Israel pounds Gaza as tanks advance on Rafah

CAIRO/GAZA — Israeli forces bombarded the Gaza Strip's historic refugee camps in the center of the enclave and struck Gaza City in the north on Thursday, killing at least 21 people, while tanks pushed deeper into Rafah in the south, health officials and residents said.

A barrage of Israeli airstrikes killed 16 in Zawayda town, Bureij and Nuseirat camps, and the overcrowded city of Deir-Al-Balah, the last major urban center in Gaza not to be invaded by Israeli forces, health officials said.

In Gaza City in the north, medics said five Palestinians were killed in two separate strikes.

The Israeli military said in a statement its forces killed two senior Islamic Jihad commanders in two airstrikes in Gaza City, including one who it said had taken part in the Oct 7 attack in southern Israel that triggered the conflict.

At Al-Amal Hospital, run by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, Palestinian health officials exhumed at least 12 bodies buried inside the medical facility to rebury them at another location.

In Rafah, residents said Israeli tanks advanced deeper in the western side of the city and took position on a hilltop there. The Israeli military said forces located several tunnels and killed several gunmen.

More than a million people had sought shelter in Rafah from fighting further north, but most have scattered again since Israel launched an offensive in and around the city in May.

The fighting has pushed the 60-bed Red Cross field hospital in Rafah to the brink of capacity, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Thursday.

"The repeated mass casualty events resulting from the unrelenting hostilities have stretched to breaking point the response capacity of our hospital and all health facilities in southern Gaza to care for those with life-threatening injuries," William Schomburg, head of the ICRC's subdelegation in Gaza, said.

Israel vowed to eradicate Hamas after its militants killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostage in the Oct 7 attack, according to Israeli tallies. At least 38,848 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's retaliatory offensive since then, Gaza health authorities said on Thursday.

Stalled cease-fire efforts

Diplomatic efforts by Arab mediators to halt the hostilities appear to be on hold, though all sides say they are open to more talks, including Israel and Hamas.

A deal would aim to end the conflict and release Israeli hostages in Gaza in return for many Palestinians jailed by Israel.

Hamas was awaiting an Israeli response to a cease-fire offer drafted by the United States, a Palestinian official close to the mediation effort said.

"The feeling in Hamas is that (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu is stalling and that he might not say anything before he goes to the United States next week," said the official, who asked not to be named.

On Wednesday, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged a renewed emphasis on a political resolution to the persistent crisis in Gaza.

"We must refocus on finding a political solution that will end the occupation and resolve the conflict in line with international law, and relevant United Nations resolutions," Courtenay Rattray, chef de cabinet of the UN secretary-general, told a Security Council debate on Gaza on behalf of the UN chief.

Separately, the US military's problem-plagued mission to bring desperately needed aid into Gaza via a temporary pier has ended, with deliveries shifting to an Israeli port, a senior US officer said on Wednesday.

US President Joe Biden has expressed disappointment in the performance of the pier, which has repeatedly broken free of the shore because of bad weather since its initial installation in mid-May, limiting the time it has been operational.

"The maritime surge mission involving the pier is complete, so there's no more need to use the pier," Vice-Admiral Brad Cooper, deputy head of the US Central Command, said.

The project, which Cooper said cost less than a previous estimate of $230 million, though a final figure is not yet available, has faced repeated issues starting in May, when the pier was damaged by bad weather and had to be removed for repairs.

It was then reattached on June 7, but was moved to Ashdod in Israel on June 14 to protect it from anticipated high seas, a situation that was repeated later in the month.

Agencies - Xinhua