Hamas delegation heads to Egypt
- Israeli attacks across Gaza have already killed at least 37 people this morning, according to medical sources in the enclave.
- Hamas will dispatch a delegation to Cairo amid continuing Gaza ceasefire talks and negotiations towards a deal to exchange Israeli captives held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners, Al Jazeera sources say.
Four more killed near Khan Younis
An Israeli air raid has hit a house in the Ma’an area, south-east of Khan Younis, report our colleagues on the ground.
The attack killed at least four people and injured others, they say.
It follows several earlier attacks in or around Khan Younis that killed over 20 people, including women and children.
Gaza’s death toll rises
At least 40,334 people have been killed and 93,356 wounded in Israeli military attacks on Gaza since October 7, the enclave’s Health Ministry says.
Of those, 69 Palestinians were killed and 212 wounded in the past 24-hour reporting period, the ministry added.
‘Panic’ in Deir el-Balah as displaced people flee attacks in last ‘intact’ city
More than 100,000 people have been displaced from [eastern Der el-Balah] over the last 48 hours. The concern is that the number is going to increase as more areas become potential targets for the Israeli military. The city is running out of space.
More residential blocks are part of Israel’s “red zone” and people are not being given enough time to evacuate. There have been artillery strikes since the early hours of the morning, causing a great deal of panic. The heavy artillery can go deep into the city.
The skies above the city are clouded with quadcopters, surveillance drones and other aircraft, intimidating everyone who is trying to seek safety to the west. Even now, the sound of shots from quadcopters are going off.
There is a growing fear that Deir el-Balah, which is the only city left in the entire strip that is relatively intact, will suffer the same fate as other cities. There is fear that Israel’s military will move gradually towards the centre and then then western part.
The population is traumatised by the many times it has been forced into internal displacement.
A breakdown of Israel’s deadly attacks on Gaza today
Medical sources tell Al Jazeera that at least 37 people have been killed across the Gaza Strip since this morning.
The bodies of 36 killed in Israeli attacks arrived at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, while a dozen bodies were recovered from an apartment complex in the same city.
The morgue at Nasser Hospital could confirm the following specific incidents:
- Eleven Palestinians, including children and women, were killed following an Israeli bombardment on the al-Katiba area in Khan Younis.
- One person was killed and three injured after Israeli forces opened fire on the tents of displaced people in Khan Younis.
- Nine people were killed and others injured in an Israeli bombing that targeted a house in the al-Amal neighbourhood in Khan Younis.
- One person was killed and others wounded in the Abu Areef area, east of Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
- Three Palestinians were killed and a number wounded in an Israeli bombardment targeting a residential apartment in Ain Jalut in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza.
- Three Palestinians were killed and others wounded in a separate Israeli bombing in the Abu Areef area east of Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
Israel’s attacks on the Strip have not ceased, so we will continue to update you as more information comes to us.
Hezbollah claims attacks on army site in northern Israel
The Lebanese group says it conducted an artillery strike and a suicide drone attack on the “al-Raheb” military site near the border.
It said the strikes were carried out at 12pm (09:00 GMT) and 12:15pm respectively, adding that both of them hit the target directly.
Rescuers find dead, wounded in Nuseirat
Medics with the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) have recovered the bodies of five people killed and rescued one person wounded by an Israeli attack in northern Nuseirat camp.
Footage posted by the group shows its medics picking up the dead and wounded and taking them to a nearby health facility, in what it called a “dangerous mission”.
Earlier, we reported that Israeli forces had struck an apartment in Nuseirat, killing at least three people.
What’s the Philadelphi Corridor?
We have been reporting that a major obstacle to a potential ceasefire deal is Israel’s demand to retain security control over several corridors in the Gaza Strip.
Here are some fast facts about the Philadelphi Corridor:
- The Philadelphi Corridor, also known as the Philadelphi Route, is a 14km (8.7-mile) long strip of land that represents the entirety of the border area between Gaza and Egypt.
- It was established as a buffer zone controlled and patrolled by Israeli armed forces as part of the 1979 peace treaty with Egypt that ended Israel’s occupation of the Sinai Peninsula and reopened the Suez Canal.
- Its stated purpose was to stop weapons and material from reaching the hands of Palestinians inside the Gaza Strip, which Israel occupied, and to prevent people from moving between the Palestinian lands and Egypt without tough checks.
- An agreement after the Israeli disengagement from the area in 2005 allowed Egypt to deploy 750 soldiers and heavy arms to patrol and safeguard the Egyptian side of the corridor, with the responsibility of the other side handed over to the Palestinian Authority.
- In May, Israel captured the Rafah border crossing and took control of the corridor.
- Hamas insists that Israeli troops must withdraw from the corridor, while Netanyahu insists that Israeli troops must remain to preserve Israeli security and derail the smuggling of weapons to Hamas.
