At least 31 Palestinians, including six children and several police officers, have been killed in relentless Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, a day before the Rafah border crossing is due to reopen.
An Israeli air strike on Saturday on a tent sheltering displaced people in the Mawasi area to the northwest of Khan Younis city killed at least seven Palestinians, including three children, medical sources told Al Jazeera.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 items- list 1 of 4Gaza’s collapsing economy drives youth to create unconventional solutions
- list 2 of 4Israel cleared to buy $6.6bn in US attack helicopters, assault vehicles
- list 3 of 4Israel accepts Gaza’s 70,000 death toll: A record of denialism, lies
- list 4 of 4Can Trump’s ‘madman theory’ reshape Iran and the Middle East?
Their bodies were taken to the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis.
In Gaza City, emergency services reported that at least five Palestinians, including three children, were killed in an Israeli air strike on an apartment building in the Remal neighbourhood to the west of the city.
“We could feel the shockwaves of the explosions followed by a huge, dark, dusty cloud that filled the area, leaving at least five people killed inside the residential flat, including a mother and children,” Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reported from Gaza City.
Eight Palestinians were also injured in an Israeli bombing of an apartment building in the Daraj neighbourhood of Gaza City.
“All of this is happening inside the yellow line,” Mamhoud said, adding that in Khan Younis, a building “had been hit by fighter jets and destroyed completely after it was pre-warned by the Israeli military”.
Gaza’s Government Media Office says at least 524 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since a United States-brokered ceasefire in Gaza came into effect on October 10.
Rafah reopening
Residents in the border town of Rafah also reported several air attacks in areas under Israeli control. Israel is due to reopen the Rafah crossing, which links Gaza with Egypt, on Sunday for the first time since May 2024.
The opening of the key entry point is part of the ceasefire agreement with Hamas. It was meant to open during the first phase of the ceasefire, but Israel refused to do so until the body of its last remaining captive was found.
Israel on Saturday said it would only allow a “limited movement of people” who have received security clearance by Israel to enter and exit. No aid or humanitarian supplies will be allowed to enter.
“Only those who fled during the past two years are allowed to come back,” Mahmoud explained. “Those who are born outside the Gaza Strip are not going to be allowed to come back.”
Hamas responded to the Rafah announcement by calling for Israel to allow movement in and out of Gaza “without restrictions”, and urged it to adhere to all aspects of the ceasefire agreement.
Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has killed more than 71,600 Palestinians since October 7, 2023.
