Gaza Strip: Israel Intensifies Attacks, Casualty Toll Rises

On Wednesday, the Israeli Armed Forces (IDF) intensified its ground offensive against several areas of the Gaza Strip, where dozens of Palestinians are reported killed and wounded.

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Al Jazeera television reported violent clashes between Palestinian militias and Israeli soldiers trying to penetrate inside the cities of Rafah, Gaza and the Jabalia refugee camp, in three simultaneous operations.

In recent hours, the al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, released images of its attacks on Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles during several ambushes.

For its part, the army claims to have killed some 300 militiamen in the past week during raids in Rafah and numerous others in Jabalia and the Gaza neighbourhood of al-Zaytoun.

This morning, the IDF announced the death of a sergeant yesterday during fighting around Rafah, bringing to 273 the death toll of IDF soldiers since the start of its assault on the Strip.

Five Palestinian civilians were killed on Wednesday in shelling on a house in the Bureij refugee camp and four others in a similar incident in Jabalia.

Meanwhile, the official Wafa news agency reported heavy aerial and artillery bombardment of the Gaza City neighbourhoods of Al-Zaytoun, Al-Sabra and Al-Rimal.

The neighbourhoods of Al-Salam, Al-Jeneina and Al-Brazil in the east of the southern Egyptian border town of Rafah were also targeted.

After months of threats, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week launched his troops against the Rafah crossing and then against the town of the same name, which is crowded with more than a million refugees.

Since then more than half a million Palestinians have fled the town to escape the war, although the UN has warned that there is nowhere to flee to in the Strip.