Israel has launched a fresh round of airstrikes on the besieged Gaza Strip on the fifth day of Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, the largest military operation by the Palestinian resistance groups against the occupying entity in decades.
The official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported on Wednesday that the Israeli warplanes bombed residential apartments as well as a port in the west of Gaza City with a large number of rockets and shells.
The bombing destroyed a large number of buildings and set them on fire, leading to injuries among citizens who were transferred to al-Shifa Hospital west of the city.
The news agency said Israeli warplanes also bombed a house in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza, killing and injuring a number of people.
According to reports, Israeli jets shelled a house in the al-Hakar area in the city of Deir al-Balah in the middle of the Gaza Strip, killing three people from a family and causing several injuries while others are still under the rubble of the house.
The warplanes also bombed a house in al-Amal neighborhood, in the west of Khan Yunis, killing a number of civilians and wounding others.
The Ministry of Health said that 1055 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip and 5184 others injured in the ongoing Israeli raids against the coastal area for the fifth day in a row, with 60% of the casualties being children and women.
Since Saturday, resistance groups in the besieged Gaza Strip have fired over 5,000 rockets at the occupied territories. Israeli media outlets report that more than 1,200 settlers and troops have been killed and a lot more injured as a result.
Over 263,000 Gaza residents forced to flee
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) announced on Wednesday that the number of Palestinians who had fled their homes due to the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip has exceeded 263,000.
The organization said in a statement that over 175,486 people among the displaced are seeking shelter in 88 schools of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
“Mass displacement has continued over the past 24 hours across the Gaza Strip, with the total displacement now exceeding 263,934 people,” the statement said.
“This number is expected to rise further. Among the displaced, over 175,486 people are seeking shelter in UNRWA schools, while about 3,000 Palestinians in Gaza remain displaced due to previous escalations,” it added.
Hezbollah fired missiles from Lebanon into Israel
In another development on Wednesday, Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement said it fired missiles on the occupied territories in a retaliatory strike after three of its members were killed earlier this week in an exchange of fire in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah “targeted a Zionist Israeli position… with guided missiles,” in a “firm response to Zionist attacks… which led to the martyrdom of a number of brothers,” the movement said in a statement.
The Lebanese resistance group warned of a “decisive” response to Israeli attacks “targeting our country and the security of our people, especially when these attacks lead to the deaths of martyrs.”
Lebanon’s National News Agency also reported that Israeli fire on several locations along the border had been “countered by resistance (Hezbollah) machine guns.”
