Israel attacks several targets in Gaza, Hamas claims nine dead

Israeli forces attacked areas in the central Gaza Strip today, killing at least nine Palestinians, according to officials from the Hamas-controlled health ministry, while Israeli tanks continued to make limited advances into Rafah in the south.

An Israeli airstrike around midnight on a house in Al-Zawyda in the central Gaza Strip killed eight people, health authorities said. Another attack killed a man in Nuseirat camp, one of the enclave’s eight refugee camps, where 23 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a school a day earlier.

Israeli tanks also shelled the eastern areas of the Al-Bureij and Al-Maghazi camps in the center of the enclave, residents said. An airstrike destroyed a mosque, residents said.

Meanwhile, in Rafah, tanks carried out an attack in the north of the city before withdrawing – a tactic that Israeli forces also use in other areas before launching deeper incursions. Since May, tanks have been deployed in most parts of the city but have not penetrated deep into the northern districts.

Medics said an Israeli attack killed two people in Rafah today, while residents said the forces blew up dozens of homes. The Israeli military said troops were “continuing precise, intelligence-based operational activities in the Rafah area.” It said they had eliminated an alleged terror cell and a launcher used to fire at troops.

It said that 25 targets across the Gaza Strip had been attacked by air in the last 24 hours and that troops continued to operate in the center of the Gaza Strip, including dismantling structures used to observe the soldiers.

Even nine months after the war began, Palestinian fighters led by the Islamist Hamas are still able to attack Israeli forces with anti-tank missiles and mortar shells and from time to time fire rocket salvos at Israel.

Israel vowed to wipe out Hamas after its terrorists killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages in an attack on communities in southern Israel on October 7, according to Israeli figures.

On Tuesday, the military announced that it had eliminated half of the leadership of Hamas’ military wing. Around 14,000 fighters have been killed or captured since the conflict began. Israel says 326 of its soldiers have been killed in Gaza since then.

(With contributions from Reuters)