by Over the past day, Israeli forces attacked structures across Gaza, including in the vicinity of the Nasser Medical Complex in the southern city of Khan Younis, the territory’s second-largest hospital. The Israeli military said its forces were still fighting militants in western Khan Younis. It also said it carried out an airstrike that killed an Islamic Jihad fighter in the central Gaza city of Deir al Balah, who it said had participated in the Hamas-led attacks against Israel on 7 October.
More than 100 people died in the previous 24 hours, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Tuesday morning.
At a news conference on Monday, Gallant said Israeli ground forces would invade places they had not yet reached in central and southern Gaza, including Rafah, which he called “the last remaining stronghold in the hands of Hamas.” ”.
“Every terrorist hiding in Rafah must know that their end will be like that of Khan Younis, Gaza City and everywhere else in the Gaza Strip: surrender or death,” Gallant said.
The comments, which came while Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken was in the region to press for a ceasefire, were in line with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s stance that Israel would continue fighting Hamas in Gaza until a “ complete victory.”
As the ground invasion has steadily pushed Gazans further south, Rafah’s population is believed to have increased roughly fivefold since the start of the war, according to the United Nations. Egypt has rejected the idea of opening its border to allow large numbers of displaced people to take temporary refuge on its territory.
Sana al-Karabiti, 34, originally from Gaza City, said the prospect of ground troops entering Rafah brought back harrowing memories of when Israeli tanks entered her neighborhood early in the war.
“I can feel my hair turning gray,” said al-Karabiti, a pharmacist who has been huddled in a tent in the al-Salam neighborhood of Rafah. “I keep wondering what I will do if they get to where I am.”
A small number of people in Rafah were already dismantling their tents, packing their bags and fleeing to central Gaza, but al-Sindawi was not sure if it would be safer there.
“We are thinking about going to Nuseirat, but we also heard in the news about bombings in Nuseirat,” he said, referring to an area in central Gaza where his relatives live. “We have no idea what to do.”
Other displaced Palestinians were frustrated because Israeli officials had told them Rafah would be safe, but now they are talking about entering the city.
“Why did they tell us to come here?” said Mukhlis al-Masri, 32, who is staying at a United Nations school in Rafah. “This is so unfair.”
Abu Bakr Bashir contributed reporting from London.
