(Reuters)
CAIRO, July 17 – Israeli forces pounded areas in the central Gaza Strip on Wednesday, killing at least nine Palestinians, according to health officials, while Israeli tanks carried out a limited advance further into Rafah in the south.
In one Israeli air strike around midnight on a house in Al-Zawyda in the central Gaza Strip, eight people were killed, the health officials said. Another strike killed a man in Nuseirat camp, one of the enclave’s eight refugee camps, where 23 people were killed in an Israeli air strike on a school a day ago.
Israeli tanks also shelled the eastern areas of Al-Bureij and Al-Maghazi camps in the centre of enclave, residents said. An air strike destroyed a mosque, residents said.
Meanwhile in Rafah, tanks carried out a raid in the north of the city before retreating, a tactic Israeli forces have used in other areas before mounting deeper incursions. Tanks have operated in most parts of the city since May, although have not gone deep into the northern districts.
Medics said an Israeli strike killed two people in Rafah on Wednesday, while residents said the forces had blown up dozens of homes.
The Israeli military said troops were “continuing precise, intelligence-based operational activity in the Rafah area”. It said it they had eliminated what it called a terrorist cell and a launcher that had been used to fire at troops.
It said airstrikes had struck 25 targets throughout the Gaza Strip during the past day and that troops were continuing to operate in the central area, including to dismantle structures used to observe the soldiers.
