The Israeli military said on Sunday that one of its tanks “accidentally fired and hit an Egyptian post” near the Gaza border.
Israeli warplanes have struck targets across the Gaza Strip as well as two airports in Syria and a mosque in the occupied West Bank allegedly used by terrorists, while a second convoy of aid trucks from Egypt reportedly left for Gaza on Sunday afternoon.
The Egyptian military said the blast caused “minor injuries” but did not provide details.
“The IDF (Israeli military) expresses its sadness over the incident” near the Kerem Shalom area, the army said in a statement.
“The incident is under investigation and details are being reviewed,” the statement continued.
Smoke rises after Israeli attacks on the border with Egypt as the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas continues, seen from Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, October 22, 2023
An Israeli soldier rides in a tank (file photo)
The Egyptian army said Israel “immediately expressed regret over the accidental incident and an investigation is underway.”
Egyptian media, citing witnesses, said the Israeli attack would not hinder the delivery of aid to Gaza.
A second convoy of 17 aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing on Sunday, Egyptian security and humanitarian sources said.
Shortly after the convoy reached the border crossing, witnesses told Portal that an explosion was heard nearby and the arrival of ambulances could be heard from the Egyptian side.
Since Saturday, 37 trucks carrying vital supplies have traveled to Gaza through the Rafah border post with Egypt, about three kilometers from Israel, due to “catastrophic” shortages in the Hamas-controlled area.
The border crossings between Gaza and Israel have been closed since the war broke out on October 7th.
The Rafah border crossing, the main entry and exit point into Gaza that does not lead to Israel, has become the focus of an aid operation as humanitarian conditions in Gaza worsen.
Although Egyptian media said an additional 40 trucks would enter the Gaza Strip on Monday, the United Nations estimated that about 100 trucks per day will be needed to meet needs in Gaza, where more than 4,650 of its 2.4 million residents are staying Israeli attacks killed the Hamas government.
Smoke rises after Israeli air strikes on Gaza City in October 2023
The second convoy of aid trucks crosses the Rafah border from the Egyptian side in northern Sinai, Egypt, on October 22, 2023
On October 21, 2023, humanitarian aid trucks arrived from Egypt after passing through the Rafah border crossing and reached a camp in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 21, 2023
Syrian state media, meanwhile, reported that Israeli airstrikes hit international airports in the capital Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo, killing one person and disabling runways.
Israel has carried out several attacks in Syria since the war began. Israel rarely acknowledges individual attacks but says it is preventing Hezbollah and other militants from importing weapons from Iran, which also supports Hamas.
Scores of Palestinians were killed in central Gaza on Sunday after Israel stepped up attacks on the war-torn enclave.
In Lebanon, Hezbollah said six fighters were killed on Saturday, and the group’s deputy leader, Sheikh Naim Qassem, warned that Israel would pay a heavy price if it invaded Gaza. Israel attacked Hezbollah in response to the rocket fire, the military said.
Israel has been engaged in a firefight with Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia since the start of the war, and tensions have been rising in the West Bank, where Israeli forces have battled militants in refugee camps and carried out two airstrikes in recent days.
Amid rising tensions, Israel has evacuated dozens of northern communities and nearly 4,000 people have fled villages in southern Lebanon to seek refuge in the southern city of Tyre.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told troops in northern Israel that if Hezbollah starts a war, it will “make the mistake of its life.”
He said: “We will cripple it with a force it cannot even imagine, and the consequences for it and the Lebanese state will be devastating.”
Iran also warned on Sunday that the conflict would expand. Top diplomat Hossein Amir-Abdollahian warned that if Washington and Israel do not “immediately stop the crime against humanity and genocide in Gaza,” anything is possible at any time and the region will slip out of crisis control.
Washington also fired a shot across the bow of any actors seeking to inflame the conflict, saying it would not hesitate to act in the event of an “escalation.”
For days, Israel appeared to be on the verge of launching a ground offensive in Gaza following Hamas’ deadly rampage on October 7, with tanks and troops massing on the border.
Israel’s military spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said the country had stepped up airstrikes in the Gaza Strip to hit targets that would reduce the risk to troops in the next phase of the war.
Hamas said it fought with Israeli forces near Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, destroying a tank and two bulldozers. The Israeli military said it had no information about the claim.
Israel repeated its calls for people to leave the northern Gaza Strip, including by airdropping leaflets.
It is estimated that 700,000 people have already fled. But hundreds of thousands remain. This would increase the risk of numerous civilian casualties in any ground offensive.
Israeli military officials say Hamas’s infrastructure and underground tunnel system is concentrated in Gaza City in the north and that the next stage of the offensive there will involve unprecedented violence.
Israel says it wants to destroy Hamas. Officials have also talked about establishing a buffer zone to deter Palestinians from approaching the border.
