At least 11 dead in Israeli bombing in Gaza Strip At Least 11 Dead In Israeli Bombing Of Building In Gaza Strip

At least eleven people were killed when the Israeli army bombed an apartment building in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia in the early hours of the morning, according to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Galant declared victory over Hamas military units in Rafah, at the southern tip of the Gaza Strip, along the besieged Palestinian enclave’s border with Egypt, during a visit to his troops in the area yesterday, Wednesday.

“The brigade in Rafah has been defeated, and more than 150 underground tunnels have been destroyed” in that area, he asserted. He added that he had ordered his troops to focus on destroying the remaining underground tunnels along the Gaza-Egypt border in the coming period.

The Israeli army began ground operations in Rafah in early May, defying international outcry and concern for civilians, with the stated aim of destroying the remaining Hamas and other Palestinian militant forces there. Around one million displaced people who had taken refuge in Rafah mostly fled.

On May 7, the Israeli army seized control of the Rafah crossing and a narrow strip of land along the border, known as the Philadelphia Corridor. This zone has become a major obstacle in the ongoing indirect negotiations aimed at reaching a ceasefire agreement.

Hamas is demanding the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists that the Israeli military will maintain control of this zone even if an agreement is reached, to prevent the transfer of weapons, ammunition, and other goods into the blockaded coastal enclave.

More than 40,200 Palestinians have been killed in the large-scale Israeli military retaliation operations in Gaza since then, causing massive destruction, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. The ministry does not specify how many of the victims were civilians and how many were combatants; however, the UN emphasises that the majority were women and children.

According to official Israeli figures, 333 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the war in the Gaza Strip since the ground operations began on October 27.