July 16
2024
– 08:20
(Updated at 9:59 AM)
Israeli forces clashed with Hamas fighters in several parts of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, and Palestinian health officials said at least 50 people were killed in Israeli shelling.
The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) has accused Israel of escalating attacks in Gaza in an attempt to derail efforts by Arab and American mediators to reach a ceasefire agreement. Israel says it is trying to eliminate Hamas fighters.
In Rafah, a southern border town where Israeli forces have been operating since May, five Palestinians were killed in an airstrike on a house. In nearby Khan Younis, a man, his wife and two children were killed, health officials said.
Later on Tuesday, officials said an Israeli air strike on a car killed at least 17 Palestinians and wounded 26 others in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
The Ministry of Health said the airstrike took place near a tent area housing displaced families on Al-Attar Street.
In the historic Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, at least four Palestinians were killed in separate bombings and airstrikes, doctors said. An Israeli airstrike killed four people in Sheikh Zayed in the northern Gaza Strip, they added.
Hours later, health officials said an Israeli airstrike on a school in the Nuseirat camp killed 16 people and wounded many others. The ministry said the attack hit a UN-run school housing displaced families.
The Israeli military said forces were continuing their “intelligence-based” activities in Rafah, and that airstrikes had targeted Hamas fighters, tunnels and other military infrastructure.
The Israeli Air Force attacked about 40 targets across the Strip, including observation posts, snipers, military installations and buildings rigged with explosives.
Hamas's armed wings and Islamic Jihad, a Hamas ally, said their fighters attacked Israeli forces in several locations with anti-tank missiles and mortar shells.
The armed wing of the Islamic Jihad movement said it fired rockets at the southern Israeli city of Sderot. There were no reports of deaths or serious damage.
Israel vowed to eliminate Hamas after its fighters killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages in an attack on southern Israeli communities on Oct. 7, according to Israeli records.
More than 38,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli retaliatory offensive, according to health authorities in Gaza, much of which has been destroyed. Israel also claims that 326 of its soldiers have been killed in Gaza.
