Fear as Israel ramps up strikes

• Published date: 26 April 2024
• Publication title: Mercury

In the seventh month of a devastating air and ground war against the Gaza Strip’s ruling Islamist group Hamas, Israeli forces also resumed bombarding northern and central areas of the enclave, as well as east of Khan Younis in the south

Israeli warplanes had hammered the north for a second day on Wednesday, shattering weeks of comparative calm there, and Israel said it was moving forward with plans for an all-out assault on Hamas holdouts in Rafah, on the southern border with Egypt.

Escalating Israeli threats to invade Rafah, the last refuge for around a million civilians who fled Israel’s juggernaut further north earlier in the war, have nudged some families to leave for the nearby al-Mawasi coastal area or try to make their way to points further north, residents and witnesses said.

But the number of displaced people departing Rafah remained small with many confused over where they should go, saying their experience over the past 200 days of war had taught them that no place was genuinely safe.

Mohammad Nasser, 34, a father of three, said he had left Rafah two weeks ago and now lived in a shelter in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza to avoid being caught by surprise by an Israeli invasion and unable to escape.

“We escape from one trap into another, searching for places Israel calls safe before they bomb us there. It is like the rat and trap game,” he told Reuters via a chat app. “We are trying to adapt to the new reality, hoping it will become better, but I doubt it will.”

Gaza medics and Hamas media reported five Israeli airstrikes on Rafah yesterday that hit at least three houses, killing at least six people including a local journalist. Israeli tank fire on the main road near Al-Zawyda in central Gaza killed four people, medics said.

Meanwhile, a Palestinian civil defence team called on the UN to investigate what it said were war crimes at a Gaza hospital, saying nearly 400 bodies were recovered from mass graves after Israeli soldiers departed the complex in Khan Younis.

The Israeli military said claims by Palestinian authorities that its forces had buried the bodies were “baseless and unfounded”. In the north, Israeli forces continued to pound Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun, Jabalia and Zeitoun, with some residents saying Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants were fighting Israeli ground forces with anti-tank rockets, mortar bombs and sniper fire...