Hospitals packed with patients and displaced people are running low on medical supplies and fuel for generators, forcing doctors to perform surgeries with sewing needles, vinegar as a disinfectant and without anesthesia.
The World Health Organization says at least 130 premature babies are at “major risk” due to generator fuel shortages. It said seven hospitals in northern Gaza were forced to close due to damage from strikes, lack of power and supplies or Israeli evacuation orders.
In this image taken during a media tour organized by the Israeli military on October 22, 2023, Israeli soldiers take up a defensive position at Kibbutz Beeri on the border with the Gaza Strip
Israeli soldiers guard Kibbutz Beeri on the border with the Gaza Strip
Shortages of essential supplies, including ventilators, are forcing doctors to ration treatment, Dr. Mohammed Qandeel, who works at Khan Younis Nasser Hospital.
Dozens of patients continue to arrive and are treated in crowded, dark hallways as hospitals cut power to intensive care units.
“It’s heartbreaking,” Qandeel said. “If we admit ten seriously injured patients every day, we have to make do with maybe three or five available intensive care beds.”
Palestinians seeking refuge in UN schools and tent camps are running out of food and drinking dirty water.
A power outage crippled the water and sanitation systems. According to OCHA, cases of chickenpox, scabies and diarrhea are increasing due to the lack of clean water.
Heavy airstrikes have been reported across the Gaza Strip, including in the southern part of the coastal strip, where Israel has urged civilians to seek refuge.
At Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, south of the evacuation line, several bodies wrapped in white shrouds lay lined up on the ground outside.
Khalil al-Degran, a hospital official, said more than 90 bodies had been brought in since early Sunday, as the sound of nearby bombings echoed behind him.
He said 180 wounded people had arrived, mostly children, women and the elderly who had been displaced from other areas.
Air strikes also destroyed the marketplace in the Nuseirat refugee camp. Witnesses said at least a dozen people were killed.
A view of the rubble as Israeli airstrikes continue on their 16th day in Gaza City, Gaza, on October 22, 2023
An image from the southern city of Sderot in Israel shows smoke rising during an Israeli attack on Gaza on October 22, 2023, amid ongoing fighting between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas
Palestinians assess the damage after an Israeli attack hit a compound beneath a mosque in Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank on October 22, 2023
A man helps a woman escape the area while others tend to a victim after an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, Oct. 21, 2023
The Israeli military has said it attacks Hamas militants and facilities but does not target civilians. The military said Palestinians fired over 7,000 rockets into Israel, and Hamas said it attacked Tel Aviv early Sunday.
The war, now entering its 16th day, is the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides. The Palestinian Health Ministry said on Sunday that the death toll in Gaza had reached at least 4,651 people and another 14,254 people were injured in the besieged territory.
The ministry said 90 Palestinians have also been killed in violence and Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank since Hamas terrorists stormed Israel on October 7. More than 1,650 others were injured, the ministry added.
More than 1,400 people were killed in Israel, most of them in Hamas’s first attack. In addition, 203 people were captured by Hamas during the invasion and taken to Gaza, the Israeli military said. Two Americans were released on Friday.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CBS’s “Face the Nation” that Hamas was responsible not only for its brutal rampage in southern Israel, but also for the deaths of civilians in Israel’s attacks on Gaza.
“They knew that if Israel responded as necessary, civilians would be caught in the crossfire,” he said.
He said the terrorists were operating among the civilian population and their tunnels were buried under hospitals and schools. “What does anyone expect from Israel?” he said.
“This is about Hamas.”
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, 93 Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli troops, raids on arrests and attacks on Jewish settlers in the West Bank since the Hamas attacks – including eight on Sunday.
Israeli forces have closed crossings into the area and checkpoints between cities, measures they say are aimed at preventing attacks.
Israel says it has arrested more than 700 Palestinians since October 7, including 480 suspected Hamas members.
Among the dead were two people killed in an airstrike on a mosque in the city of Jenin, where fierce gun battles broke out last year.
The Israeli military said the mosque compound belonged to members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which had carried out several attacks in recent months and were planning another.
Meanwhile, demonstrators took to the streets in several European capitals on Sunday. At least 10,000 people gathered in Berlin in support of Israel as Chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed to prevent a resurgence of anti-Semitic incidents linked to the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Thousands gathered in Paris to demand an end to Israel’s operation in Gaza in the first pro-Palestinian rally in the French capital that was not banned for security reasons.
In central London on Sunday, hundreds of people took part in a “solidarity rally” in Trafalgar Square, demanding the safe return of Hamas hostages.
Family members of the hostages spoke at the rally, while Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis thanked the King, the Prince of Wales and cross-party political leaders for their support following the Hamas attack.