Israeli forces killed at least seven people, including a child, in Rafah, in the latest deadly attack on Palestinians fighting for survival in the southern Gaza Strip’s largest city.
An Israeli airstrike on Saturday hit a residential building belonging to the Shahin family, housing displaced people from the Abu Hamra and Abu Sultan families, the Palestinian state news agency Wafa reported.
The airstrike hit a busy road leading to a market, causing significant destruction of buildings and cars, according to the Tel Aviv Tribune team in Rafah. Bodies were seen scattered on the road, with women, children and the elderly among the victims.
“My mother… my father… They fled Khan Younis to save their lives,” one man told Tel Aviv Tribune. “I brought them here to take refuge with me… They escaped death in Khan Younis to die in my hands… How can I live after them?
Addressing Israeli forces, he said: “Kill me so I can join them. »
Another man told Tel Aviv Tribune he was heading with friends to al-Awda Hospital when, suddenly, “a massive explosion” occurred.
“I was thrown into the air and saw everyone around me flying, others torn to shreds,” he said. “I passed out and woke up to find myself here in the hospital. Israeli military planes fired a missile at a residential building in a heavily populated area; hundreds of people walk the streets, trying to get their hands on food.
“The Israeli occupying forces have no mercy; they have no mercy towards the young or the old, women or babies,” he added. “Israelis do not respect any laws or human rights. They have lost their humanity; targeting innocent displaced civilians; killing everyone, women and children, in revenge.
“The missile hit 20 meters from me and I miraculously survived by the grace of God.”
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Rafah, said the victims were taken to Yusuf al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah.
“The region shook as if an earthquake struck it; there was complete destruction and fires everywhere,” he said.
“Cars were incinerated and people on the sidewalks were seriously injured. Victims were also pulled from the rubble of the building.
“Seven people are believed to have been killed, five of whom have been identified. Two of them could not be identified because they were cremated beyond recognition.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, Israeli forces have committed eight “massacres against families” in the Gaza Strip, killing 92 people in the past 24 hours.
The ministry added that Israeli forces prevented ambulances and civil defense teams from reaching victims buried under rubble and lying on the roads.
Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since the October 7 Hamas cross-border attack, killing more than 29,600 Palestinians and causing widespread destruction and shortages of basic goods. Nearly 70,000 people were injured in the besieged enclave.
Around 1,200 Israelis were reported killed in the Hamas attack.
According to the UN, food insecurity is reaching catastrophic levels across the Gaza Strip, with increasing reports of families struggling to feed their children and a growing risk of famine-related deaths in the northern part of the strip.
“The risk of famine in Gaza is increasing by the day, particularly for around 300,000 people in northern Gaza, who have been mostly cut off from assistance and where food security assessments show the greatest needs ”, according to the World Food Program.
“Discussions are progressing”
As more Palestinians die every day in Israel’s war on Gaza, negotiations for a ceasefire deal continue.
Israel’s war cabinet is due to meet on Saturday to be briefed by negotiators who held talks in Paris with representatives of the United States, Israel, Egypt and Qatar on a possible truce, the adviser said to the national security of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Tzachi Hanegbi told Israel’s Channel 12 that the cabinet meeting “shows that they (the negotiators) did not come back empty-handed.”
Reports emerged earlier on Saturday that a new draft captive deal had been agreed at the Paris meeting.
The updated plan proposes that Hamas release around 40 captives held in Gaza in exchange for a six-week ceasefire and the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, sources told Axios.
CIA Director Bill Burns, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Abbas Kamel, Egypt’s intelligence director, participated in the talks.
The Israeli delegation included the director of Mossad, Shin Bet and Israeli Forces Intelligence, who will brief the war cabinet later Saturday or Sunday.
If the cabinet approves the new proposal, follow-up meetings will take place in the coming days.
Axios reported that Biden administration officials have said they want to try to reach an agreement before the start of Ramadan on March 10.
According to a source cited by Israeli media, other details of the negotiations, such as the number and identity of prisoners to be released, still depend on the ability of Qatari and Egyptian negotiators to convince Hamas to also accept the new proposal. .
A foreign diplomat told Israeli newspaper Haaretz that “negotiations are progressing” and that “all parties are showing flexibility, an agreement can be reached before (the holy month of) Ramadan.”
“Any further progress depends on Hamas,” he said.