Dozens of Palestinian civilians have been killed and injured over the past 24 hours by intense Israeli bombardment across the Gaza Strip.

(Article republished from TheCradle.co)

Israeli airstrikes have continued to relentlessly bomb northern, central, and southern Gaza.

“18 martyrs and six wounded were admitted to the Kuwait Hospital” in the southern city of Rafah, medical sources told WAFA news agency on 12 May. Children were among those killed by Israeli strikes on Rafah.

“Israeli tanks opened fire on civilian homes in the eastern areas of Deir al-Balah and Maghazi,” WAFA added.

Israeli artillery shelling pounded Gaza City’s Al-Zaytoun neighborhood in the north. Over a dozen civilians remain trapped under the rubble there, according to WAFA. Several civilians were also killed in the bombing of northern Gaza’s Jabalia.

Heavy Israeli bombardment of Jabalia refugee camp continues. This video shows the bombardment of the medical personnel and journalists in the camp. pic.twitter.com/HFVEA5Be9B

— Mustafa Barghouti @Mustafa_Barghouti (@MustafaBarghou1) May 12, 2024

An Israeli quadcopter opened fire at the UNRWA clinic in the Jabalia refugee camp.

“Our emergency crews are receiving many calls for help,” said civil defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal, adding that it is “gravely difficult and dangerous for the civil defense crews to aid civilians because they themselves have no immunity and are targeted by Israeli occupation forces.”

The intensified bombardment comes as Israeli troops are engaged in fierce clashes with the Palestinian resistance in northern Gaza.

Hamas’ Qassam Brigades struck Israeli forces with heavy-caliber mortar shells in Al-Zaytoun neighborhood on 12 May, the group said in a statement.

On 11 May, intense clashes reignited in Al-Zaytoun, months after Tel Aviv claimed Hamas had been defeated in the north of the enclave. The Israeli army has also deployed to the city of Jabalia north of Gaza City, where it now says fighters from Hamas’ armed wing have regrouped.

The Qassam Brigades have also continued to fiercely confront Israeli forces operating in the southern city of Rafah, where the army launched a recent operation to seize the border crossing with Egypt. Tel Aviv had been claiming for months that Rafah is Hamas’ final stronghold, despite its continued presence, along with other factions, across the strip.

Rocket barrages have been flying out of Rafah toward the positions of Tel Aviv’s forces and nearby settlements over the past two days.

? Rocket sirens sound in Gaza border communities

— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) May 12, 2024

“Hamas has military capability and it will remain, and we will not end it if we continue fighting,” former head of Israel’s National Security Council, Giora Eiland, said on Saturday.

Read more at: TheCradle.co