Israeli army continues Gaza bombardment as part of campaign against Hamas that may last 'months'

The Israeli army has increased its strikes on the Gaza Strip as part of its campaign against the Hamas movement, which it has confirmed could last "several months" despite severe concerns for the humanitarian situation. 

In an indication of the conflict's increasing regional expansion, the United States intercepted drones and missiles launched by the Yemeni Houthi rebels in the Red Sea, who are conducting attacks reaching the southern Israeli state and ships in the sea in "support of Gaza." 

In Gaza, army spokesperson Daniel Hagari stated that Israeli forces are "fighting in Khan Yunis" in the south and "expanding" their operations in the refugee camps in the central Gaza Strip. 

The army issued an evacuation order for residents of the Bureij camp in central Gaza and its surroundings. Earlier, some residents had fled to the border city of Rafah with Egypt, where they arrived and placed their belongings on the roofs of their cars, as reported by AFP correspondents. 

More than 240 Palestinians were killed within 24 hours in Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, according to the Health Ministry affiliated with the Hamas movement on Tuesday. 

The bodies of 80 people killed during the war were buried in a mass grave on Tuesday in Rafah, according to AFP journalists, after Israel returned them to the Strip following confiscation from hospital morgues and exhumation from graves to verify whether they belonged to hostages still held in Gaza. 

Dr. Marwan al-Hams said, "A container containing a large number of martyrs has reached us, some complete bodies, and some in pieces." 

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said in a television interview, "What has happened on Palestinian land these days is more than a catastrophe and more than a genocide. Our people have not witnessed such a war even in the Nakba of 1948. What is happening now is much worse." 

He considered Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan and his government's "to get rid of the Palestinians and the Palestinian Authority." 

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed "grave concern about the continuous Israeli forces' shelling of central Gaza... insisting that all attacks strictly adhere to the principles of international humanitarian law, including distinction, proportionality, and taking precautions." 

AFP