Airstrikes on Gaza continue as IDF vows no change to operation

Israel launched dozens of airstrikes on Gaza overnight on Sunday, as the army said it would not be distracted from the war after Iran’s attack.

People remove possessions from their destroyed homes in Khan Younis. Picture: Getty Images

Israel launched dozens of airstrikes on Gaza overnight on Sunday, as the army said it would not be distracted from the war after Iran’s unprecedented attack heightened fears of wider conflict.

“Even while under attack from Iran, we have not lost sight, not for one moment, of our critical mission in Gaza to rescue our hostages from the hands of Iran’s proxy Hamas,” Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said late on Sunday.

As mediators eye a deal to halt the fighting, triggered by Hamas’s October 7 attack, fears grew over Israeli plans to send troops into Rafah, a far-southern city where the majority of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have taken refuge.

“Hamas is still holding our hostages in Gaza,” Admiral Hagari said of the 130 people, including 34 presumed dead, who Israel says remain in the hands of Palestinian militants since the Hamas attack.

“We also have hostages in Rafah, and we will do everything we can to bring them back home.”

The army said it was “calling up approximately two reserve brigades for operational activities on the Gazan front”, about a week after withdrawing most of its ground troops from the territory.  The Hamas government media office in Gaza said Israeli aircraft had launched “dozens” of strikes overnight on central Gaza.

Rumours of a reopened Israeli checkpoint on the coastal road from the besieged territory’s south to Gaza City sent thousands of Palestinians heading north on Sunday, despite Israel denying it was open.

Mothers holding their children’s hands and families piling onto donkey carts with their luggage could be seen.

Hoping to reunite with his wife who has been in the southern city of Khan Younis, Palestinian man Mahmoud Awdeh said: “She told me over the phone that people are leaving … she’s waiting at the checkpoint until the army agrees to let her head to the north.”

The Israeli army said reports the route was open were “not true”.

Hamas said at the weekend it had submitted its response to a truce plan presented by US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators at talks that started in Cairo on April 7.

It said it was sticking to its ­demands, insisting on “a permanent ceasefire” and the withdrawal of the Israeli army from Gaza.

Israel’s Mossad spy agency ­accused Hamas of “continuing to exploit the tension with Iran” and aiming for “a general escalation in the region”.

AFP