Israel carries out heavy shelling in Gaza

Gaza was hit by heavy Israeli shelling yesterday, with strikes reported in several areas in the centre and south of the besieged territory, as Prime Minister Netanyahu vowed "painful blows" on Hamas to free hostages.

Israel's military intelligence chief General Aharon Haliva resigned yesterday for failing to prevent the Hamas attack on October 7.

"The intelligence division under my command did not live up to the task we were entrusted with," Haliva said in his resignation letter. "I carry that black day with me ever since."

Israel has meanwhile lashed out at reports that its top ally the United States was considering sanctioning the military's ultra-Orthodox Netzah Yehuda battalion over alleged human rights abuses in the West Bank from before the offensive.

"At a time when our soldiers are fighting the monsters of terror, the intention to impose a sanction on a unit in the IDF (army) is the height of absurdity and a moral low," Netanyahu posted on X.

Netanyahu said late Sunday that the Israeli military would increase military pressure to "deliver additional and painful blows" to Hamas in the coming days, without elaborating further.

The prime minister has repeatedly said Israel will launch a ground assault on Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah, despite international concern about the majority of the territory's population who have taken refuge there.

Doctors at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in the Gaza city of Deir El Balah told AFP that six people were wounded in an Israeli airstrike in central Gaza, while three more were injured by a separate strike on the Al-Bureij refugee camp.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said yesterday that at least 34,151 people have been killed in the territory during more than six months of offensive. The tally includes at least 54 deaths in the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said.

Israel's allies including Washington have warned against sending troops into Rafah, fearing huge civilian casualties in the only major Gaza city yet to be invaded during the offensive.

At least 16 people, mostly children, were killed in Israeli strikes on two Rafah homes over the weekend, according to Gaza's civil defence agency.

Meanwhile, Israeli troops fought their way back into an eastern section of Khan Younis in a surprise raid, residents said yesterday, sending people who had returned to abandoned homes in the ruins of the southern Gaza Strip's main city fleeing once more, reports Reuters.

Gaza's crossings and borders authority said that 34 Palestinian detainees had been released from Israeli prison since yesterday morning. Authority spokesman Hisham Adwan said some of the prisoners showed "signs of torture".

In the occupied West Bank, where violence has surged since the offensive began, a funeral procession was held for 13 Palestinians killed during an Israeli raid on the Nur Shams refugee camp.

• Israeli military intel chief quits
• Natanyahu defiant as US mulling sanctioning Israeli military unit 
• Death toll in enclave rises to 34,151