The Israeli military authorities reported on Thursday that numerous Palestinian militants were killed in close-quarters combat by ground troops, as they escalated their operations in Khan Younes, the largest city in southern Gaza.
Israeli ground troops killed dozens of militants in “close-quarters combat” Thursday, the army said, as it intensified operations in Khan Younes, South Gaza’s biggest city.
In the occupied West Bank, where violence has soared alongside the war in Gaza, an Israeli raid continued into a second day around Tulkarem, an official said. Palestinian health officials reported a sixth person had been killed in the operation.
“In Khan Younes, the Givati Brigade is now fighting in the southernmost area that (Israeli) ground troops have operated in so far,” the army said, referring to a unit that had been based in Gaza before Israel’s 2005 withdrawal.
Soldiers raided the “Martyr’s Outpost” of Hamas’s Khan Younes brigade and the offices of its commanders, seizing a weapons cache including AK-47 assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, it added.
Gaza’s health ministry said 93 people had been killed overnight, including 16 in a strike on a house in the southern city of Rafah, to which many people have fled.
Humanitarian Aid
UN agencies say greater aid access to Gaza is urgently needed, as famine and disease threatens.
Palestinian and Israeli officials on Thursday confirmed a shipment of aid, including medicine for hostages, had entered Gaza after French and Qatari mediation.
Qatar late Wednesday said the shipment, which also comprises humanitarian aid for Gazan civilians, had reached the territory under an agreement announced on Tuesday.
Two planes had earlier arrived in the Egyptian city of el-Arish, near Gaza, with 61 tonnes of aid provided by Qatar and France.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it did not play any role in implementing the deal but welcomed it as “a much-needed moment of relief.”
Pakistani Strikes
In the latest incident to unsettle the Middle East—and beyond—Iranian state media said Pakistani strikes Thursday on an Iranian border region killed nine people. Pakistan said it had targeted militants.
This followed a rare Iranian air strike, late on Tuesday, which Iranian media said targeted a group that in December claimed the killing of at least 11 Iranian policemen.
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Israel has exchanged regular cross-border fire with Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
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US forces late Wednesday said they conducted a fourth round of strikes on areas of Yemen controlled by the Iran-backed Houthis who have disrupted shipping in the Red Sea. The US military said it struck 14 Houthi missiles that were loaded to be fired.
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Human Toll
About 1,140 Israelis, mostly civilians, have died, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israeli bombardment has killed at least 24,620 Palestinians, around 70 percent of them women, children and adolescents, according to updated Gaza Health Ministry figures.
Khalil Wakim, with AFP
