12 People In Rafah Died As A Result Of Israel's Latest Air Attack

ILLUSTRATION OF DOK via news.un.org

JAKARTA - Israeli forces killed 12 Palestinians in airstrikes in Rafah, southern Gaza. Attacks also occurred in several other areas of the coastal area, Gaza medics said.

Israel continued its attack on Rafah a day after saying its troops had taken control of the buffer zone along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.

It said the struggle for the buffer zone had cut off the route used by the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas to smuggle weapons into Gaza for more than seven months of war, which has devastated most of the region and caused fear of starvation.

Gaza's medical sources said 12 Palestinians, who were said to be civilians, were killed and others injured in Israeli airstrikes as they tried to find the body of a civilian in the center of Rafah.

Another Palestinian civilian was killed in an air strike at an Al-Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City in the densely populated enclave, medics said.

Israel continues to carry out attacks on Rafah despite orders from the International Court (ICJ), the UN supreme court, to stop its attacks.

Israeli forces said they were trying to eradicate Hamas fighters and rescue hostages detained there, and the ICJ also called for the release of hostages detained in Gaza by Hamas.