2023-10-27 09:03:05
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli forces, backed by fighter jets and drones, carried out a second incursion into the Strip in as many days, attacking targets on the outskirts of Gaza City, he said. on Friday the army, which is preparing for an expected ground invasion of territory controlled by the Hamas insurgent group.
US aviation, for its part, attacked targets in eastern Syria that, according to the Pentagon, were linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, after a series of raids by fighters backed by Tehran against Washington forces, which fuels tensions. already high regional tensions fueled by the almost three-week war in Gaza.
The Palestinian death toll surpasses 7,000 following waves of devastating Israeli airstrikes in response to Hamas’ bloody incursion into the south of the country on October 7. The Ministry of Health in Gaza, which is controlled by the group and keeps count of deaths, released on Thursday a detailed list with the names and identification numbers of the deceased, among whom there are more than 2,900 minors and more than 1,500 women.
The total far exceeds the total number of deaths from the four previous wars between Israel and Hamas, which are estimated at around 4,000.
More than 1,400 people were killed in Israel, mostly civilians who were killed in the initial Hamas attack, according to the Israeli government. The insurgent group has at least 224 captives in Gaza, including men, women, children and the elderly.
The Israeli air campaign has leveled entire neighborhoods and caused a level of death and destruction never seen in previous clashes between the two sides. More than a million people have fled their homes and many obeyed the Israeli order to move south of the enclave, despite continued attacks on the isolated territory.
The humanitarian crisis arising from the Israeli war and siege has sparked protests throughout the region. New mobilizations are expected after the Friday prayer, the most important of the Muslim week.
The military said its ground troops entered Gaza and attacked dozens of insurgent targets in the past 24 hours. Aircraft and artillery bombed locations in Shijaiyah, a neighborhood on the outskirts of the Gazan capital that was the scene of a bloody urban battle in the 2014 war.
The soldiers left the enclave without suffering any casualties, the army added. A previous incursion into northern Gaza had been reported early Thursday in which, according to Israeli authorities, their forces fought insurgents and attacked positions to fire anti-tank missiles in an operation that lasted hours.
The damage caused in Gaza by almost three weeks of Israeli bombing was evident in satellite images of various places taken before the conflict and in recent days.
Entire rows of residential buildings have disappeared in the most recent photos, reduced to smears of dust and debris. A complex of 13 seaside skyscrapers was now dust on the outskirts of Gaza City’s al-Shati refugee camp, with only a few pieces of the façade remaining. Down the street, barely anything remained of what had been a neighborhood of low houses and winding alleys, according to images taken by Maxar Technologies.
The army maintains that it only attacks insurgent targets and accuses Hamas of operating among civilians to protect its fighters. According to Israel, an airstrike killed one of the two masterminds of the October 7 massacre, Shadi Barud, the head of the militia’s intelligence unit.
Palestinian insurgents have fired thousands of projectiles into Israeli territory from which the war began.
Hamas’s military wing said Thursday that the Israeli air campaign has so far killed about 50 hostages. Israeli authorities, who have denied previous similar claims, had no immediate comment.
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Mroue reported from Beirut, Lebanon. Associated Press writers Najib Jobain in Rafah, Gaza Strip, and Brian Melley in London contributed to this report.
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