Gaza:

Israeli shelling near a southern Gaza hospital has killed 41 people over the past two days, the Palestinian Red Crescent said, after Israel stepped up its attacks in the center and south of the besieged territory.

Israel’s sustained aerial bombardment and ground offensive in Gaza has killed at least 21,320 people, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

An estimated 100,000 more displaced people have arrived in the already overcrowded southern border city of Rafah in recent days as fighting intensified around Deir al-Balah and Khan Yunis, the U.N. humanitarian office said Thursday.

The additional displacement came as Egyptian officials were set to welcome a high-level Hamas delegation to Cairo on Friday for talks on a new resolution aimed at ending the nearly three-month conflict that has devastated Gaza.

The Palestinian Red Crescent on Thursday condemned Israeli shelling near al-Amal hospital in Khan Yunis, which “killed ten people and wounded at least 21 others”, saying the attack came a day after . A day earlier, 31 people had died in the hospital.

“The casualties include people in front of the hospital and displaced people taking shelter in the PRCS (Red Crescent) compound,” the group said in a statement.

Later in the day, Gaza’s health ministry said 20 people, mostly women and children, were killed in Israeli shelling of the Shaboura camp in Rafah on the southern border with Egypt.

AFP footage from the city showed bloodied people being carried through the streets to a nearby Kuwaiti hospital, where medical staff were racing to treat a flood of injured patients, including children.

The Israeli military says 167 of its soldiers have been killed inside Gaza in fighting against Hamas, however, the actual number is much higher. Israel also does not release the names of any casualties along the country’s northern border with Lebanon.

The Israeli military recently said it had deployed an additional brigade to Khan Yunis, the hometown of Hamas Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar, where AFP correspondents have reported sustained air and artillery attacks. Israeli forces have failed to make any significant progress over the past two weeks as resistance fighters continue to give tough battles to the attacking forces.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant told troops on Thursday, “The missions that our forces are conducting in Khan Yunis are unprecedented – our forces reach areas where we have never gone before, capturing control rooms. And we are eliminating the terrorists.”

Israel has repeatedly said that a main goal of the war is the return of prisoners, but Israeli strikes have already killed many people.

On Thursday, a kibbutz announced that a 70-year-old American-Israeli citizen, believed to be the oldest woman taken captive, had died in the October 7 attacks.

US President Joe Biden said he was “devastated” by the news that Judith Weinstein Haggai died, and pledged that Washington “will never stop working” with its ally Israel to bring the remaining hostages home. .

The United Nations says more than 80 percent of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been driven from their homes, and many now live in cramped shelters or makeshift tents in the far south around Rafah.

An Israeli army self-propelled artillery howitzer fires shells from a position near the border with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel. Photo: AFP

Residents combed through the debris for survivors after Thursday’s airstrike, which a witness said left “several casualties.”

“we sat [at home] Quietly and suddenly we heard a loud explosion and debris started falling on us. The apartment was completely destroyed and my daughters were screaming,” said Tayseer Abu al-Eish.

After years of blockade, the Israeli siege imposed after October 7 has deprived Gazans of food, water, fuel and medicine.

The severe shortage has been alleviated only sporadically by humanitarian aid convoys entering mainly via Egypt. Israel said on Thursday it had given preliminary approval to the Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus for a “maritime lifeline” to send aid to Gaza.

A Hamas delegation was due to arrive in Cairo on Friday to deliver “comments” on Egypt’s planned ceasefire to officials recently given to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which is also battling Israeli forces in Gaza.

Sources close to Hamas say Cairo’s three-phase plan provides for a renewable ceasefire, the gradual release of prisoners held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israel, and an eventual ceasefire to end the war.

It also provides for a Palestinian government of technocrats, following negotiations involving “all Palestinian factions”, that would be responsible for governance and reconstruction in Gaza after the war.

A Hamas official told AFP on Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity, that the delegation would “respond to Palestinian factions, including a number of comments” regarding the details of the exchange and “guaranteeing a full Israeli military withdrawal”.

Dia Rashwan, head of Egypt’s state information services, said the plan was aimed at “bringing together the views of all concerned parties with the aim of ending the shedding of Palestinian blood”.