Arya News - Israeli forces also target Khan Younis home in south as Palestinians trickle across Rafah border in either direction.
Two Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the northern Gaza Strip, emergency services said, with multiple attacks reported across the coastal enclave as Israel presses its genocidal war despite the “ceasefire” it has violated daily since October 10.
The bodies of those killed in the cities of Jabalia and Beit Lahiya were transported on Friday to al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City.
In southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, Israel struck a Palestinian home, with the military, claiming the attack was in response to its soldiers being shot near the so-called yellow line – the demarcation line where the Israeli army entrenched under the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire, creating its own buffer zone.
“Within half an hour, the house was evacuated. It was cleared out, and then it was bombed,” resident Saleh Abu Hatab told Al Jazeera, adding it was located “opposite a school sheltering displaced people”.
A displaced Palestinian boy sits on the rubble after Israeli aircraft attacked a five-storey house in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip [AFP]
‘Traumatising Palestinians’
Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, reporting from Khan Younis, said the attack hit a multistorey building belonging to the Abu Hatab family.
“No injuries or deaths were reported,” she said. Khoudary added that Israeli forces also attacked an area of empty land in Sheikh Ijilin in Gaza City.
“Despite the ceasefire … Israeli forces continue to attack different areas across the Gaza Strip, which is traumatising Palestinians,” she added.
Elsewhere, in the central enclave, several Israeli tanks and engineering vehicles advanced east of Deir el-Balah, bulldozing and conducting clearing operations in the area.
The attacks come two days after Israel killed at least 23 Palestinians on Wednesday, one of the deadliest days since the Gaza US-brokered “ceasefire” began in early October.
In that period, Israeli attacks have killed at least 574 people with 1,518 wounded, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
Palestinian families united
Twenty-one Palestinians stranded in Egypt were reunited with their families on Thursday in southern Gaza via the Rafah crossing.
The journey back from the Egyptian city of El Arish took many hours amid Israeli restrictions and obstacles at the crossing, with returnees looking visibly exhausted.
The Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt – the only way in and out for almost all of Gaza’s more than two million residents – was kept shut by Israeli authorities for most of the war and only partially reopened on Monday.
With its limited reopening, Israel is allowing a mere trickle of people to travel, finally permitting Palestinians who had been stranded outside to return and enabling the transfer of patients desperately needing medical treatment abroad, a key condition of the US-brokered “ceasefire” deal intended to end the genocidal war on Gaza. Israel has dragged its feet on that condition even after its last remaining captive’s body in Gaza was returned.
To date, only a few dozen people have been allowed to enter and leave the war-devastated coastal enclave.
Khoudary, citing the Red Crescent, said there were currently no plans for any movement at the crossing on Friday.
“There is a very big challenge that not only journalists are facing right now, but also the Palestinians themselves, where no one is informing Palestinians about when does this crossing open. When does it close? What is the process?” Khoudary said.
Khoudary added that the processing time at the crossing was “very long”, including for those returning, who were also being interrogated.
“They are being interrogated, they’re being handcuffed, blindfolded, and they’re also being harassed by the Israeli forces,” she added.
“This is not what Palestinians were looking forward to. They want real freedom of movement,” she added.
Meanwhile, the pace of medical evacuations since the crossing’s partial reopening has been slower than the numbers promised, and far short of what was required to meet the needs of the approximately 20,000 patients in need of medical treatment in other countries.
While the agreement had spoken of 50 patients being evacuated each day, accompanied by two family members each, only about 30 had been transferred so far this week.
Gaza’s healthcare system has been devastated by Israel’s genocidal war on the enclave, with 22 hospitals put out of service and 1,700 medical workers killed, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.