Israel pounds central Gaza, sends tanks into north of Rafah

Israeli forces pounded areas in the central Gaza Strip on Wednesday, killing at least nine Palestinians, according to health officials, while Israeli tanks carried out a limited advance further into Rafah in the south.

In one Israeli air strike around midnight on a house in Al-Zawyda in the central Gaza Strip, eight people were killed, the health officials said. Another strike killed a man in the Nuseirat camp, one of the enclave's eight refugee camps, where 23 people were killed in an Israeli air strike on a school a day ago.

Israeli tanks also shelled the eastern areas of Al-Bureij and Al-Maghazi camps in the center of the enclave, residents said. An air strike destroyed a mosque, residents said.

Meanwhile, in Rafah, tanks carried out a raid in the north of the city before retreating, a tactic Israeli forces have used in other areas before mounting deeper incursions. Tanks have operated in most of the city since May, although they have not gone deep into the northern districts.

Medics said an Israeli strike killed two people in Rafah on Wednesday, while residents said the forces had blown up dozens of homes.

The Israeli military said troops were "continuing precise, intelligence-based operational activity in the Rafah area." It said it had eliminated what it called a terrorist cell and a launcher that had been used to fire at troops.

It said air strikes had struck 25 targets throughout the Gaza Strip during the past day and that troops were continuing to operate in the central area, including dismantling structures used to observe the soldiers.

Nine months into the war, Palestinian fighters led by the Islamist Hamas group are still able to attack Israeli forces with anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs and, from time to time, fire barrages of rockets into Israel.

Israel vowed to eradicate Hamas after its militants killed 1,200 people and took over 250 hostages in an attack on southern Israeli communities on October 7, according to Israeli tallies.

On Tuesday, the military said it had eliminated half of the leadership of Hamas' military wing, with about 14,000 fighters killed or captured since the start of the war.

At least 38,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's retaliatory offensive since then, Gaza health authorities say. Israel says 326 of its soldiers have been killed in Gaza.