An explosion in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip has killed and injured Israeli troops from the Golani Brigade, who were detonating a building, according to Israeli websites.
There is currently an Israeli media blackout on the incident on Thursday and there has been no official comment from the government there yet.
Witnesses in Rafah told Al Jazeera of a large explosion, and Israeli helicopters trying to evacuate the wounded. There has been heavy fighting in the area, they said.
Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reports from Deir el-Balah, in central Gaza, that Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades says it is engaging in “fierce point-blank clashes and confrontations with Israeli occupation forces operating in the El Geneina neighbourhood east of Rafah city”.
“There are more reports that a number of Israeli forces are trapped under the rubble of a building that had been previously rigged by explosives by Hamas in Rafah city. This has been a tactic that has been used by Hamas fighters to ambush Israeli ground forces”, Azzoum added.
Later the Qassam Brigades released this statement: “As part of the ‘Gates of Hell’ operations, we detonated a powerful explosive device targeting a patrol of 7 soldiers near the Omar Ibn Al-Khattab Mosque in Al-Tannour neighborhood, east of Rafah. We observed the dismembered bodies of several Israeli soldiers at the scene.”
Israeli Forces were said to be facing difficulties in evacuating the dead and injured from the site due to the intensity of the fighting. Footage broadcast by Israeli sources showed some helicopters ferrying soldiers to hospitals.
Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Gaza City said: “The available information talks about a group of Israeli soldiers – this is part of the occupying forces in the city of Rafah – and they were in the process of placing explosive wires as part of the ongoing, systematic demolition of homes across Rafah City, where the vast majority of buildings were destroyed so far since the invasion of Rafah City.”
Mahmood also said that “eyewitnesses describe seeing military choppers moving along the borderline. They patrolled the area several times before landing in Rafah City. They also reported massive, heavy machine guns and explosions that kept going on for some time before it got quieter.”
In the meantime, Israeli air strikes have killed at least 16 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip, following a deadly 24-hour period in which more than 100 people lost their lives, according to medical officials.
New strikes on Thursday killed at least three people in separate attacks in Deir el-Balah and the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, Al Jazeera Arabic reported, quoting medical sources. In Shujayea, east of Gaza City, shelling killed another person and wounded several others.
Further north, Israeli warplanes targeted a home in Beit Lahiya, killing nine. Rescuers were still searching for a woman believed to be trapped beneath the rubble.
The attack site in Beit Lahiya was “full of displaced people”, said Mahmoud earlier.
“The owner of this residential home and the displaced people he hosted were killed inside this residential home,” he said. “Many others were reported with severe injuries and burns and transferred to the Indonesian Hospital, which is already overwhelmed.
“One single family just lost nine family members, including women and children, and more people are missing and trapped under the rubble.”
In Khan Younis, one girl was killed and four others wounded after Israeli artillery hit tents sheltering displaced families in the western part of the city.
‘We have no more food’
The continuing assault on Gaza comes amid growing alarm that Israel’s total blockade of aid is pushing the enclave into famine.
The U.S. State Department said on Thursday a solution to be able to deliver food aid to Gaza was “steps away”, although it did not detail what the plan would entail.
European leaders and aid groups have criticized purported Israeli plans to take over distribution of humanitarian aid in Gaza and use private companies to get food to families after more than two months in which Israel has prevented supplies entering the besieged territory.
Israel’s blockade on Gaza – tightened on March 2 – has pushed the population deeper into crisis, cutting off aid and crippling humanitarian relief. On Wednesday, World Central Kitchen (WCK), one of the key food providers in Gaza, announced it had halted all cooking operations.
“We have no more food to prepare,” the aid group said, after exhausting flour and other basic supplies needed to run its soup kitchens and mobile bakeries. WCK had been providing at least 130,000 meals and 80,000 loaves of bread daily.
“The trucks are ready in Egypt, Jordan and Israel,” said WCK founder Jose Andres. “But they cannot move without permission. Humanitarian aid must be allowed to flow.”
The World Food Programme previously warned that its food stocks in Gaza had run dry, ending a vital lifeline for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. The continuing blockade, aid agencies say, has accelerated the onset of famine. Malnutrition is now widespread, with humanitarian workers warning they can no longer treat or prevent hunger-related illnesses.
Rights groups have condemned the blockade as a “starvation tactic” and argue it may constitute a war crime.
Sean Carroll, president of Anera (American Near East Refugee Aid), told Al Jazeera that Gaza’s humanitarian crisis has reached a critical point, with aid deliveries plummeting. “We were delivering nearly a million meals a week, and we’ve only delivered a few thousand in the past 66 days,” he said, noting that stocks are depleted.
“I think governments have to use every diplomatic lever, every political lever, every economic lever to convince all parties that there needs to be a return to some semblance of delivering humanitarian aid. We are losing our humanity here,” said Carroll.
Scenes at the few remaining open aid centres are increasingly chaotic. Children, women and men jostle for shrinking rations as food distribution systems break down. Bakeries have shut and fuel shortages have left water distribution networks paralysed.
Israel threatens Iran
Elsewhere, tensions have flared beyond Gaza, with Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warning Iran that it could face the same fate as Hamas and Hezbollah. His remarks followed a Houthi drone attack near Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport.
“You are directly responsible,” Katz said on Thursday. “What we have done to Hezbollah in Beirut, to Hamas in Gaza, we will do to you in Tehran, too.”
Yemen’s Houthi rebels launched a ballistic missile that struck near Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv on Sunday, saying the attack was in support of Palestinians in Gaza.
The strike disrupted flights and prompted Israel to launch air strikes on Sanaa International Airport and power stations in Houthi-controlled areas, killing at least one and injuring dozens, according to Houthi reports.
Iran denied backing the Houthi assault. Despite a United States-Houthi ceasefire mediated by Oman on Tuesday, ensuring “freedom of navigation” in the Red Sea, Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree said, “We will carry out more military operations against the Israeli enemy,” targeting Israel and its ships.
