Israeli forces killed 12 Palestinians in two-day raid on Jenin, in the occupied West Bank while Gaza National Security Forces assistant commander was also killed in Israeli strike, Al Jazeera quoted Interior Ministry sources as saying.

The Interior Ministry in Gaza said in a statement published on its official Telegram channel that Major General Diaa ad-Din ash-Shurafa was killed “as a result of an assassination carried out by Israeli occupation aircraft”.

The statement says he was on a tour of as-Saraya area of central Gaza City in the northern Strip this morning when he was killed, and that four other officers were injured in the attack.

The National Security Forces operate in the occupied West Bank, where it is under the command of the Palestinian Authority, and the Gaza Strip, where it reports to the Hamas-led government. Its function is to support governmental security forces.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has said the Israeli army is stepping up operations in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where a ground offensive has been under way since May 6.

“This action will go on and on, more forces from the ground, more forces from the air, and we will reach our goals,” Gallant said while touring the Gaza coast to inspect the capabilities of the Israeli navy.

As we reported earlier, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) said it would rule on South Africa’s request to order a halt to Israel’s offensive on Rafah tomorrow afternoon.

Israel’s ground and air offensive against the city has caused the displacement of more than 800,000 Palestinians who were sheltering there, the UN says.

Izedine Lulu was besieged in Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital when he heard that Israel had bombed his family home in November. His brothers, sisters and father had all been killed.

The 21-year-old medic could not go to find their bodies because al-Shifa was surrounded by Israeli tanks and snipers. He could only tend to his patients, alive and dead.

“Eight patients in the [intensive care unit] died before my very eyes,” Lulu told Al Jazeera. “It was the first time I had ever buried people on the hospital’s [premises].”

“There is no support for medics in Gaza, but I think it’s our duty to keep working.

“We need to stay in the hospitals,” said Lulu, who is now working at al-Ahli Hospital.

Lulu is one of hundreds of Palestinian and foreign medics trapped in a warzone after Israel took control of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt earlier this month, the only way out of Gaza.

As intensified Israeli attacks on all parts of the enclave have caused foreign medical personnel to flee, the ones who remain continue to risk their lives to save the victims of war.

Minister Ali Bagheri Kani, currently serving as Iran’s foreign minister after Hossein Amirabdollahian was killed in a helicopter crash along with President Ebrahim Raisi earlier this week, held talks in Tehran today with representatives of Palestinian factions, Anadolu news agency reports.

Attendees included Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas’s political bureau, Hamas said in a statement, and talks dealt with Israel’s ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.

Members of the Palestinian factions are currently in Tehran to pay respects to Raisi and those who died along with him in Sunday’s helicopter crash.

Residents of the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank are assessing the damage caused by the two-day Israeli army raid, which killed 12 people, including four children.

Black canvas sheets littered the narrow alleyways of the impoverished camp, torn down after providing cover from Israeli drones. Damaged parts from Israeli armoured vehicles were laid out on a main street, adorned with the flag of the Islamic Jihad armed group, AFP reported.

The news agency’s journalists saw dozens of recently damaged buildings in the camp. Some of them have been wrecked while others are less severely damaged. On the roof of one of the damaged buildings, a teenager pointed out where an Israeli sniper had been positioned hours earlier.

Fayza Abu Qutna, 60, said she is tired of Israeli raids on the camp, where she has lived for decades.

“Every time they come to Jenin, it is destroyed,” she told AFP. “We live in sadness. We live in misery.”