GAZA – The Israeli army has withdrawn from the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip after nearly three weeks of military operation there, Palestine TV reported on Friday.
Rescuers found a large number of bodies in the area from which the Israeli army has withdrawn, and the search and rescue work is still ongoing, according to the civil defense agency in Gaza.
The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has risen to 36,224, according to a statement released by health authorities in the Palestinian enclave on Thursday.
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In a statement issued on Friday, the Israel Defense Forces said the Israeli troops of the 98th Division completed their mission in eastern Jabalia and began preparation for continued operations in the Gaza Strip, after "rescuing seven bodies of hostages, eliminating hundreds of terrorists, and destroying a 10-km subterranean tunnel network."
Jabalia has been battered by intense combat for weeks, underscoring Israel's difficulty in destroying Hamas units.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Israel on Wednesday to come up with a post-war plan for Gaza, warning that without one, further military gains might not be durable, and lawlessness, chaos and a Hamas comeback could ensue.
Rafah fighting
Israeli tanks rumbled into the center of Rafah on Tuesday as part of a series of probing operations around the area that has become one of the main focal points of the war in Gaza, now in its eighth month.
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The army said it had come across longer-range rockets as well as stocks of rocket-propelled grenades, explosives and ammunition as it continued "intelligence-based operational activities" in Rafah, which skirts Gaza's border with Egypt.
Hamas fighters demonstrated their continuing strength in Rafah last week, launching missiles at Israel's commercial hub Tel Aviv for the first time in months on Sunday.
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Islamic Jihad, Hamas' smaller militant ally, said on Friday it fired a barrage of mortar bombs at a gathering of Israeli soldiers and vehicles penetrating the vicinity of Salah al-Din Gate on Rafah's southern fringes. It gave no more details.
