Since dawn today, Tuesday, the occupation army has continued its artillery and air strikes on the northern and central Gaza Strip, hours after Defense Minister Yoav Galant announced the end of the intensive ground operation in those areas, amid the interruption of communications and Internet services in the Strip for the fifth day in a row and the launching of rockets into the Gaza Strip.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s correspondent reported that Israeli warplanes launched raids on Jabalia, north of the Gaza Strip, targeting citizens’ homes, and confirmed renewed bombing on various areas in the north.
The occupation’s bombing focused on the towns of Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun, and was accompanied by intense shooting from Israeli vehicles stationed on the outskirts of those areas, which was not usual during the past days in the region.
#a witness | Successive attacks in the northern Gaza Strip pic.twitter.com/xTBrDxM35Y
– Shehab News Agency (@ShehabAgency) January 16, 2024
Tel Aviv Tribune’s correspondent said that 4 Palestinians from one family were martyred in an Israeli bombing that targeted a house in the Al-Nafaq area, east of Gaza City.
He added that a bombing targeted a school housing displaced persons and affiliated with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the eastern tunnel of Gaza City, resulting in the death of 3 Palestinians.
On the other hand, the occupation army claimed that it found about 100 rocket launching pads around the town of Beit Lahia and 60 rocket shells ready to be launched, saying that it also killed dozens of “Palestinian militants,” as it put it.
Missiles from the north
Tel Aviv Tribune’s correspondent also reported that a large batch of missiles had been launched from the Gaza Strip towards the Netivot settlement in the western Negev, stressing that the heavy Israeli artillery shelling targeted the sites from which the missiles were launched towards the western Negev.
The reporter explained that Israeli sources reported that the rocket bombardment came from the north of the Gaza Strip and targeted about 19 towns in the Gaza Strip and the western Negev.
He pointed out that the missile attack resulted in a direct hit in a building in the Netivot settlement.
For its part, Israeli Channel 11 reported that about 50 missiles were launched as part of the latest batch of missiles that targeted Netivot and other settlements around it.
Difficulty of rescue
In the south of the Gaza Strip, where intensive Israeli ground operations continue, Tel Aviv Tribune’s correspondent noted the continuation of Israeli artillery shelling on the areas of Qaizan al-Najjar and al-Batn al-Samin in Khan Yunis.
He confirmed that civil defense crews were able to reach the Abasan and Qarara areas in Khan Yunis, to recover the bodies of the martyrs after the Israeli bombing concentrated on the two areas in the recent period.
The correspondent stressed that civil defense crews are delayed in reaching the areas under bombardment due to the difficulty of communication and the continued interruption of communications, which exposes the injured to the risk of death.
He pointed out that the attempts of civil defense crews to reach the areas being bombed in Khan Bunis are dangerous, because the occupation forces open fire on anyone who moves, and its warplanes also bombed employees of the telecommunications company while they were trying to repair the damage to the lines.
This comes after the Israeli army announced that an officer was killed and two others were seriously injured in battles in the southern Gaza Strip last night.
Thus, the number of officers and soldiers killed since the beginning of the war on October 7 last rose to 523, including 189 since the beginning of the ground operation on the 27th of the same month.
The Israeli aggression against the besieged Gaza Strip resulted in the death of 24,100 Palestinians and the injury of 60,832 others. It also caused the displacement of more than 85% of the Gaza Strip’s population, amid the scarcity of humanitarian aid and the interruption of water and electricity supplies.