred martyrs so far, is considered a continuation of the genocidal war and the attempts at forced displacement it is waging against our Palestinian people,” the group said in a press release.
Meanwhile, quoting a senior Hamas leader on Sunday, the Al-Aqsa television channel reported that Israel’s planned ground offensive on Rafah will “blow up” the captive exchange negotiations.
Israel’s announced full-scale assault on an area previously designated a “safe zone” has raised alarm, including among Israel’s allies.
Reports of many killed and injured in Rafah tonight come after US President Joe Biden spoke to Netanyahu and said that a “military operation in Rafah should not proceed without a credible and executable plan for ensuring the safety of and support for more than one million people sheltering there”.
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Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry has cautioned in recent days against the “extremely dangerous repercussions” of Israel attacking Rafah, while Egypt has warned of “dire consequences” and a deepening of the “humanitarian catastrophe” in the city.
On Sunday, the World Health Organization’s chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also said reports of Israel’s looming offensive in Rafah were “extremely worrying”.
“Proceeding with the plans could have gravely devastating consequences for the 1.4 million people who have nowhere else left to go, and who have almost no place left to seek health care,” he posted on X.
Israeli aggression on the besieged Gaza Strip since October has killed at least 28,176 people, mostly women and children, leaving more than 67,750 others injured.
Source: Al Jazeera
