The Israeli occupation army expanded its ground and air attacks – today, Saturday – simultaneously in Rafah, east of Khan Yunis (south), and the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood in Gaza City, in addition to Jabalia (north) of the Gaza Strip, after demanding the displacement of thousands of residents of Beit Lahia and Jabalia, north of the Strip and downtown Rafah. In addition, it carried out a series of violent raids that resulted in dozens of deaths and injuries in various areas of the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army said that it decided to return to work in Jabalia, north of Gaza, and evacuate residents after attempts by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) to restore its capabilities there.
The newspaper “Israel Today” quoted sources in the occupation army as saying that Hamas had reorganized its forces in Jabalia and the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood in the central Gaza Strip, which put the occupation forces in the Netzarim axis at risk.
She added that, given the lack of an alternative force, Hamas will return to Rafah, Jabalia, and Al-Zaytoun after the army withdraws from them, stressing that it is difficult to translate the army’s operational achievements without strategic action.
Fighting and displacement in Rafah
Despite mounting international warnings against expanding Israeli operations in Rafah, the occupation army called, on Saturday morning, for the immediate displacement of residents of neighborhoods in the heart of the city, thereby expanding its operations, which began on Monday, from the eastern side.
Israeli army spokesman Avichai Adraee, via the “X” platform, called on residents of neighborhoods that he said were located “east of Rafah,” but are actually located in the heart of the city, to go immediately to what he claimed was “the expanded humanitarian zone in Al-Mawasi” southwest of the Strip.
Adraei – through two photos he posted on his account – identified a call for the displacement of the residents of “the Rafah and Shaboura camps and the Al-Adari, Al-Jeneina and Khirbet Al-Adas neighborhoods.”
Meanwhile, clashes have continued between Palestinian resistance members and Israeli forces penetrating east of Rafah for days on an intermittent basis, according to eyewitnesses and local Palestinian sources.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s correspondent reported that sounds of exchanged gunfire and artillery shelling were heard from time to time in areas east of Rafah, in addition to plumes of black smoke rising from the vicinity of the Rafah land crossing.
The Al-Qassam Brigades – the military wing of the Hamas movement – announced that it had destroyed an Israeli troop carrier with an “Al-Yassin 105” shell in the vicinity of the Rafah crossing in the southern Gaza Strip.
Tel Aviv Tribune had obtained scenes of fierce battles between the Al-Qassam Brigades and the Israeli army east of Rafah. The scenes show Al-Qassam fighters targeting Israeli forces holed up in homes and Israeli tanks that entered the east of the city.
Regarding the developments in Rafah, the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth quoted army sources as saying that Hamas will remain in Rafah even if it carries out operations in the entire city, indicating that there are no magic solutions. The sources added that a decision must be made on the issue of the next day and an alternative to Hamas must be found.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s correspondent reported that the Israeli occupation forces entered the Al-Farahin area, east of Abasan Al-Kabira, in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, and carried out extensive sweeping operations.
Gaza clashes
In Gaza City, the occupation forces have continued their incursion, since Thursday, into the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood and areas in the Al-Sabra and Tal Al-Hawa neighborhoods (south of Gaza City) and are carrying out massive bombing operations in these areas, resulting in dozens of deaths and injuries in addition to widespread material destruction, according to eyewitnesses and medical sources. Palestinian.
This area witnessed widespread clashes between Palestinian resistance elements and the occupation forces.
For its part, the Al-Quds Brigades – the military wing of the Islamic Jihad movement – said that it detonated two devices with a number of Israeli vehicles penetrating the Zaytoun neighborhood.
It added that it bombed with mortar shells the occupation soldiers and vehicles penetrating the vicinity of Al-Zaytoun Clinic in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, south of Gaza City.
The Al-Quds Brigades also broadcast pictures that they said were of an Israeli “Skylark” drone that the Brigades shot down and took control of in Gaza City.
Yesterday, Al-Qassam announced that it had “sniped a Zionist officer south of the Zaytoun neighborhood in Gaza City” and wounded him “directly,” in addition to carrying out several attacks with multiple rockets and mortar shells against Israeli forces in Gaza City and the Zaytoun neighborhood.
Battle of the North
In a new development as well, the Israeli army demanded the immediate displacement of all residents and displaced people in the areas of Jabalia, the neighborhoods of Al-Salam, Al-Nour, Tal Al-Zaatar, the Beit Lahia project, the Jabalia camp, Izbet Mlin, and the neighborhoods of Al-Rawda, Al-Nuzha, Al-Jarn, Al-Nahda, and Al-Zuhour, and to head toward “shelter” in areas west of Gaza City.
There is no shelter for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who live in the areas whose residents the occupation army demanded to displace in the northern Gaza Strip. Areas west of the city have been completely destroyed by Israel in its military operations since the beginning of the war 7 months ago.
For its part, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said today that “at least 300,000 Palestinians were affected by the Israeli army’s expansion of instructions to evacuate residential areas throughout the Gaza Strip.”
Heavy bombing
This comes as Israeli warplanes and artillery carried out a series of violent raids on all governorates of the Gaza Strip, last night and this morning, resulting in the death and injury of dozens of citizens, the majority of whom are children and women. Tel Aviv Tribune’s correspondent reported that the number of victims of these ongoing raids on Gaza City had risen to 11 martyrs and 35 injured.
Three Palestinians were martyred in an Israeli bombing of the Kahil family home and a residential square in the southeastern areas of the Al-Sabra neighborhood, south of Gaza City. The occupation forces also blew up residential squares in the area of Street 8 and Ali Mosque, and continued their artillery shelling of the area with the deployment of snipers.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s correspondent reported that two Palestinians were killed and wounded in an Israeli bombing that targeted a residential square that included a number of homes in the Al-Sabra neighborhood, south of Gaza City.
In Al-Maghazi camp in the central Gaza Strip, the occupation targeted a house belonging to the Qandil family. A number of the wounded and the bodies of the martyrs were recovered, and a number of people are still trapped under the rubble.
For its part, the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip reported that the Israeli occupation forces committed 4 massacres against families in Gaza, resulting in 28 martyrs and 69 wounded.
Thus, the number of victims of the Israeli aggression rises to 34,971 martyrs and 78,641 injured since the seventh of last October.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has been waging a devastating war on the besieged Gaza Strip, causing the death and injury of more than 100,000 Palestinians, the majority of whom are children and women, and leaving behind widespread devastation, health and environmental disasters, and humanitarian crises, according to government and UN officials.