Another 32 people have been killed in fresh Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip.
The health ministry in the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory said this on Friday, July 12, 2024.
Recall that fighting has spread across the coastal territory from north to south as negotiations continued for a truce and the release of hostages seized by Hamas during their October 7 attack on southern Israel, which sparked the conflict.
Gaza’s health ministry in a brief statement on Friday said, “32 martyrs, including many children and women, were transported to hospitals overnight due to ongoing massacres by Israeli forces.”
Hamas media indicated “more than 70 airstrikes” in various parts of Gaza, including Gaza City, Nuseirat refugee camp, Khan Yunis, and Rafah in the south.
Israel’s military stated that troops were engaged in operations in Rafah near the Egyptian border, having “eliminated numerous terrorists through close-quarters combat and aerial strikes, and dismantled terrorist infrastructure”.
In central Gaza, Israeli troops encountered and neutralised unspecified fighters deemed threatening, discovered a weapons production facility, and seized a significant amount of funds used for terrorist activities.
Israeli aircraft targeted locations in far-northern Gaza’s Beit Hanoun, where projectiles had been launched into southern Israel on Thursday.
Gaza’s Civil Defence agency reported the recovery of approximately 60 bodies from under the rubble of Gaza City’s eastern Shujaiya neighborhood on Thursday, following a two-week Israeli military operation that residents described as leaving the area devastated.
Civil Defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal stated that 85% of buildings in Shujaiya are now uninhabitable, rendering it a “disaster zone”.
Earlier, Israel’s army had urged all residents of Gaza City to evacuate, citing safety concerns in what they termed “a dangerous combat zone”.
According to the United Nations, up to 350,000 people have been residing in Gaza City amidst the conflict.
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