Jerusalem, July 17 (EFE).- The Israeli Army carried out 25 attacks in fresh air, land, and sea offensives on Wednesday in Gaza, killing dozens of more Palestinians in the devastated coastal strip.
An Israeli military statement said the air force attacked more than 25 militant targets across the strip, attacking “military infrastructure and terrorist cells.”
But the official Palestinian Wafa news agency claimed that “dozens of civilians were killed on Wednesday and others were injured” in these attacks.
A suspected sniper from the Islamist Hamas group and several militants were killed during airstrikes in the northern part of the enclave, the army said.
The Israeli military said they destrorued structures from where three rockets were launched towards the Israeli city of Sderot on Tuesday.
The army said it continued its “precise and intelligence-based operations” in Rafah, a city in the southernmost part of the strip, where hundreds of thousands of war-displaced people are taking refuge, and where Israeli ground troops arrived at the beginning of May.
The army claimed it continues operating in the center of the strip, “eliminating terrorists and dismantling structures used to observe soldiers in the area.”
The Israeli soldiers “identified and eliminated a terrorist cell and a rocket launcher,” the military communiqué said.
In the Nuseirat refugee camp, “seven civilians were killed and others injured as a result of the bombardment by the occupation on a house near the Sunna mosque,” Wafa reported.
Two more civilians were killed and another 15 injured in bombings against the Abdullah Azzam mosque, north of Nuseirat.
On Tuesday, Israeli attacks on the refugee camp focused on a school of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), leaving at least 23 dead and 73 injured.
The Israeli Army confirmed the attack on the school, alleging that there was a group of suspected militiamen who “planned and directed numerous attacks against Israeli troops.”
Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant met on Tuesday with the commander of the United States Central Command, Erik Kurilla, and told him that Israeli troops remain committed to eliminating Hamas leaders.
On Saturday, the Israeli Army carried out an extensive attack targeting Mohamed Deif, the chief commander of the al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, whose fate remains uncertain.
Ninety Gazans were killed and another 300 injured in the attack on the designated Mawasi humanitarian zone.
The death of Rafaa Salameh, Deif’s right-hand man and commander of the Khan Yunis brigade, was confirmed.
Gallant held a call with his U.S. counterpart, Lloyd Austin, who emphasized the importance of increasing the flow of humanitarian aid to the strip through all land crossings and supporting aid deliveries at the Israeli port of Ashdod.
The war broke out on Oct. 7, 2023, following a Hamas attack on Israel that left about 1,200 dead and 251 kidnapped.
Since then, Israeli forces have relentlessly attacked the Gaza Strip, where there are already over 38,713 dead—mostly women and children — at least 89,166 injured, and nearly two million displaced under dire humanitarian conditions.
The international community is increasingly pressuring for a truce to allow the release of the 116 hostages held by Hamas in the strip, as well as the entry of humanitarian aid into the devastated enclave. EFE
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