The fighting between the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel continued on Saturday as Hamas released an estimate showing that the war had so far resulted in $30 billion in damages.
The figure could not be independently confirmed. The Hamas-controlled media office said as many as 80% of the buildings in Gaza City have been destroyed.
The overall damage is to residential buildings, economic facilities and infrastructure such as roads, electricity and water pipes and sewerage systems, the office said.
Part of Israel's warfare includes massive bombardments of towns and residential areas in the densely populated Gaza Strip. Allies such as the United States have criticized the intensity of Israel's military action, which also claims many victims among the civilian population.
The Israeli military claims that it intends to crush Hamas and free the hostages.
Hamas hides behind the civilian population and operates military installations, weapons depots and command centres in the middle of residential areas, Israel says. It has shown several photos and videos of such installations over the course of the now five-month war.
As such, Israel considers it necessary to destroy a network of tunnels several hundred kilometres long created by Hamas. Bunkers and tunnels are often located under civilian facilities such as hospitals.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces killed dozens of Islamist Hamas fighters in the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours, military officials said on Saturday.
In the southern city of Khan Younis, troops eliminated 20 Hamas militiamen in close combat and air strikes, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
Military facilities of the enemy were destroyed in targeted operations and an unspecified number of fighters were captured. At least ten terrorists were killed in central Gaza, the IDF said.
The information could not initially be independently verified.
According to Palestinian sources, Israeli fighter jets early on Saturday bombed a high-rise building in Rafah, the southernmost village in the sealed-off coastal strip. The residents had received warnings in advance and were not in the building in the centre of the city, which was destroyed.
Nevertheless, an unspecified number of civilians were injured in the attack on the al-Masri Tower, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported, citing local sources.
The IDF confirmed the attack on the tower block. According to the Times of Israel, it had housed a Hamas planning cell. The terrorist organization had prepared attacks on Israeli soldiers and rocket attacks on Israel from there, the paper said.
A total of 82 Palestinians have died in the past 24 hours as a result of fighting, the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry in Gaza said on Saturday. A further 122 people were injured.
The number of Palestinians killed since the beginning of the Gaza war last autumn has risen to 30,960 and the number of injured to 72,524. These figures could also not be independently verified.
Casualty figures collected in the hospitals do not differentiate between civilians and armed fighters. However, 70% of the victims are said to be women, children and elderly men.
The war was triggered by an unprecedented massacre carried out by Hamas and other extremist groups in southern Israel on October 7 that killed 1,200 people. Another 250 people were abducted to Gaza.
