At least six Palestinians were killed in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), and several homes were destroyed as Israeli forces advanced deeper into the town and more far into Shujayea, in northern Gaza.
Israeli tanks, which entered Shujayea four days ago, fired shells at several homes, leaving families trapped inside and unable to get out, residents said.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that “60,000 to 80,000 people have been displaced” from Shujayea in recent days.
For those who remain, “our lives have become hell,” said Siham al-Shawa, a 50-year-old resident.
She told the AFP news agency that people were trapped because strikes can happen “anywhere” and “it’s difficult to get out of the neighborhood under fire.”
“We don’t know where to go to protect ourselves,” she said.
According to Tel Aviv Tribune’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah, residents who managed to flee the neighborhood believe the scale of the destruction is “massive”.
He said central areas of Gaza City were also “pounded” by Israeli forces.
“In the last hour, a residential apartment was targeted. According to medical sources we spoke with, at least 15 people were killed today in the north, after houses were directly hit by artillery shells,” Abu Azzoum said.
He noted that in Rafah, “indiscriminate Israeli attacks continued as residents fled for their lives.”
“In the al-Mawasi district, declared a ‘security zone’ by the Israeli army, they set fire to makeshift tent camps where displaced Palestinians were sheltering,” he added.
Speaking at a weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his position that there is no substitute for victory in the war against Hamas.
“We are determined to fight until we achieve all of our goals: eliminating Hamas, returning all of our hostages, ensuring that Gaza never again poses a threat to Israel, and returning our residents safely to their homes in the south and north,” he said.
“Empty shells”
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan, meanwhile, said there had been no progress in ceasefire talks. He said Saturday that the Palestinian group was still ready to discuss any proposal for a truce that would end the nearly nine-month assault.
As the offensive focused on Gaza, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, one man was killed and five others wounded in an Israeli strike near the city of Tulkarem, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Hamas’ military wing and allied Palestinian Islamic Jihad reported heavy fighting in Shujayea and Rafah, saying their fighters fired anti-tank rockets and mortar shells at Israeli forces operating there.
The efforts of Arab mediators, supported by the United States, have stalled. Hamas says any agreement must end the offensive and result in a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Israel says it will only accept temporary pauses in fighting until Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, is eradicated.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said 43 bodies of Palestinians who were killed arrived at hospitals in the past 24 hours. At least 111 others were injured.
The Israeli offensive has so far killed at least 37,877 people, according to Gaza’s health ministry, and left the heavily built coastal enclave in ruins.
Israeli tanks advanced deeper into several neighborhoods in eastern, western and central Rafah, near the border with Egypt, on Sunday, and medics said six people were killed in a strike Israeli attack on a house in Shaboura, in the heart of the city.
Six bodies from the Zurub family were transferred to Nasser hospital in the nearby town of Khan Younis, where dozens of relatives paid their respects.
🚨Palestinian Red Crescent teams recovered the bodies of six martyrs from the Zurab family after their house was targeted by Israeli occupation forces west of Rafah, in the south. #Gaza Band.
📷Filmed by PRCS volunteer: Mohamed Al-Saksik. pic.twitter.com/lpxJGfJaew– PRCS (@PalestineRCS) June 30, 2024
Residents said the Israeli army burned down the Al-Awda mosque in central Rafah, one of the city’s best-known mosques.
Israel said its military operations in Rafah aimed to eradicate the last armed battalions of Hamas. It continues to severely restrict the entry of humanitarian aid, medicine and fuel into the enclave, which is on the brink of famine.
The United Nations and other humanitarian agencies have expressed concern about the grave humanitarian crisis and the threat of famine that the Israeli assault and siege poses to Gaza’s 2.4 million people.
“It’s all rubble,” said Louise Wateridge of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), speaking from the town of Khan Younis on Friday.
“There’s no water there, there’s no sanitation, there’s no food. And now people are living in these buildings that are just empty shells.”
