©Reuters. A Palestinian woman and a child look at the site of an Israeli airstrike on a building, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, March 9, 2024. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
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By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Bassam Masoud
CAIRO/RAFAH, Gaza (Reuters) -Israel struck one of the largest residential towers in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday, residents said, increasing pressure on the last area of the enclave it has not yet overrun and where over a million inhabitants displaced Palestinians find refuge.
The 12-story building was damaged during the strike and residents said dozens of families were left homeless, although no casualties were reported. The Israeli military said the blockade was being used by Hamas to plan attacks against Israelis.
One of the 300 residents of the tower, which is about 500 meters from the border with Egypt, told Reuters that Israel gave them a 30-minute warning to escape the building at night.
“People were surprised, they ran down the stairs, some fell, it was chaos. People left their belongings and money,” Mohammad Al-Nabrees said, adding that among those who stumbled down the stairs during the The pregnant wife of a friend was in the panic evacuation.
The attack raised alarm among residents of a broader Israeli assault on Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are sheltering. Israel has said it plans to carry out operations in the area, which it considers the last bastion of Hamas.
But his pledge to do so only after civilians have been evacuated has done little to quell international concerns.
Five months after Israel’s relentless air and ground attack on Gaza, health authorities say nearly 31,000 Palestinians have been killed and thousands more bodies are feared buried under the rubble.
The war was triggered by an October 7 attack by Hamas in southern Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and 253 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
Hamas said on Saturday that four Israeli hostages had died during Israeli attacks in the enclave, although it offered no proof. The Israeli military, which did not immediately respond to the accusation, has previously said such Hamas videos were psychological warfare.
CESSATEFIRE NEGOTIATIONS
The offensive has plunged Gaza, already reeling from a 17-year-old Israeli-Egyptian security blockade, into a humanitarian catastrophe.
In a speech in Egypt marking Martyrs’ and Veterans’ Day on Saturday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said the cost of rebuilding Gaza could exceed $90 billion.
Much of the coastal enclave has been reduced to rubble and most of its population displaced, with the United Nations warning of disease and starvation.
A ship loaded with humanitarian aid for Gaza was preparing to leave Cyprus on Saturday. The European Commission has said a maritime aid corridor between Cyprus and Gaza could start operating as early as this weekend under a pilot project run by an international charity and funded by the United Arab Emirates.
Three Palestinian children died of dehydration and malnutrition overnight at Al Shifa Northern Hospital, Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra said, bringing to 23 the number of Palestinians who have died from similar causes in nearly 10 days. .
“This brutal war has destroyed any sense of shared humanity,” said Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
He called for an end to hostilities to allow meaningful distribution of aid to Gaza, for Hamas to release all hostages unconditionally, and for Israel to treat Palestinians in its custody humanely and allow them to contact their families.
However, negotiations for a ceasefire and the release of 134 hostages still held incommunicado in Gaza appeared to have stalled ahead of the hoped-for deadline, the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins around March 10.
A Hamas source told Reuters it was “unlikely” the group’s delegation would make another visit to Cairo at the weekend for talks. Hamas has blamed the stalemate on Israel, which has refused to give guarantees to end the war or withdraw its forces from Gaza.
Israel says the war will only end with the defeat of Hamas, whose ceasefire conditions Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called “delusional.”
The Israeli military said it had made arrests, located weapons and killed more than 30 militants in southern Khan Younis, central Gaza and the north in recent days.
Gaza’s health ministry said at least 82 people had been killed in Israeli attacks over the past day. Doctors said 23 people were killed in Khan Younis and that in northern Gaza, Israeli fire killed a Palestinian fisherman along the beach.
Fears are growing that violence could also increase during Ramadan in the occupied West Bank, where Israel has stepped up raids amid Palestinian street attacks.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Association said Saturday that more than 7,500 Palestinians have been detained there by Israel since October 7. The Israeli army said 3,500 Palestinian suspects had been arrested, about half of them belonging to Hamas.