Israeli troops and Hamas fighters this weekend engaged in close-quarters ground combat in northern Gaza, The New York Times reported Sunday, citing both sides in the war. Israeli soldiers returned to neighborhoods where Hamas had regrouped after being cleared earlier.
The Israeli military on Sunday said it had eliminated “a number of terrorists” in Zeitoun, a part of Gaza City. Troops overnight went into nearby Jabaliya, where Israel had ordered civilians to evacuate on Saturday, after Israeli jets hit more than two dozen targets, the military said in a statement.
A United Nations agency that provides humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza early Sunday said about 300,000 people had fled from Rafah in the past week. More than a million displaced Gazans in the past seven months had sought shelter in Rafah to evade Israeli bombing in other parts of Gaza.