Occupation aircraft bombed 3 homes in Rafah amid fears of a ground attack on the city

The fears of more than a million Palestinian refugees in the border city of Rafah are increasing, following an Israeli bombing that targeted at least three homes in Rafah, about the possibility of the Israeli occupation army launching a ground attack on the last city where the displaced are sheltering.

Israeli bombing of at least three homes in Rafah last night raised new fears among more than a million people sheltering in their last refuge in the southern end of the Gaza Strip about the possibility of launching a ground attack that Israel has been threatening for some time.

The Gaza Ministry of Health reported that 11 people from one family were killed in the air strikes.

An eyewitness told Reuters as he looked up, while neighbors were helping an emergency worker unload a victim in a black bag from the top floor, that he woke up to the explosion, kissed his terrified daughter, and ran outside to find the devastation. His father (75 years old) and mother (62 years old) were among the martyrs.

At the site of another explosion, witnesses said intensifying air strikes was Israel's way of showing its disdain for last week's UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire.

Citizens fear that Israel will launch a ground attack on Rafah despite appeals from Washington, its closest ally, that the attack would cause great harm to civilians.

In the occupied West Bank, which witnessed an increase in bloodshed coinciding with the war in Gaza, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said on Wednesday that three Palestinians were martyred and four wounded by Israeli fire in an overnight raid in the city of Jenin.

The Israeli war on Gaza, which has been ongoing since October 7, 2023, has left tens of thousands of civilian victims, most of them children and women, and massive destruction of infrastructure and property, in addition to a famine that has claimed the lives of children and the elderly, according to Palestinian and UN data.​​​​​​

Just north of Rafah, Israeli forces kept the two main hospitals in Khan Yunis, Al Amal Hospital and Nasser Hospital, under siege they imposed last week. In the northern Gaza Strip, forces are still continuing operations around the Shifa Complex, the largest hospital in the Strip, which they stormed more than a week ago.

Israel says that Hamas members use the three hospitals, which is denied by Hamas and medical teams. The Israeli occupation army said that it killed and arrested hundreds of fighters in the vicinity of Al-Shifa Hospital, while Hamas confirmed that civilians and paramedics were arrested.

The Gaza Ministry of Health said that the wounded and sick were being held inside the Human Resources Department, which was not equipped to provide them with health care.

Residents living nearby said they heard explosions in and around the Al-Shifa Complex and that plumes of smoke rose from buildings inside the medical facility.