(UPDATE: The number of Palestinians killed increased to 36, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry)
The number of Palestinians killed in the besieged Gaza Strip as a result of Israeli bombardment has increased to 32, Palestinian Health Ministry sources announced.
The increase was the outcome of an Israeli strike targeting a house in the Southern city of Rafah. It resulted in the death of 8 Palestinians.
Al Quds Brigades, the military arm of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, announced that Khalid Mansour, the leader of the group’s southern command, was killed in an Israeli strike on Saturday evening, also in Rafah.
The Palestinian Civil Defense in the Rafah region said that it managed to remove from under the rubble the bodies of a woman and her daughter, whose house had been targeted by the Israeli military.
Ra’fat al-Bawab said that their house was fully destroyed and without warning. He also confirmed that another body, along with 7 wounded, were removed from the rubble of another house and that civil defense volunteers are still trying to rescue many others who are trapped under the rubble.
Hospitals to Shut Down
The speaker for the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza Ashraf al-Qidra said that “the countdown” to the stoppage of Palestinian hospitals in Gaza has begun, following the electric outage resulting from the Israeli attacks. Al-Qidra warned of an impending humanitarian disaster.
In a related news, the Gaza authority said that the electric grid in the Strip has been shut down completely. This is a direct result of the total closure of the Strip and the lack of fuel supplies.
Aggression and Resistance
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said that it has targeted 140 positions throughout Gaza and that Palestinians have fired 508 rockets towards Israel in response.
The Israeli occupation army in the West Bank has also announced the arrest of 19 Palestinians claiming that they are members of the Islamic Jihad.
Meanwhile, the Al-Quds Brigades declared that they have, along with the National Resistance Brigades, Al Mujahideen Brigades and Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, targeted several Isreali settlements bordering the Gaza Strip, with rockets.
Earlier, the Brigades said that they had also fired rockets at Ben Gurion Airport, the city of Ashdud, Bir al-Saba’, Askalan, and Sderot with 60 missiles.
On the diplomatic front, an Egyptian delegation, led by Egyptian intelligence officers, has arrived in Israel and will be heading to Gaza later to negotiate a ceasefire.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
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Disclaimer: 32 Killed, Many Trapped under Rubble: Israeli Aggression on Besieged Gaza Continues (UPDATED) - Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect Latheefarook.com point-of-view