Gaza’s Health Ministry says the number of Palestinians killed from the Israeli aggression since October 7 has risen to 28,064, with 67,611 others wounded.

“The Israeli occupation committed 16 massacres against families in the Gaza Strip, killing 117 and wounding 152 during the past 24 hours,” the ministry said.

Thousands more are missing and presumed dead, trapped under the rubble or their bodies strewn on streets.

Rafah massacre 

Witnesses reported the Israeli military intensified air raids in Rafah with fears rising among Palestinians of an imminent ground invasion and resulting horror.

“Any Israeli incursion in Rafah means massacres, means destruction. People are filling every inch of the city and we have nowhere to go,” said Rezik Salah, 35, who fled his Gaza City home with his wife and two children for Rafah early in the war.

Mohammad al-Jarrah is a Palestinian displaced from further north to Rafah. “We don’t know where to go,” he said.

The city is the last major population centre in the Gaza Strip that Israeli troops have yet to enter, and also the main point of entry for desperately needed relief supplies.

An Israeli official, who declined to be named, told Reuters that Israel would try to organize for people in Rafah to be moved back northwards ahead of any assault on Rafah.

Germany warning

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock warned against any Israeli military invasion of Gaza’s southern Rafah city.

“The need in Rafah is already unbelievable – 1.3 million people are seeking protection from the fighting in a very small space. An offensive by the Israeli army on Rafah would be a humanitarian catastrophe. The people of Gaza cannot disappear into thin air,” she said.