Israeli strikes hit Rafah houses, at least 20 killed — Gaza health ministry

Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on December 19, 2023. (REUTERS)

• Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have crammed into Rafah on Gaza’s border with Egypt to escape Israeli bombardments
• Israel’s intensifying airstrikes have increased concern among governments and international bodies over death toll, hunger, homelessness

GAZA/MANAMA/JERUSALEM: Israeli missiles and air strikes on the Rafah area in southern Gaza struck three houses killing at least 20 Palestinians, Gaza health officials said on Tuesday.
Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have crammed into Rafah on Gaza’s border with Egypt to escape Israeli bombardments further north, despite fears that they will also not be safe there.
Early on Tuesday residents in Khan Younis, a city also in southern Gaza, reported fierce gunbattles between militant Hamas fighters and Israeli forces. Israeli tanks and planes bombed areas near the city center, residents said.
A World Health Organization official said on Monday that the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza that Israeli troops raided last week is no longer functioning and patients including babies have been evacuated,
“We cannot afford to lose any hospitals,” said Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative for Gaza.
Peeperkorn also said about 4,000 displaced people taking refuge in the grounds of the Nasser medical complex in Khan Younis were at risk as Israel pursues military operations there.
The Gaza health ministry said on Monday that 19,453 Palestinians had been killed and 52,286 wounded in the Israeli assault on the Hamas-ruled enclave in more than two months of warfare.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to achieve total victory over Hamas, whose fighters killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostages in a surprise Oct. 7 raid into Israel, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s intensifying retaliation against Hamas has increased concern among governments and international organizations over the civilian death toll, hunger and homelessness.
Father-of-four Raed, 45, who has moved his family twice, said Gazans were exhausted trying to stay alive.
“Money has lost its value, most of the items are not available. We rose from our beds after surviving a night of bombardment to tour the streets searching for food, we got tired,” he said in the Rafah area. “We want peace, truce, ceasefire, whatever they call it, but please stop the war.”