In the eighth month of the war between Israel and Hamas, which has led to the further displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, Israeli army fighter planes and helicopters carried out intense strikes on the Gaza Strip on Monday 20 May before dawn.
In the north of the Palestinian territory, military aircraft carried out strikes on the neighborhoods of Zeitoun and Sabra in Gaza City, and one of them hit a house, according to correspondents from Agence France-Presse and doctors. Helicopters also bombed the Jabaliya refugee camp, where Hamas has regained a foothold according to the Israeli army.
In the center of the small, overpopulated Palestinian territory, the Al-Boureij camp and Deir Al-Balah were the target of air raids.
Intervening in Rafah, a “duty” for Israel
In the South, a strike hit a house in the Tal Al-Sultan neighborhood, west of Rafah, killing three and wounding eight, according to hospital sources. Rafah was also targeted by Israeli naval fire, witnesses said. According to the army, soldiers are carrying out “targeted raids against terrorist infrastructure in eastern Rafah, eliminating the enemy and locating tunnel openings.”
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told a visiting US envoy on Monday that his country had a “duty” to expand its ground military offensive in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.
During a meeting in Tel Aviv with White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, the Israeli defense minister “stressed with him Israel’s duty to expand the ground operation to Rafah, to dismantle Hamas and bring back the hostages,” he explains in a message on X.