Egypt sent a third aid convoy to the Gaza Strip on Monday, following two previous ones that entered the besieged enclave on Saturday and Sunday. An official from the Egyptian Red Crescent said that 34 trucks carrying humanitarian aid crossed the border through the Rafah crossing in two batches over the past two days.
However, the government media office in Gaza said that no fuel had entered the strip since the start of the Israeli aggression, despite the urgent need for it to ensure the operation of the health and service sectors in the strip.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army persisted in its attacks on civilians in Gaza for the 17th consecutive day. Israeli forces bombed residential areas and hospitals, killing about 400 people in the last 24 hours.
The death toll of the aggression has reached 5,087 – including more than 2,055 children and 1,119 women – as well as 15,273 wounded and 1,500 missing under the rubble, among them 830 children.
On the other side, more than 1,400 Israelis have been killed in Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, including 308 soldiers and over 200 prisoners held by Palestinian resistance groups inside Gaza.
In the West Bank, six Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in Jenin, Nablus, and Hebron on Monday, raising the death toll to 94 since October 7th.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza said that the Israeli occupation had widened its target range to include civilian gatherings in markets, mosques, bakeries, and restaurants. It warned that this could lead to major massacres with hundreds of victims.
The ministry also said that medical teams were dealing with severe burn injuries and skin-melting cases that they had never seen before and were difficult to treat. It urged international organizations to reveal the nature of the weapon used to cause such injuries and to provide the necessary treatments for them urgently.
The ministry added that the Israeli violations against the health system had resulted in the death of 57 medical staff, the destruction of 25 ambulances and their withdrawal from service, and the closure of 12 hospitals and 32 health centres due to bombing or fuel shortage.
The Ministry of Health called on the United Nations to immediately work to bring fuel to Gaza’s hospitals before a catastrophe occurs that claims the lives of thousands of wounded and sick. It also appealed to Egypt to open the Rafah crossing and facilitate the entry of medical aid and fuel and the exit of wounded and sick people.
In addition, Hamas said that fierce clashes erupted between resistance fighters and Israeli soldiers near the border areas of northern Gaza before dawn on Monday. Hamas sources said that the Israeli army was conducting a border drill north of Gaza that seemed to be an attempt at a limited ground invasion, but the resistance responded with weapons and fired anti-tank missiles at vehicles and soldiers.
The Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, claimed on Sunday that they had ambushed an Israeli armored unit that had crossed the border fence east of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip. They said that they had destroyed two bulldozers and a tank, and forced the Israeli soldiers to retreat. They also said that their fighters had returned to their bases safely. The Israeli army confirmed that four of its soldiers were wounded in the clash, one of them fatally.
On Monday, the Al-Qassam Brigades announced that they had launched two “Zwari” drones, which are named after a Hamas engineer who was assassinated in Tunisia in 2016. They said that one drone targeted an Israeli Air Force squadron at the “Hatzrim” base, and the other targeted the headquarters of the Sinai Division of the Israeli army at the “Tselem” base.
In a separate development, Israeli Radio quoted a senior security official as saying that Hamas would release 50 of its prisoners who have foreign or dual citizenship. Abu Ubaida, the spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades, said that they were ready to release foreign prisoners when the situation on the ground allowed it.
