Israeli strikes intensified throughout Gaza at the moment, with a few of the heaviest shelling in weeks, pounding the north, the place the Israeli military had earlier withdrawn, native residents stated.
Aerial shelling and tank strikes have been additionally reported in areas of central and southern Gaza, with residents talking of incessant pounding.
In a single day, tanks once more entered japanese Beit Hanoun, on the enclave's northern edge, however didn’t penetrate deep into town, residents and Hamas stated. The hearth even reached some faculties, inflicting panic among the many displaced individuals who have taken refuge in them.
In Israel, the place public companies and companies have been closed for the Passover vacation, alarm sirens sounded warning of an imminent rocket assault on southern border cities, however no casualties have been reported. The armed wing of Islamic Jihad, a gaggle affiliated with Hamas, claimed duty for the assaults within the cities of Sderot and Nir Am, suggesting it’s nonetheless able to firing rockets after practically 200 days of warfare and after a lot of town was flattened. of the Palestinian enclave and displaced virtually all of the inhabitants, 2.3 million individuals.
Thick, black smoke rose in northern Gaza from the border with southern Israel. The shelling was heavy in japanese Beit Hanoun and Jabalia and continued at the moment in areas reminiscent of Zeitoun, one in all Gaza Metropolis's oldest suburbs, the place residents stated at the very least 10 hits hit the principle highway in a matter of seconds.
“It was a type of nights of terror we lived by way of initially of the warfare. The shelling from the tanks and planes didn't cease,” stated Umm Mohammad, 53, a mom of six who lives 700 meters from Zeitoun. “I gathered my kids and my sisters who got here to shelter in my home and we prayed for our lives whereas the home was shaking,” he added.
West of Beit Hanoun, in Beit Lahiya, a mosque was hit, killing a boy and injuring many others. A paramedic was killed in a shelling close to town's stadium, in accordance with his colleagues.
In one other blow to Beit Lahiya, crowds gathered on the seaside highway to gather help packages dropped from planes have been hit. Reuters was unable to substantiate these targets or decide whether or not there have been any casualties.
In Khan Yunis, at some point after the tanks entered, the shelling continued. In central Gaza, 4 lifeless have been recovered from a home hit in a single day within the Al Nuseirat refugee camp.
The Israeli navy stated the rockets fired in a single day into Israeli territory got here from northern Gaza. It claimed it carried out “focused precision strikes” in opposition to rocket launchers and killed many militants. In his assertion, he specified that warplanes hit “about 25 terrorist targets” throughout the Gaza Strip and that amongst them have been “navy infrastructure, remark posts, terrorists, launch websites.”
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Supply: APE-MPE-Reuters