By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA (Reuters) – Israeli forces battled Palestinian militants in the northern and central Gaza Strip on Friday. Khaled Meshaal, a senior official in Gaza’s ruling Hamas movement, said the six-month battle with Israel would “soon break the enemy.” “.
Most Israeli troops have been withdrawn from the Palestinian enclave in preparation for an assault on the southernmost town of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians are sheltering, but fighting continues in various areas.
Residents of the Al-Nusseirat camp in central Gaza said dozens of people were killed or injured after Israeli air, land and sea bombardments that followed a surprise ground attack on Thursday, and that houses and two mosques were destroyed.
Health officials said earlier that six people were killed in strikes on the cinderblock camp, which has housed Palestinian refugee families since 1948, and that about 70 people were injured, including three Palestinian journalists.
In Gaza City, Palestinian health officials said at least 25 people were killed and several injured in an Israeli airstrike on a house in the Al-Daraj neighborhood. Gaza’s health ministry said 89 Palestinians were killed by Israeli military strikes in the space of 24 hours.
The Israeli military (IDF) said in a statement that it was carrying out “a precise intelligence-driven operation” against militants and their infrastructure in central Gaza.
“Over the past day, IDF warplanes struck more than 60 terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip, including underground launch posts, military infrastructure and sites where armed terrorists operated,” he said. he added. “At the same time, IDF artillery struck terrorist infrastructure in the center of the Gaza Strip.”
In a statement, Hamas said Israeli bombardments in Al-Nusseirat targeted civilian homes and property “after failing to achieve any military exploits on the ground or implement any of its criminal programs by displacing our people “.
Israel denies deliberately targeting civilians, accusing Hamas of using residential buildings as cover. Hamas denies this.
Meshaal, who lives in exile and heads Hamas’ political office in the diaspora, spoke at an event in Doha, Qatar, to mourn family members of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh killed in a strike Wednesday Israeli air force in Gaza.
“This is not the final round,” Meshaal said, referring to the current war. “This is an important step on the path to the liberation of Palestine and the defeat of the Zionist project.”
At least 33,634 Palestinians, including 89 in the past 24 hours, have been killed since the start of the Israeli offensive, Gaza’s health ministry said in a statement Friday, most of the 2.3 million residents having been displaced and much of the densely populated enclave demolished.
The war began when Hamas carried out a cross-border blitzkrieg in southern Israel on October 7, in which 1,200 people were killed and 253 taken hostage. Around 130 people are still held incommunicado in Gaza, according to Israel.
Deflecting repeated U.S. calls for restraint, Israel vows to storm Rafah because, it claims, large Hamas fighting forces are hiding there after being routed elsewhere .
In the latest sign that an Israeli attack on Rafah could be imminent, military planes dropped leaflets over a western neighborhood demanding information about the hostages.
“To the residents of Tel Al-Sultan, look around carefully, the hostages could be somewhere near you. If you want to protect your families and your future, do not hesitate to provide us with any information about the hostages and their captors,” they read in the leaflets.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting and writing by Nidal al-Mughrabi; editing by Kevin Liffey and Mark Heinrich)
