GAZA: Israel pounded Gaza on Saturday as the Palestinian territory suffered under a dire humanitarian situation and grappled with a telecommunications blackout on the 99th day of the war.
Fears of the conflict widening have grown after US and British forces struck pro-Hamas Houthi rebels in Yemen following attacks on Red Sea shipping, with a fresh US air strike confirmed Saturday.
Witnesses reported Israeli bombardment of Gaza in the early morning, and an AFP journalist said Friday that strikes and shelling had hit areas between Gaza’s southern cities of Khan Yunis and Rafah, crowded with people who have fled from the north.
All Internet and telecommunications services in Gaza were cut Friday as a result of Israeli bombardment, the main operator Paltel said.
“Gaza is blacked out again,” it said in a post on social media platform X.
The Palestinian Red Crescent posted that the disruption was increasing the challenges in “reaching the wounded and injured promptly.”
Israel’s relentless bombardment of Gaza has killed at least 23,708 people, mostly women and children, according to the latest health ministry figures.
The war began when Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on October 7, which resulted in about 1,140 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. The militant group also seized about 250 hostages.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces killed three Palestinians who were armed with knives, a rifle and axes and were trying to break into a settlement in the occupied West Bank overnight between Friday and Saturday, the Israeli military said.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said two were 16-years-old and the third was 19.
The Israeli military said a soldier was wounded in an exchange of fire with the assailants as they breached the outer fence of the settlement Adora, near the Palestinian city Hebron.
