50 Israeli Bombings on Rafah Leave Dozens Dead

On Monday, the Health Ministry reported that Israeli airstrikes had left 164 dead and 200 wounded in Gaza during the last 24 hours.

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Rafah under Heavy Israeli Bombardment

"The Israeli occupation committed 19 massacres against families in the Gaza Strip," Palestinian authorities said, indicating that about 67 dead arrived at hospitals in Rafah, after a night of heavy bombardment on the city, where more than 1.4 million Palestinians, mostly internally displaced, are crowded.

Israel is intensifying its attacks in the area ahead of a possible imminent ground offensive in the city, in the southernmost tip of Gaza and the only point where Israeli troops have not yet accessed by land since the start of their ground invasion on October 27.

According to the Wafa news agency, the casualties in Rafah would be over a hundred. The intense barrage of around fifty airstrikes in Rafah were partly targeted at houses and mosques sheltering displaced persons, "along with intense artillery and naval bombardments."

Among the dead are children and women, and some of the attacks were in the city center, against inhabited houses opposite the emergency teams' headquarters of the Red Crescent in Rafah.

Many wounded were transported to medical centers like Kuwait Hospital, where "there are not enough medicines or saline solutions" to treat the injuries.

For days, the international community and key players like the United Nations or Egypt have been pressuring Israel not to launch a ground attack on Rafah due to the large number of civilians in the city, which is also bordering the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula.

Since the outbreak of the war on October 7, the total number of Palestinians killed by the Israeli offensive in Gaza is 28,340, and the wounded are close to 68,000.