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Picture courtesy: (Reuters) Mourners next to the bodies of the Palestinians killed in an Israeli attack due to a military operation in Rafah during the Israeli-Hamas conflict, during their funeral in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip.
(The Post News) – Israeli airstrikes killed at least 17 Palestinians in two refugee camps in the historic Gaza Strip on Tuesday, June 18. Israeli tanks drove deep into the town of Rafah, residents and medical sources said.
Residents reported heavy shelling from tanks and aircraft in several parts of Rafah, where more than a million people had fled by May.
Most of the population has fled north as Israeli forces advanced into the city.
A Rafah resident and father of six told Reuters that Rafah is being bombed without any intervention from the world.
Israeli tanks were deployed in the Tel Al-Sultan, Al-Izba, and Zurub areas of western Rafah.
They continued to occupy the eastern part of the city and its suburbs, along with the border with Egypt and the vital Rafah crossing.
“There are Israeli forces in most areas, and there’s also heavy resistance. They are destroying the town and the refugee camp,” the resident said.
Palestinian health officials said one man was killed in the morning by Israeli fire in the east of Rafah.
Medics said they believed some people were killed in recent days and weeks, and rescue teams have not been able to reach them. The Israeli military said it was continuing its precise intelligence operations in Rafah.
Several Palestinian gunmen have been killed in close combat, and their weapons have been seized in recent days.
The air force said it had struck dozens of targets across the Gaza Strip recently.
In the central Gaza Strip, medical officials said 17 Palestinians were killed in two Israeli airstrikes on two houses in Al-Nuseirat and Al-Bureij, two refugee camps home to families and descendants of individuals who fled to Gaza during the 1948 war.
Khalil, 45, a teacher from Gaza who has taken refuge with his family in the central Gaza town of Deir Al-Balah, said every additional hour of delay means more people will be killed by Israel. “Enough of our blood, I say to Israel, America, and our leaders. The war must stop,” he told Reuters.
The Israeli military statement did not directly comment on the 17 deaths but said the army would continue its crackdown on militants in the central Gaza Strip.
The commander of an Islamic Jihad sniper team was killed by an Israeli warplane, and the military also “eliminated” a militant group, it said.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad militant groups reported that their fighters had launched anti-tank missiles and mortar bombs at Israeli forces in combat zones and had detonated pre-planned explosive devices targeting army troops in certain areas.
Israel’s ground and air offensive was triggered by an incursion by Hamas-led militants into southern Israel on October 7, killing around 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli sources.
The attack has left Gaza in ruins, with more than 37,400 people killed, according to health officials, and leaving much of the population homeless and destitute.
Multiple attempts to reach a ceasefire agreement have failed since a week-long truce in November.
Hamas has insisted on a permanent end to the war and a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has refused to end the war until Hamas is destroyed and the hostages are released.
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