According to sources cited by Al Jazeera, the death toll from the recent Israeli air raid on the Tal as-Sultan neighborhood in Rafah has climbed to nine, with six children and two women among the casualties. The strike reportedly targeted the residence of the Radwan family.
Reports indicate that Israeli military plans, shared with the US, for evacuating around 1.4 million Palestinian civilians from Rafah ahead of a potential ground invasion, lacked provisions for essential services like food and water, as per war monitors.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and the Critical Threats Project (CTP) highlighted a high-level "virtual meeting" between US and Israeli officials regarding a potential ground incursion into southern Gaza’s Rafah. However, further discussions on the matter are said to be postponed, as per the ISW-CTP report.
Additionally, the think tanks reported ongoing Israeli airstrikes targeting 25 locations to support ground operations.
Since the Israeli six-month war erupted on October 7 following retaliatory actions by Gaza’s resistance groups, the toll of Palestinian lives lost has reached 34,012.
In the past 24 hours alone, the Health Ministry reported 42 fatalities and 63 injuries. Additionally, within the early hours of Saturday, the Palestinian news agency Wafa disclosed that at least seven individuals were killed in an Israeli air raid on Rafah's Tal as-Sultan neighborhood.
The toll of those wounded since the Israeli war outset stands at a staggering 76,833 individuals, reflecting the widespread devastation and human suffering inflicted upon Gaza’s population.
Concerns persist that the actual death toll could be even higher, with many bodies presumed to be still buried beneath the rubble of buildings decimated by Israeli airstrikes.