CAIRO: On Tuesday, Israeli tanks reentered areas of the northern Gaza Strip that they had abandoned weeks earlier. Meanwhile, airstrikes on Rafah, the last known shelter for Palestinians in the southern portion of the enclave, resulted in multiple fatalities and injuries, according to medical personnel and locals.
In the northern Gazan districts of Beit Hanoun and Jabalia, locals noticed a disruption in the internet service. According to Hamas residents and media agencies, tanks moved into Beit Hanoun and encircled certain schools where displaced families were seeking safety.
“Families within the schools and the surrounding homes where the tanks had moved forward were told to leave by the occupation troops. Numerous guys were detained by the army, according to a northern Gaza resident.
One of the first areas targeted by Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza in October was Beit Hanoun, which is home to 60,000 people. Because of its orchards, Beit Hanoun was formerly known as “the basket of fruit,” but heavy bombardment reduced it to a ghost town of debris mounds.
Following the raid, families who had returned home started moving out once more.
Due to the latest raid, several families that had returned to Beit Hanoun and Jabalia following the withdrawal of Israeli forces started to leave again on Tuesday, according to some locals.
According to Palestinian health sources, an Israeli strike near Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents are taking refuge and preparing for an anticipated Israeli ground assault into the city, which borders Egypt, resulted in four deaths and multiple injuries.
Later on Tuesday, 11 Palestinians—including children—were killed by an Israeli airstrike in the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, according to Hamas media and Palestinian health officials.
Wafaa Issa al-Nouri, whose son Mohammad and husband were slain in the hit, stated, “My brothers were sitting by the door, my brother was injured, and his cousin too, and I lost my son, I do not have a house, nor a husband, nor anything anymore.”
“I promise we didn’t do anything, we were just playing by the door,” she uttered.
Four police officers and three bystanders were killed after an Israeli airstrike struck a police car in Gaza City’s Tuffah neighborhood, according to the interior ministry, which is governed by Hamas.
No indication of a cease-fire
As Israel and Hamas continue to insist on their mutually incompatible demands, there is still no indication that the US-sponsored negotiations mediated by Qatar and Egypt to reach a ceasefire agreement in Gaza will result in any progress after six months of fighting.Four multi-story apartment buildings in the center Gaza Strip’s Al-Nusseirat refugee camp were bombed and destroyed by Israeli planes on Tuesday, according to locals.
Despite claims from Israel and others that obstacles have loosened, the UN human rights office stated on Tuesday that Israel is still placing “illegal” limitations on humanitarian aid for Gaza.
There is disagreement about how much help is currently reaching Gaza; while Washington and Israel claim that relief flows have increased recently, UN agencies claim that the amount is still much below the very minimum.
According to the UN, Israel is facing pressure from other countries to permit additional aid to enter Gaza, particularly in the northern regions where starvation is predicted by May.
