Israel launches fresh raids in Gaza as Benjamin Netanyahu visits US

Cairo/Gaza, July 24

Israeli forces carried out new raids in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, hours before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to address the US Congress.

The latest Israeli attacks destroyed homes in towns east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza and thousands of people were forced to head west to seek shelter, residents said.

The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said it had received distress calls from residents trapped in their homes in Bani Suhaila, east of Khan Younis, but were unable to reach the town.

Medics later said two Palestinians had been killed in an airstrike on Bani Suhaila, where the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas said fighters had detonated a bomb against an Israeli army personnel carrier.

Israel’s military, which is trying to eradicate Hamas after the Oct 7 attack on Israel, said it had been operating in areas from which fighters had been able to fire rockets into Israel and attack Israeli troops. Gaza health officials said Israeli military strikes in the past 24 hours had killed at least 55 people, the latest casualties in a war that health authorities in the enclave say has killed more than 39,000 Palestinians. Israeli forces also launched out airstrikes on several areas of central and northern Gaza.

Israeli PM Netanyahu sought to bolster US support for his country’s fight against Hamas and other Iran-backed armed groups in a speech to Congress on Wednesday that sparked boycotts by some top Democrats and drew thousands of protesters to the Capitol to condemn the war in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis it has created. — Agencies