A Palestinian woman mourns her child, Mahmoud Essa, 12, who was killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, at Al Aqsa Hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, early Sunday, May 12, 2024. AP
Israeli tanks attacked the Jabalia refugee camp as fighting returned to north Gaza after Hamas regrouped.
Citing local sources, WAFA news agency said that “Israeli fighter jets carpet-bombed” eastern areas of Jabalia, killing several people. The agency said the exact number of casualties was not immediately clear.
WAFA also said that Israeli quadcopter drones opened fire on ambulances near a UNRWA clinic in the centre of Jabalia.
The Israeli army announced Sunday its troops are battling Palestinian fighters across the Gaza Strip, including in parts of north that it said had cleared months ago. It claims that Hamas has regrouped in the area after seven months of fighting.
Palestinians in Jabalia, Beit Lahiya, and surrounding areas were told to leave for shelters west of Gaza City, after Israel warned that it would strike with “great force.”
They reported heavy Israeli bombardment overnight in the camp and other nearby areas, which has suffered widespread devastation and been largely isolated by Israeli forces for months. UN officials say there is a “full-blown famine” there.
Residents said Israeli warplanes and artillery struck across the camp and the Zeitoun area east of Gaza City, where troops have been battling Palestinian fighters for over a week.
The Israeli military spokesman said troops are fighting in all parts of Gaza, “in areas where we have not yet operated and in places where we have.”
He said that in addition to Jabaliya and Zeitoun, forces were also operating in Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, towns near Gaza's northern border with Israel that were heavily bombed in the opening days of the war.
Five Israeli soldiers were killed in Zeitoun on Friday, and Palestinian fighters fired a barrage of 14 rockets toward the Israeli city of Beersheba that night. Another rocket launched overnight damaged a home in the Israeli city of Ashkelon, the occupation army said Sunday.
WAFA reported that dozens of civilians have been killed over the last few hours in Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip.
In the town of Beit Lahiya, 12 bodies arrived at Kamal Adwan Hospital, according to WAFA.
Central Gaza strikes
In the central strip, at least 19 people, including eight women and eight children, were killed overnight in strikes that hit Zawaida, Maghazi, and Deir Al-Balah, according to Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
The casualties include two doctors who were killed in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza’s civil defence agency said.
"The bodies of Doctor Muhammad Nimr Qazaat and his son, Doctor Youssef, were recovered (as they were killed) because of an Israeli raid on the city of Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, and they were transferred to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah," the agency said in a statement.
Fighting in south Gaza
In the south, the armed wing of Hamas says its fighters hit Israeli soldiers and armoured vehicles with mortar rounds as intense ground battles are ongoing in eastern Rafah.
The Al-Qassam Brigades also released a video of its attack earlier on Beersheba, showing fighters preparing a salvo of rockets, which were launched at the Israeli city in the Negev desert.
Israel carried out strikes in Rafah after it expanded an evacuation order there, with the United Nations warning an outright invasion of the crowded southern city risked an "epic" disaster.
At least nine civilians were killed following an Israeli airstrike on a house in the city.
Residents piled water tanks, mattresses and other belongings onto vehicles and prepared to flee again.
"We don't know where to go," said Farid Abu Eida, who was preparing to leave Rafah, having already been displaced there from Gaza City.
"There is no place left in Gaza that is safe or not overcrowded... There's nowhere we can go."
Hamas accused Israel of "expanding the incursion into Rafah to include new areas in the centre and the west of the city."
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