GAZA STRIP, Palestine
Israel launched air strikes Thursday on southern Gaza’s Rafah after threatening to send troops into the city, where around 1.4 million Palestinians have sought shelter from around the territory.
Global powers trying to
navigate a way to end the Israel-Hamas war have so far come up short, but a US
envoy was expected in Israel on Thursday to try to secure a truce deal.
International concern has
spiraled over the high civilian death toll and dire humanitarian crisis in the
war sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack against Israel.
More than four months of
relentless fighting and air strikes have flattened much of the Hamas-run
coastal territory, pushing its population of around 2.4 million to the brink of
famine, according to the UN.
International concern has in
recent weeks centered on Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, where more than 1.4
million people forced to flee their homes elsewhere in the territory are now
living in crowded shelters and makeshift tents.
The last city untouched by
Israeli ground troops, Rafah also serves as the main entry point via
neighboring Egypt for desperately needed relief supplies.
Israel has warned it will
expand its ground operations into Rafah if Hamas does not free the remaining
hostages held in Gaza by next month’s start of the Muslim holy month Ramadan.
The war started when Hamas
launched its attack on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of about 1,160
people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official
Israeli figures.
Hamas militants also took
about 250 hostages — 130 of whom remain in Gaza, including 30 presumed dead,
according to Israel.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign
has killed at least 29,313 people, mostly women and children, according to the
latest count by the Hamas-run health ministry in the territory.
War cabinet member Benny Gantz
said Israel’s operation in Rafah would begin “after the evacuation of the
population,” although his government has not offered any details on where
civilians would be evacuated to.
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