More than 20 Palestinians, including children and women, have been killed in intensive Israeli airstrikes on Khan Yunis and Rafah since dawn on Sunday. Meanwhile, Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has approved a continued escalation in the Gaza Strip, which is witnessing an expansion of Israeli ground incursions.
The airstrikes targeted several areas in Khan Yunis, including the Japanese Quarter, the western Mawasi area (which houses a large number of displaced persons), and the eastern Satar area. Palestinian sources said the death toll reached 23.
Among the martyrs in Mawasi was Salah al-Bardawil, a member of the Political Bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), and his wife. Several members of his family were also wounded.
Hamas said that al-Bardawil was assassinated when the tent he was living in with his family was bombed.
Sources reported that a woman and a child were killed and others were wounded in the Israeli airstrike on the Japanese Quarter in Khan Yunis.
The eastern areas of Khan Yunis, including the town of Abasan, are also being subjected to aerial and artillery bombardment, coinciding with the incursion of Israeli forces into the area.
In Rafah, several areas of the city were subjected to successive Israeli airstrikes. Palestinian sources reported that the bombing resulted in deaths and injuries in the neighborhoods of Tel al-Sultan, al-Nasr, and al-Junaina.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said that occupation forces surrounded a number of its ambulances while they were in an area that was targeted in Rafah. It confirmed that a number of paramedics were injured and that contact with the crew, which has been under siege for hours, was lost.
