Israel-Hamas conflict live updates: Israeli airstrikes hit refugee camp as Gaza offensive continues

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  • 81 wounded Gazans to enter Egypt for medical care
  • Israeli airstrikes level apartments in Gaza refugee camp
  • Headlines this morning
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Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim missile and drone attack on Israel

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have claimed missile and drone attacks targeting Israel for the first time, drawing their main sponsor Iran closer into the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and further raising the risks of a wider regional conflict.

The Houthis had been suspected of an attack earlier this month targeting Israel by sending missiles and drones over the crucial shipping lane of the Red Sea, an assault that saw the US Navy shoot down the projectiles.

This time, however, Israel said its own fighter jets and its new Arrow missile defence system shot down two salvos of incoming fire hours apart as it approached the country’s key Red Sea shipping port of Eilat.

The Houthis, who have held Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, since 2014 as part of that country’s ruinous war, claimed three attacks on Israel in a later military statement, without elaborating on the operations.

“Our armed forces launched a large batch of ballistic missiles and a large number of drones at various targets of the Israeli enemy,” Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a televised statement overnight. “The Yemeni Armed Forces confirm that this operation is the third operation in support of our oppressed brothers in Palestine and confirm that we will continue to carry out more qualitative strikes with missiles and drones until the Israeli aggression stops.”

Beyond the attack that saw the US shoot down missiles almost a fortnight ago, there has been a mysterious explosion last week that hit the Egyptian resort town of Taba, near the border with Israel. The blast, which Egyptian authorities have not explained, wounded six people.

AP

81 wounded Gazans to enter Egypt for medical care

Egyptian authorities have told officials in Gaza that 81 Palestinians with serious injuries will be evacuated from the enclave into Egypt to receive treatment, Reuters is reporting.

Some 2 million people live barricaded between Israel and Egypt in Gaza, many of them children, and humanitarian agencies warn the situation is spiraling into catastrophe as people search for dwindling water, food, medical supplies and shelter under Israeli bombardment.

Desperate Gazans broke into the warehouse of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency on Sunday for food.

Australians are also among those trapped in Gaza, camped at the Egyptian border, but though a “trickle” of aid has been allowed in, no evacuation corridor is open for civilians to flee as the Israel-Hamas war intensifies.

Hundreds of beds prepared for injured Palestinians in Egypt lie empty.

But, overnight, a United States state department spokesman said the US has made “real progress” in negotiations to secure safe passage for Americans and other foreigners wishing to flee Gaza.

People search through buildings that were destroyed during Israeli air raids in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza.Credit: Getty

With Reuters

Israeli airstrikes level apartments in Gaza refugee camp

A flurry of Israeli airstrikes on a refugee camp near Gaza City overnight has levelled apartment buildings, leaving craters and killing scores of people as ground troops battle Hamas militants across northern Gaza and attack underground compounds.

Buoyed by the first successful rescue of a captive held by Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected calls for a cease-fire and again vowed to crush Hamas’ ability to govern Gaza or threaten Israel following its bloody October 7 rampage, which ignited the war.

Palestinians look for survivors following Israeli airstrike in Nusseirat refugee camp overnight.Credit: AP

Several hundred thousand Palestinians remain in the northern part of Gaza, where Israeli troops and tanks have reportedly advanced on several sides of Gaza City, the sprawling urban centre.

In the Jabaliya refugee camp on Gaza City’s outskirts, at least six airstrikes destroyed a number of apartment blocks in a residential area, the Hamas-run Interior Ministry said. Hamas and the director of a nearby hospital reported a large number of casualties.

Footage of the scene from Al-Jazeera TV showed at least four large craters where buildings once stood, amid a large swath of rubble surrounded by partially collapsed structures.

Dozens of rescue workers and bystanders dug through the wreckage, searching for survivors beneath the pancaked buildings. A group of young men pulled two children from the upper floors of a damaged apartment block, cradling them as they climbed down.

Palestinian survivors react in front of the rubble of their family building, following Israeli airstrike in Nusseirat refugee camp in Gaza Strip.Credit: AP

Israel said a key Hamas commander who helped plan the October 7 attacks had been killed in the strikes on the refugee camp.

Wires

Headlines this morning

Good morning, I’m Sherryn Groch and I’ll bring you the latest developments for the first half of the day. It’s just gone 10:00pm in Tel Aviv.

Here’s a quick summary of where things stand:

  • Israeli air strikes have left scores dead and levelled buildings at a refugee camp in northern Gaza. Israeli forces said they were targeting Hamas militants, including a key commander who helped plan the deadly October 7 rampage through Israel.
  • Hamas has said it will begin releasing “some of the hostages” taken from Israel who hold foreign citizenship, as their countries continue negotiations via mediators.
  • Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have waded into the conflict, launching missiles and drones against Israel overnight over the Red Sea.
  • Egypt will open its border crossing on one side of the barricade that encloses Gaza to let some wounded Palestinians leave, official sources have told Reuters. At least 66 aid trucks arrived in Gaza yesterday – the highest single-day of aid delivery so far but the White House says it is just a “fraction of the need”, as water runs out and sewerage overflows.
  • United Nations secretary general António Guterres has said he is deeply alarmed by Israel’s ground incursion into Gaza and intensifying airstrikes, lamenting that civilians are being killed and international humanitarian law “is not an a la carte menu and cannot be applied selectively.”
  • Violence is increasing on the Israeli-occupied West Bank – Israeli raids and attacks by settler groups have left scores of Palestinians there dead since the October 7 Hamas attack.

Palestinians look for survivors following Israeli airstrike in Nusseirat refugee camp.Credit: AP

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