Israeli strikes on Rafah raise fears of ground assault

[Pelican Press 0]

******** strikes on Rafah raise fears of ground ********

******* has bombed at least four homes in Rafah, raising new ***** among the more than a million Palestinians sheltering in the last refuge on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip that a long-threatened ground ******** could be coming.

One of the air strikes ******* 11 people from a single family, health officials said.

****** Dhaheer, looking on from below as neighbours helped an emergency worker lower a victim in a ****** body bag from an upper storey, said he had awakened to the blast, kissed his terrified daughter and rushed outside to find the destruction.

His father, 75, and mother, 62, were among the *****.

“I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to say. I can’t make sense of what happened. My parents. My father with his displaced friends who came from Gaza City,” he told Reuters.

“They were all together, when suddenly they were all gone like dust.”

At another ***** site, Jamil Abu Houri said the intensification of air strikes was *******’s way of showing its disdain for a ******* Nations Security Council resolution last week demanding an immediate *******-****** ceasefire.

Next up, he fears a ground ******** on Rafah, which ******* has threatened for weeks to carry out despite pleas from its closest ally the ******* States that this would wreak a humanitarian disaster.

“The ******** has increased, and they have threatened us with an incursion, and they say that have been given the green light for the Rafah incursion. Where is the Security Council?” Abu Houri said.

“Look at our little ones. Look at our children. Where should we go? Where should we go?”

Another ******** air strike in Rafah on Wednesday afternoon ******* four Palestinians including a woman and a child and injured other residents, Gaza health authorities said.

Just west of Gaza City in the enclave’s north, seven people were ******* in an air strike on a house, health officials said.

The ******** military says it is targeting armed ****** militants who use civilian buildings, including apartment blocks and hospitals, for cover.

****** denies doing so.

Separately, in the ********-occupied West Bank, three Palestinians were ******* and four wounded by ******** ***** during a raid in Jenin overnight, the ************ health ministry said.

At least 32,000 Palestinians have been ******* in *******’s air and ground offensive into ******-run Gaza, according to the health ministry there, with thousands of other ***** believed ******* under rubble and more than 80 per cent of the 2.3 million population displaced, many at risk of famine.

The war erupted after Islamist ****** militants broke through the border on October 7 and rampaged through nearby communities, ******** 1200 people and abducting 253 hostages according to ******** tallies.

******** forces just north of Rafah kept the two main hospitals in Khan Younis, al-Amal and Nasser Hospital, under a blockade imposed late last week.

In the north, they were still operating inside al-Shifa, the enclave’s largest hospital, which they stormed more than a week ago.

******* says the hospitals have been lairs for ****** gunmen, which ****** and medical staff deny.

The ******** military has said it ******* and captured hundreds of fighters in a battle in al-Shifa.

****** says civilians and medics were rounded up.

Residents living nearby have reported hearing explosions in and around al-Shifa and columns of smoke coming from buildings inside the premises.

International mediation has ******* to secure a ceasefire and exchange of prisoners so far as the two sides stick to irreconcilable demands.

****** wants an end to the war and total ******** withdrawal from Gaza while ******* has vowed to keep fighting until its Islamist foe is eradicated.

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