8/5/2024–|Last updated: 5/8/202405:30 PM (Mecca time)
The Israeli occupation forces continued to bomb several areas in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, amid fierce clashes with the Palestinian resistance. While 3 Israeli soldiers were injured during the past 24 hours, the death toll rose to nearly 35,000.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s correspondent reported that a young Palestinian man was martyred in an Israeli artillery shelling east of the city of Rafah. Palestinian medical sources said that 35 martyrs and 129 wounded arrived at Kuwait Hospital in Rafah within 24 hours.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza explained on Wednesday that the Israeli occupation committed 7 massacres against families throughout the Gaza Strip, including 55 martyrs and 200 wounded who arrived in hospitals.
Thus, the death toll from the ongoing Israeli war on the Gaza Strip rose to 34,844 martyrs and 78,404 injured.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza indicated that there is a significant increase in the number of martyrs and wounded in light of the fierce attack and violent bombing of the Israeli occupation on the Gaza Strip, especially Rafah.
She added that the occupation’s closure of the Rafah land crossing continues for the second day, depriving thousands of wounded and sick people of their right to travel and treatment outside the Gaza Strip. The countries that pledged and requested lists of the sick and wounded demanded urgent action for their travel.
The Ministry also said that the occupation prevented for the second day the entry of trucks of medicines and medical and relief supplies into the Ministry of Health hospitals.
It explained that its hospitals in Rafah were out of service due to the Israeli threat of evacuation and violent bombing, and that there was no place to treat the sick and wounded, especially critical cases.
Violent bombing
On the other hand, Tel Aviv Tribune’s correspondent said that the Israeli occupation forces bombed with artillery the upper floors of high-rise residential buildings in the center of Rafah.
The occupation army said that it was continuing military operations east of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, to target members of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and its infrastructure.
The army claimed – in a statement – to eliminate Palestinian militants in several confrontations, and to find infrastructure and tunnel openings in various locations. He added that the forces of the 401st Brigade continue to raid the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing.
In Jabalia al-Balad, north of the Gaza Strip, an Tel Aviv Tribune correspondent said that Israeli warplanes carried out raids on the area, and artillery shelling targeted various areas in the north as well.
Fierce clashes
Also regarding field developments, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades – the military wing of the Hamas movement – announced that its fighters were engaged in fierce clashes with the occupation forces penetrating east of the city of Rafah.
Al-Qassam also announced the bombing of enemy forces’ concentrations at the Kerem Shalom military site with the short-range “Rajum” 114-caliber missile system.
In turn, the Al-Quds Brigades – the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement – announced that its fighters were engaging in fierce clashes with machine guns and assault rifles with enemy soldiers and vehicles penetrating east of the city of Rafah.
It also announced the bombardment of enemy soldiers and vehicles penetrating the vicinity of the airport, east of the city of Rafah, with heavy-caliber mortar shells and regular 60-caliber mortar shells. The Al-Quds Brigades broadcast video clips of the bombing operations.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s correspondent reported that clashes took place in the Al Salam neighborhood, east of Rafah, coinciding with violent artillery shelling, in addition to Israeli gunboats firing intensely towards the city’s coast.
Meanwhile, Israeli media reported that the Israeli authorities issued instructions to residents of the settlements adjacent to the fence with the Gaza Strip not to go out for agricultural work in the area at a depth of 4 kilometers.
Three Israeli soldiers were injured in the Gaza Strip during the past 24 hours. According to the occupation army’s website, the number of injured soldiers has risen to 3,361 since the outbreak of the war in Gaza on October 7, 2023.
The website stated that 520 had serious injuries, 890 moderate, and 1,951 minor, and among the wounded, 1,610 had been injured since the beginning of the ground battles in Gaza on October 27 last year.
The number of officers and soldiers killed reached 614, including 267 since the outbreak of ground battles, according to army data, which faces local accusations of concealing a much larger toll of its dead and wounded.
For the seventh month, Israel has been waging a war on Gaza, leaving more than 113,000 dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and about 10,000 missing amid massive destruction and famine that claimed the lives of children and the elderly.
Israel continues the war despite the issuance of a resolution by the UN Security Council to stop the fighting immediately, and also despite the International Court of Justice demanding immediate measures to prevent acts of genocide and improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
