Palestine Red Crescent says two paramedics were killed in Israeli attack on ambulance
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Israeli strikes killed at least nine Palestinians across Gaza and injured several more in the war-torn enclave on Thursday, the Wafa news agency reported.
Israeli aircraft struck a house at Nuseirat Camp in central Gaza, killing four people and injuring 15, Wafa said. Three others were shot dead by Israeli snipers in the Tel Al Hawa neighbourhood, near Gaza city.
In Rafah, Israeli forces bombed buildings and artillery shelling hit an area west of the city.
The Palestine Red Crescent said two of its paramedics were killed in an Israeli air strike on an ambulance in the Tal Al Sultan area of Rafah. The two medics were identified as Haitham Tubasi and Suhail Hassouna.
The enclave’s Ministry of Health condemned the attacks on the vehicle.
“This ensures that Israel is intentionally wiping out the medical system in Gaza,” the ministry said on Thursday. Israel said it carried out 50 air strikes across the enclave on Thursday, which it claimed had killed two militants.
Fighting was also being reported in Jabalia refugee camp, a severely damaged town in northern Gaza that has been pummelled by the biggest bombs in Israel’s inventory, weighing 900kg. Israeli soldiers last battled Hamas in Jabalia in November.
On Wednesday, Israel said it took over the 14km Philadelphi Corridor, on the border between Gaza and Egypt, an area that Israel said was being used to smuggle weapons and artillery.
Egypt has rejected claims of weapons smuggling through tunnels beneath the border and said a takeover of the corridor would breach the 1979 peace agreement between Egypt and Israel.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi has called for an end to Israel’s siege on Gaza and said the international community must ensure Palestinians were not displaced from the enclave.
“I call on the international community to immediately provide for long-term humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip and to end the Israeli siege, and to stop any attempt at forcing Palestinians to forcibly flee their land,” Mr El Sisi said at a forum in Beijing.
His comments came after the Israeli army said on Wednesday that it gained “operational control” over the Philadelphi Corridor. Israeli troops patrolled the area until 2005, when they were withdrawn as part of a broader disengagement from the Gaza Strip.
Its seizure comes weeks after Israeli forces took control of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on May 7.
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