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Today's Paper | March 08, 2026

Published 26 Apr, 2024 01:49pm

Ahead of feared Rafah invasion, Palestinians mourn bombardment dead

Palestinians continue to mourn people killed in Israeli bombardment of Rafah, the crowded southern Gaza city where Israel says it is advancing plans for a ground invasion, AFP reports.

Aid groups warn any invasion would add to already-catastrophic conditions for Gaza’s 2.4 million people. Israeli officials have vowed to enter Rafah, near the Egyptian border, but even before any ground operation the area has been regularly bombed.

Rafah resident Abu Abdallah said “a very powerful strike” hit a house where displaced Gazans were sheltering. “This is not a life,” he told AFP.

“We can no longer live in our home, our neighbourhood, or walk anywhere. The war has been going on for too long.”

At the city’s Al-Najjar Hospital on Thursday, among the mourners were two men crouching, grief-stricken, in front of a white body bag. Belgium said an Israeli strike on Rafah killed Abdallah Nabhan, 33, who worked for its Enabel development agency.

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