Israel’s military said Thursday its forces killed two senior Islamic Jihad commanders with airstrikes in Gaza City.
The Israel Defense Forces said one of the commanders participated in the October 7 attack on southern Israel.
Israeli forces also conducted airstrikes in central Gaza, while ground forces with tanks advanced deeper into the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said Thursday that fighting in southern Gaza has pushed all health facilities in southern Gaza, including a 60-bed Red Cross hospital, to a breaking point in terms of their ability to care for patients with life-threatening injuries.
“Another mass casualty event would force our doctors and nurses to make extremely difficult choices,” William Schomburg, Gaza head of the ICRC delegation, said in a statement. “The current medical needs of civilians dramatically outstrip the limited availability of supplies and healthcare response, as hospitals have repeatedly been compelled to close.”
Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people and captured about 250 hostages in their October 7 terror attack on Israel that sparked the war. Israel says it believes Hamas is still holding 116 hostages, including 42 that the military says are dead.
Israel’s land and air assault on Gaza has killed more than 38,700 people, according to the health ministry in Gaza.
Nearly three-quarters of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is displaced, and nearly the entire population is at risk of famine, according to the United Nations.
Some information for this report was provided by Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
