Escalating Conflict: Israeli Airstrikes and Ground Incursions Devastate Gaza

Israeli forces bombarded Gaza's historic refugee camps and advanced further into Rafah, killing at least 21 people. Airstrikes in Gaza City killed two senior Islamic Jihad commanders. Medical facilities are overwhelmed, with thousands of casualties reported. Diplomatic efforts to halt the hostilities remain stalled.

Israeli forces bombarded the Gaza Strip's historic refugee camps in the centre of the enclave and struck Gaza City in the north on Thursday, killing at least 21 people, and tanks pushed deeper into Rafah in the south, health officials and residents said. A barrage of Israeli airstrikes killed 16 in Zawayda town, Bureij and Nuseirat camps, and the overcrowded city of Deir-Al-Balah, the last major urban centre in Gaza not to be invaded by Israeli forces, health officials said.

In Gaza City in the north, medics said five Palestinians were killed in two separate strikes. The Israeli military said in a statement its forces killed two senior Islamic Jihad commanders in two airstrikes, including one whom it said had taken part in the Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel that triggered the Gaza war.

In Rafah, residents said Israeli tanks advanced deeper in the western side of the city and took position on a hilltop there. The Israeli military said forces located several tunnels and killed several gunmen. At Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, Palestinian health officials exhumed at least 12 bodies from the facility to rebury them at another location.

(With inputs from agencies.)