CAIRO/JERUSALEM: Israeli troops and tanks pushed on Saturday into components of a congested northern Gaza Strip district that they’d beforehand skirted within the greater than seven-month-old battle, killing and wounding dozens of Palestinians, medics and residents mentioned.Israel’s forces additionally took over some floor in Rafah, a southern metropolis subsequent to the Egyptian border that’s filled with displaced folks and the place the launch this month of a long-threatened incursion to crush hold-outs of Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas has alarmed Cairo and Washington.The Israeli navy mentioned its air forces hit greater than 70 targets throughout the Gaza Strip whereas floor troops performed “focused raids” in jap Rafah, killing 50 militants and finding dozens of tunnel shafts.In what Israeli media mentioned was the results of intelligence gleaned through the newest incursions, the navy introduced the restoration of the physique of a person who was amongst greater than 250 hostages seized by Hamas in a cross-border rampage on Oct 7 that triggered the battle.Ron Binyamin’s stays had been positioned together with these of three different slain hostages whose repatriation was introduced on Friday, the navy mentioned with out offering additional particulars.There was no instant remark from Hamas.Israel has performed renewed navy sweeps this month of components of northern Gaza the place it had declared the top of main operations in January. On the time, it additionally predicted its forces would return to stop a regrouping by the Palestinian Islamist group that guidelines Gaza.One web site has been Jabalia, the most important of Gaza Strip’s eight historic refugee camps. On Saturday, troops and tanks edged into streets up to now spared the bottom offensive, residents mentioned. In a single strike, medics mentioned 15 Palestinians had been killed and dozens wounded.
