No respite as Israel intensifies deadly Gaza attacks
After the Iranian retaliation, the Israeli army has been ramping up attacks on the Gaza Strip.
There is a very high rate of deaths and casualties among civilians in the central, northern and central parts of the Strip.
Right now, ambulances are rushing to Bureij refugee camp in order to bring to the hospital victims after a residential house there was targeted. At least three Palestinians have been confirmed killed so far.
In the south, the city of Khan Younis has come under assault. There was a limited ground incursion that was accompanied by intense artillery shelling on residential homes. Medical sources confirmed to Al Jazeera that more than 50 Palestinians have been killed just in Khan Younis since yesterday evening.
In the central areas of Gaza, at least 25 Palestinians were killed, and in the north of the Strip, at least 30 Palestinians were confirmed killed.
A particularly bloody attack also took place at Nuseirat where a UN-run evacuation centre was targeted, with at least three confirmed killed and a number of wounded taken to hospital.
There have been attacks on evacuation centres, and even institutes that have been allocated to provide essential care for Palestinian orphans.
Overall, there’s been a very clear escalation by the Israeli military inside Gaza, which continues until now with no respite.
Two Israeli soldiers killed, 18 wounded in Hezbollah ambush
Israeli media are now reporting two Israeli soldiers have been killed and 18 others wounded in clashes with Hezbollah fighters this morning on the border with Lebanon near the town of Odaisseh.
These were really the first face-to-face clashes since Israel announced its ground offensive on Tuesday.
Israel knows a ground invasion against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon is a very different challenge than facing Hamas in Gaza. Hezbollah is a formidable enemy that has trained for this, and has battle-hardened soldiers who fought for many years in Syria.
‘Face-to-face fighting’ for the first time
When Israel announced a few days ago that it was going to conduct a ground incursion into Lebanon, it was calling it limited – there were key areas that the Israelis were bombing.
Odeissa was one of them, Kfar Kila and another one slightly further south – these were the points that the Israeli army was going to enter. So they were trying to clear Hezbollah fighters from those areas by those air attacks.
At dawn, the Israelis tried to come in. They got slightly further into the territory than perhaps they have been before, but that’s where they were ambushed and they quickly retreated.
This was the first face-to-face fighting and Israel lost it.
This is how Hezbollah are calling it – they’re calling it a victory for their forces.
That’s just one of the incidents.
In the last few hours there has been fighting in Maroun al-Ras, where Hezbollah says it is clashing with Israeli soldiers who are trying to enter that territory.