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Destroyed buildings in Rafah
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Haitham Imad / EPA
In the Gaza Strip, 18 people were killed in air strikes on Rafah in the south and Deir Al-Balah in the center, according to Palestinian information. This was announced by the Hamas-controlled health authority in the Gaza Strip. Authorities said 14 people were killed in an Israeli attack on a house in the southern border town of Rafah alone. In total, at least 127 people have died in fighting throughout the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, it was reported on Sunday morning. 178 other people suffered injuries.
The information cannot be independently verified. News agencies cite eyewitness reports from Rafah. An AFP journalist noticed "violent air strikes" in the city bordering Egypt shortly after midnight on Saturday. Palestinians also reported Israeli tank shells and air strikes in which two girls were killed in a house, the Reuters news agency said on Sunday.
The Israeli military did not officially comment on whether it had carried out air strikes. An unnamed Israeli official told Reuters the military would coordinate with Egypt and look for ways to evacuate most of the displaced people who have sought refuge from the fighting in Rafah before a ground offensive.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had already indicated on Thursday that Israel would expand its military operation in the Gaza Strip to include Rafah. The Hamas units in Rafah would be “dissolved” just as they were in Khan Yunis, Gallant said during a visit to Israeli soldiers.
Rafah is "a pressure cooker of despair and we are afraid of what comes next," said the spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) on Friday. According to WHO information, Rafah, which once had around 200,000 inhabitants, is now home to more than half of the more than two million people in the Gaza Strip. The majority of aid deliveries for the civilian population also come via Rafah.
After Gallant's announcement, the federal government urged restraint. International law applies - Israel must comply with it even if Hamas does not adhere to it. Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock warned of a military offensive. “To act now in Rafah, in the last and most crowded place, as announced by the Israeli Defense Minister, would simply not be justified,” the Green politician told the Germany editorial network on Saturday: “A large proportion of the victims are women and children. Let’s just imagine: they are our children.”
sak/AFP/Reuters