Israeli forces, backed by warplanes, have staged a brief ground raid into central Gaza, as it is threatening a full ground invasion as part of a fierce aggression on the besieged strip that has so far killed over 7,000 people, most of them women, and children.
The Israeli army said on Friday that its ground forces, accompanied by fighter jets and UAVs, “conducted an additional targeted raid in the central Gaza Strip” on the last day.
According to the Israeli military, Israeli tanks and infantry staged a similar raid in northern Gaza the previous night.
That statement comes as tens of thousands of Israeli troops have massed alongside the fence separating the occupied territories from Gaza ahead of a possible ground invasion.
There are fears that the invasion will lead to an exponential growth in the number of Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes since October 7 which topped 7,000.
The strikes have left Gazans “with nothing but impossible choices” the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory said Thursday.
“Nowhere is safe in Gaza,” said Lynne Hastings as UN figures showed the Israeli aggression left 1.4 million people, more than half of Gaza’s population, displaced.
Hastings noted that Israel hit southern areas and evacuation routes despite repeatedly urging civilians in northern Gaza to move south for their safety.
Rahma Saqallah, was one of those who heeded Israeli warnings but found that they are part of false propaganda.
“They told us to leave for the south and then they killed us (here),” she told AFP after Israeli strikes killed her husband and three of her children in the southern city of Khan Yunis.
“Wherever we go, we will die,” she said, as she prepared to return to Gaza City with her surviving child.
In addition to the strikes, the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza has reached new heights after Israel imposed a complete siege on the coastal sliver.
SD/Press TV
