Palestinian Terrorists Fire Rockets Into Israel, Tanks Advance in Gaza

The Palestinian terrorist group Islamic Jihad fired a barrage of rockets into Israel on Monday as fighting raged in Gaza and Israeli tanks advanced deeper in parts of the enclave, residents and officials said.

The armed wing of Islamic Jihad, an Iranian-backed ally of Hamas, said its fighters fired rockets towards several Israeli communities near the fence with Gaza in response to “the crimes of the Zionist enemy against our Palestinian people.”

The volley of around 20 rockets caused no casualties, the Israeli military said. But the attack showed Palestinian terrorists in Gaza still possess rocket capabilities almost nine months into an offensive that Israel says is aimed at neutralizing threats against it.

Violence also flared on Monday in the West Bank, where the Palestinian health ministry said a woman and a boy were killed in the city of Tulkarm during an operation by Israeli forces. A day earlier, an Israeli strike in the same area killed an Islamic Jihad member.

In some parts of Gaza, militants continue to stage attacks on Israeli forces in areas that the army had left months ago.

Israeli tanks deepened incursions into the Shejaia suburb of eastern Gaza City for a fifth day, and tanks advanced further in western and central Rafah, in southern Gaza near the border with Egypt, residents said.

The Israeli military said it had killed a number of terrorists in combat in Shejaia on Monday and found large amounts of weapons there.

Hamas, the terrorist Islamist group that governs Gaza, said its fighters had lured an Israeli force into a booby-trapped house in the east of Rafah and blown it up, causing casualties.

The Israeli military announced the death of a soldier in southern Gaza without providing details. Israel‘s Army Radio said the soldier was killed in Rafah in a booby-trapped house — a possible reference to the incident reported by Islamic Jihad.

Also in Rafah, the Israeli military said that an airstrike killed a terrorist who fired an anti-tank missile at its troops.

Israel has signaled that its operation in Rafah, meant to stamp out Hamas, will soon be concluded. After the intense phase of the war is over, its forces will focus on smaller scale operations meant to stop Hamas reassembling, officials say.

The war began when Hamas-led fighters burst into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killed 1,200 people, and took around 250 hostages, including civilians and soldiers, back into Gaza.

In response, Israel launched a military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’ military and governing capabilities in Gaza. Hamas-controlled health authorities in Gaza say nearly 38,000 people have died during the Israeli offensive, although experts have cast doubt on the reliability of such figures coming out of the enclave, which among other issues don’t distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Israel says 317 of its soldiers have been killed in Gaza and that at least a third of the Palestinian dead are fighters.

CEASEFIRE EFFORTS STALLED

Arab mediators’ efforts to secure a ceasefire, backed by the United States, have stalled. Hamas says any deal must end the war and bring a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Israel says it will accept only temporary pauses in the fighting until Hamas is eradicated.

Israeli authorities released 54 Palestinians it had detained during the war, Palestinian border officials said.

Among them was Mohammad Abu Selmeyah, the director of Al Shifa Hospital, arrested by the military when its forces first stormed the facility in November.

Israel said Hamas had been using the hospital for military purposes. The military has released the hospital’s CCTV footage from Oct. 7 showing gunmen and hostages on the premises and has taken journalists into a tunnel found at the complex.

Hamas has been widely criticized for its military strategy of embedding its terrorists within Gaza’s civilian population and commandeering civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to run operations and direct attacks.

Hamas has denied using hospitals for military purposes; however, The Algemeiner has previously reported how the terrorist group touted its presence at Al Shifa in Arabic while rejecting the notion to English-language sources.

Abu Selmeyah rejected the allegations altogether on Monday and told a press conference at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah that detainees had been abused during their detention and that some had died.

Israel in May said it was investigating the deaths of Palestinians captured during the war as well as a military-run detention camp where released detainees and rights groups have alleged abuse of inmates.

The military did not immediately comment on Abu Selmeyah’s remarks.