The Israeli military reportedly launched attacks across the Gaza Strip, killing a minimum of 22 Palestinians, according to medical personnel. Reported encounters between Israeli forces and Hamas-led combatants occurred in Rafah near Egypt’s border on Tuesday.
As violence in Gaza escalated, concerns of a full-scale Middle East war were fueled due to an adjacent dispute between Israel and Hizbullah, supported by Iran, located along Lebanon’s border.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad insurgents engaged with the advancing Israeli armies in the northern and western areas of Rafah according to locals and official statements from the Palestinian militia. Israeli forces were said to have demolished several houses located in the Eastern and Central parts of the city, as reported by inhabitants.
Palestinian health authorities attributed the death of the 22 civilians to numerous Israeli airstrikes in the central and southern Gaza Strip. In one of the strikes alone, six Palestinians – inclusive of three women – lost their lives at a residence in Nuseirat, one of the eight historical Palestinian refugee camps.
The Israeli military has yet to provide any commentary on these incidents.
Most of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have been uprooted by a year-long conflict as frequent Israeli shelling and airstrikes have left much of the Palestinian territory in ruins. The health ministry in Gaza places the death toll of Palestinians at over 41,400 due to the Israeli offensive.
The ongoing conflict, which is reflective of the longstanding Israeli-Palestinian dispute, was instigated by a Hamas attack on Israel on October 7th, according to Israeli figures. The attack resulted in a total casualty of 1,200 and approximately 250 were taken hostage.
In contrast to this, US president Joe Biden showed a tenacious will to resolve the conflict and establish a ceasefire in Gaza through negotiations with Hamas. Furthermore, he sought to defuse the rising tensions along Lebanon’s border with Israel, as revealed by White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan.
Sullivan reassured viewers in an interview with MSNBC that President Biden certainly hadn’t lost hope. This statement came hours before Biden was scheduled to address the UN General Assembly as president for the last time.