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Rafah: Despite the advance warning, an unspecified number of civilians were injured in the attack on the Al-Masri Tower

Photo: Haitham Imad / EPA

According to its own statements, the Israeli military has killed dozens of fighters from the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours.

In the southern city of Khan Yunis, Israeli troops eliminated 20 Hamas militiamen in hand-to-hand combat and air strikes, the army said.

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Khan Yunis: 20 Hamas militants killed

Photo: Said Khatib / AFP

During targeted operations, the enemy's military facilities were destroyed and an unspecified number of fighters were captured.

According to the statement, Israeli troops killed at least ten Hamas terrorists in the central Gaza Strip.

The information could not initially be independently verified.

According to Palestinian sources, Israeli fighter jets bombed a high-rise building in Rafah, the southernmost town in the sealed-off coastal strip, on Saturday night.

It was a twelve-story building that is only 500 meters from the border with Egypt.

The residents had received warnings in advance and were not in the building in the center of the city that was destroyed, it said.

Despite the advance warning, the attack on the high-rise fueled fears among Palestinians that a ground offensive could be launched.

In Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip, tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled the fighting.

According to the Israeli military, the high-rise housed Hamas's planning cell

Despite the advance warning, an unspecified number of civilians were injured in the attack on the Al-Masri Tower, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported, citing local sources.

The Israeli military confirmed the attack on the high-rise building.

According to the Times of Israel, it housed a Hamas planning cell.

The terrorist organization was preparing attacks on Israeli soldiers and rocket attacks on Israel there.

As fighting continues in the Gaza Strip, the likelihood of a ceasefire agreement being reached in the near future is becoming increasingly remote.

Israel has accused Hamas of blocking negotiations on an agreement to release Israeli hostages.

Israel is still in contact with mediators to "reduce the differences and reach an agreement," but Hamas is apparently not interested in this, said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office.

Instead, the Palestinian organization is trying to further inflame the mood in the region during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Hamas is sticking to its stance “like someone who is not interested in an agreement,” the statement continued.

Instead, the Islamist organization aims to "inflame the region during Ramadan at the expense of the Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip."

Meanwhile, the Hamas-controlled health authority announced that 82 Palestinians had died in the past 24 hours as a result of the war.

122 other people suffered injuries.

The number of Palestinians killed since the beginning of the Gaza war on October 7th has risen to 30,960 and the number of injured to 72,524.

This information could not be independently verified either.

The numbers collected in hospitals do not distinguish between civilians and armed fighters.

70 percent of the victims are said to be women, minors and old men.

The Gaza war was triggered by an unprecedented massacre carried out by terrorists from Hamas and other extremist groups in southern Israel.

In the attack they killed 1,200 people and kidnapped another 250 as hostages in the Gaza Strip.

eru/dpa/Reuters