Passage of patients in Rafah is interrupted, say Palestinian authorities. Four children are among the dead.
Eighteen Palestinians, including four children, died in new Israeli bombings against the Gaza Strip this Wednesday, according to local health authorities.
At the same time, Israel suspended the evacuation of patients through the Rafah crossing, the only exit point from the territory for urgent medical treatment abroad.
The attacks, which hit Gaza City and Khan Younis in the south, came after the Israeli military said a Palestinian sniper fired at troops, seriously wounding a reservist soldier.
The suspension of medical evacuations came just two days after the reopening of the Rafah terminal, which had allowed a small group of patients to leave on Tuesday.
According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, patients who were already in ambulances at Khan Younis hospital, ready to cross the border, were informed that the crossing was interrupted.
“They called the patients and said that there is no travel today, the crossing is closed,” reported Raja’a Abu Teir, one of the patients awaiting evacuation.
The Israeli agency Cogat, responsible for controlling access to Gaza, declared that the Rafah terminal remained open, but stated that it had not received the necessary coordination details for the operation from the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO did not immediately comment on the case.
Reopening Rafah for humanitarian evacuations was one of the conditions of the ceasefire agreement brokered in October, which established the first phase of a plan to halt fighting between Israel and Hamas. By Tuesday, 16 patients and 40 companions had managed to cross into Egypt.
The fragile ceasefire, which entered its second phase in January with the aim of starting negotiations on the reconstruction and future governance of Gaza, remains marked by almost daily violence. Central issues, such as the withdrawal of Israeli troops from more than half of the occupied territory and the disarmament of Hamas, remain unresolved.
Since the start of the ceasefire, Israeli offensives have killed at least 530 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to local health authorities. On the Israeli side, four soldiers were killed by Palestinian militants in the same period.
With information from The Guardian on 02/04/2026
Source: https://www.ocafezinho.com/2026/02/04/novos-ataques-israelenses-em-gaza-deixam-18-mortos/
