Rafah (Gaza Strip), Dec 19: Israeli forces raided one of the last functioning hospitals in Gaza’s north and bombarded the south with airstrikes that killed at least 28 Palestinians, pressing ahead with their offensive Tuesday with renewed backing from the United States, despite rising international alarm. The air and ground war, launched in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into Israel, has killed nearly 20,000 Palestinians, displaced some 1.9 million, demolished much of northern Gaza and sparked attacks on U.S. and Israeli targets across the region.
Assaults on ships in the Red Sea by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have led major shipping companies – as well as the oil and gas giant BP – to suspend trade through the vital waterway, prompting the U.S. and its allies to launch a new mission to counter the threat.
But after meeting with Israeli officials Monday, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he was “not here to dictate timelines or terms.” His remarks signaled that the U.S. would continue shielding Israel from growing international calls for a cease-fire as the United Nations Security Council was set to hold another vote Tuesday, and would keep providing vital military aid for one of the 21st century’s deadliest military campaigns.
Strikes across Gaza
A strike on a home in Rafah where displaced people were sheltering killed at least 25 people, including a 2-year-old boy and his newborn sister, and another strike killed at least three people, according to Associated Press journalists who saw the bodies arrive at two local hospitals early Tuesday.
Rafah, which is in the southern part of Gaza where Israel has told Palestinians to seek shelter, has been repeatedly bombarded in recent days, as Israel has struck what it says are militant targets across the territory, often killing large numbers of civilians. The military said Tuesday that it had killed a prominent Hamas financier in an airstrike on Rafah, without specifying when it occurred or if others were killed or wounded.
Meanwhile, fierce battles also raged in northern Gaza, which has been reduced to a wasteland seven weeks after Israeli tanks and troops stormed in.
Israel’s bombardment of the urban Jabaliya refugee camp on Tuesday killed at least 27 people and wounded more than 100, according to Munir al-Boursh, a senior official at the Hamas-run Health Ministry.
In central Gaza, at least 15 people were killed in strikes overnight, according to hospital records. (AP)
