Fighting intensifies as Israeli strikes leave 22 dead in Gaza

Cairo, July 21

Israeli forces battled Palestinian fighters in the southern Gaza city of Rafah on Sunday, and struck areas in the centre of the coastal enclave where thousands of Palestinians displaced from their homes have been seeking shelter.

Residents in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, said fierce battles raged between Hamas-led fighters and Israeli forces, especially in the centre and in western areas where tanks advanced in the previous two days.

The armed wings of the Islamic Jihad and Hamas Islamist militant groups said fighters confronted Israeli forces with anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs.

The Israeli military said its soldiers had killed a group of fighters who were moving towards them, and destroyed ammunition, tunnel shafts and infrastructure in Tel al-Sultan, in the eastern part of the city.

Israeli strikes in the previous 24 hours killed at least 64 and wounded more than 100 others, the local health ministry said. At least 22 were killed by strikes on Sunday, according to the Hamas-run Gaza government media office. — Reuters

Tel Aviv shoots down missile

• Israel said it shot down a missile launched from Yemen on Sunday, and the Yemeni Houthi movement said it had fired several missiles at the Israeli city of Eilat after Israel’s first public strike against the Iran-aligned group a day earlier.
• But a rare Houthi drone strike on Friday hit Tel Aviv and killed one person, prompting Israel to announce its first strikes against the group on Saturday. The strikes by warplanes hit near the Yemeni port of Hodeidah and killed six people, local medics said.
• The Israeli warplanes’ air raid on Hodeidah on Saturday killed six people and wounded more than 80, medical sources in Yemen told Reuters, describing all as civilians.
• Images from the scene showed a fiery blaze and dense smoke rising from the site of the strike. A Houthi-run TV channel said the strikes had hit an oil facility and power station.