DOHA: Israeli air strikes killed almost 100 Palestinians in the Gaza cities of Rafah and Deir Al Balah on Friday night and Saturday, health officials said, as residents of the enclave feared Israel would expand its ground offensive into those last remaining areas where people have sought shelter.

Rafah is on Gaza’s southern border with Egypt and more than half the enclave’s 2.3 million people have fled there as the Israeli military presses its four-month-old operation against the Hamas group. Health officials said an Israeli air strike on a house in Rafah killed 14 people, including women and children.

Authorities in Gaza said on Saturday that more than 27,000 Palestinians have been confirmed killed since the start of the crisis on Oct 7, 107 of them in the past two days, with thousands more feared lost amid the ruins.

Tens of thousands of people have arrived in Rafah in recent days carrying belongings in their arms and pulling children on carts, since Israeli forces launched one of their biggest assaults to capture nearby Khan Yunis, the main southern city.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant had said on Thursday forces would now press on to Rafah.

“The place turned black, I couldn’t see what’s in front of me. It was all dust and dirt. I was touching my surroundings, I was looking for my mobile to use the flashlight to look for my children, where are they? I found them under the rubble,” said Ahmed Bassam Al Jamal, whose son was killed in Rafah.

“I cried for help and people came. I got out Yamen, the first one, he was the only one I can see, the rest were still under the rubble. They pulled out Yamen, Eileen and Sila and they pulled out their mother (all alive). We could not find Bassam, we were looking for him, but he was buried, we could not save them, I swear we couldn’t,” Jamal said, as he bade farewell to his dead son at the hospital.

In Khan Yunis, residents said the army blew up a residential district near the city centre.

In the nearby city of Deir Al Balah, the second major concentration of displaced people, medics said four people were killed in an air strike on a house earlier on Saturday.

Although Israel is focusing its push in the south, residents said fighting continued in Gaza City, in the north.

Officials in Gaza said two people were killed by sniper fire. Israeli forces carried out arrests in the southern suburb of Tel Al Hawa.

Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2024