Refugee camp reported hit as Israeli bombing of Gaza intensifies

Numerous Palestinians were killed and injured when Israeli forces attacked large swaths of the Gaza Strip on Sunday, while residents of the besieged region sought safety in a dwindling portion of the south. The Jabalia refugee camp, located north of the Hamas-ruled enclave, was one of the locations targeted. An Israeli airstrike resulted in multiple fatalities and numerous injuries, according to a spokesman for the Gaza health ministry. Al Jazeera TV aired images purportedly depicting the aftermath of the attack. Huge slabs of crumbled cement and piles of rubble ascended in smoke, covering people—including a child—with grey dust. Residents of the southern Gazan communities of Khan Younis and Rafah reported that artillery and warplane bombardments targeted these areas, and hospitals were finding it difficult to handle the influx of injured. Israel did not immediately respond to the reports of its operations. Following the conclusion of a seven-day ceasefire between Israeli forces and Hamas terrorists on Friday to facilitate the exchange of Israeli captives and Palestinian inmates, there was a resumed round of fighting. It happened in spite of rising demands for Israel to stop harming Palestinian civilians coming from the United States, Israel’s closest supporter. As of this past Saturday, the Gaza health ministry reported that over 15,200 people have perished in the nearly two months of fighting that resulted from a Hamas cross-border attack on southern Israel. Israel claims that Hamas is a deadly threat to the Jewish state and that it is why it is taking action to destroy it. The bloodiest phase in the long-running, wider Israel-Palestinian conflict can be attributed to the original Hamas strike and the war that followed. Residents of Gaza expressed their anxiety on Sunday that an Israeli ground offensive was about to occur in the southern sections. According to them, tanks had blocked the route that connected Khan Younis and Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza, separating the Strip into three sections. Palestinians were told by the Israeli military to leave six locations in and around Khan Younis. It published a map showing the locations of shelters to the west of Khan Younis and south of Rafah, near the Egyptian border. (With agency inputs)