Israel strikes university in Gaza City
“Large part of Islamic University damaged, as battles rage in Rafah, where Israeli soldier went missing a day earlier.”
Israeli aircraft have struck a major university in the Gaza Strip as troops continued their military campaign on the Palestinian enclave for a 27th day.
A large part of the Islamic University in Gaza City was damaged by Saturday morning’s air strike.
Glass from broken windows and notebooks belonging to some of the thousands of students who attended the university were scattered around the premises. No casualties were reported in the bombardment.
“This underscores how unpredictable and volatile the situation is in Gaza City,” Al Jazeera’s Imtiaz Tyab, reporting from the scene just two hours after the bombardment, said.
The strike came as Israel pounded the southern Gaza town of Rafah on Saturday and killed 35 people, according to Palestinian health official Ashraf al-Qudra.
Qudra also said that the area’s main hospital was evacuated because of the strikes.
Heavy shelling and fierce battles were also reported along the border areas in Rafah, the site of the purported capture of an Israeli soldier a day earlier.
Israeli forces on Saturday sealed off the eastern Rafah area, and warned that cars on the streets would be considered potential targets, Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford, reporting from southern Gaza, said.
Trading blame
The Israeli army said it believed that Hadar Goldin, 23, was captured by Hamas in an ambush about an hour after an internationally brokered ceasefire took effect Friday morning.
The Hamas military wing on Saturday denied the alleged capture, which has prompted widespread international condemnation.
Israel blamed Hamas for shattering the agreed upon 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire. The Palestinian group, meanwhile, said Israeli troops used the truce deal to storm into Rafah and kill scores of people on Friday.
The latest violence brings the death toll in Israeli offensive on Gaza, which began on July 8, to at least 1,650 Palestinians, mostly civilians. More than 8,900 others have been reported injured.
On the Israeli side, three civilians have been killed by rockets launched from Gaza and at least 63 troops have died in the fighting.