CAIRO: On Tuesday, Israeli tanks poured deeper into northeast Rafah, reaching some of the city’s southern frontier city’s residential areas, where more than a million people had fled the conflict’s seven-month displacement.
Israel’s foreign allies and aid organizations have consistently warned of a potential humanitarian disaster as a result of a ground invasion into the refugee-packed Rafah.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said negotiations may persist despite the fact that Israel’s activities in Rafah have slowed efforts to reach a ceasefire in speaks being mediated by Qatar and Egypt.
Israel has pledged to continue supporting Rafah despite the aid of allies, calling on its function to end the city’s four Hamas battalions that are still buried there.
” The vehicles advanced into the Brzail and Jneina neighborhoods this night north of Salahuddin Road.” One citizen told Reuters via a chat app that they were “in the roads inside the built-up area and there were conflicts.”
One pond was captured on a videos posted on Instagram in the Al-Jneina neighborhood on George Street. The video’s authenticity was certainly provided by Reuters.
An Israeli army ship was reportedly destroyed by Hamas ‘ armed wing with an Al-Yassin 105 weapon in the eastern Al-Salaam neighborhood, killing some of its crew members and injuring others.
The Israel Defense Forces ( IDF) declined to comment on the report.
The IDF claimed in a round-up of its operations that close-quarter fighting on the Gazan part of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt had resulted in the elimination of” some military terrorist” cells. It claimed to have also destroyed violent tissue and a release post where missiles were being launched at IDF forces in the east of the city.
‘ Nowhere is protected’, UNRWA says
A second round of evacuation orders was issued by Israel last week, with additional orders extending to more areas on Saturday.
They are relocating large parcels of land, including Al-Mawasi, a shallow enclave on the beach that Israel has designated as a charitable zone. The area’s migrant population is being warned by aid organizations because it lacks sanitation and various amenities.
UNRWA, the major United Nations help firm in Gaza, estimates some 450, 000 people have fled Rafah since May 6.
” Citizens face constant exhaustion, poverty and fear. Nothing is safe”, the firm posted on X.
The war has pushed little of Gaza’s people to the brink of famine, the U. N. says, and has devastated its health services, where facilities, if working at all, are running short of fuel to power producers and other necessary items.
A World Health Organization official informed a British emergency room doctor who works in hospitals in southern Gaza that some emergency fuel had entered the strip after speaking with him.
He told Reuters via a WhatsApp voice note that “health is still being prioritized over other essential services, so when health looks a little better it generally indicates that other essential services are struggling.” ” It’s a zero- sum game”.
However, major hospitals, including Al- Aqsa, should have enough fuel for six days if it was managed frugally, he said.
Fierce Gunbattles
The Israeli military has returned to areas where it had claimed to have stricken Hamas months ago, intensifying fighting across the strip, including in the north. Israel says the operations are to prevent Hamas, which controls Gaza, from rebuilding it military capacities.
According to Gaza health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and fighters, the Palestinian death toll in the conflict has now surpassed 35,000. The most recent death toll in a single day in a long time was reported at 82 Palestinians.
Israel’s operation in Gaza was triggered by the horrific attack by Hamas-led gunmen on October 7, which reportedly resulted in the hostage-taking of more than 250 hostages and the death of around 1,200 people in the area.
Residents of the 2.3 million-person densely populated enclave reported that the gunfights between Israeli forces and Palestinian gunmen were the fiercest in recent months.
Bulldozers constructed new roads for tanks to roll through the eastern suburb of Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood in the north of the city.
Residents of Jabalia, a sprawling refugee camp in northern Gaza, claimed that Israeli forces were using heavy tank shelling to try to penetrate the camp’s local market as deep as it was when it was being built for Palestinian refugees 75 years ago.
In Zeitoun, the IDF discovered tunnel shafts and destroyed a number of rocket launchers, while in Jabalia, it claimed to have killed dozens of Hamas fighters and destroyed a network of explosives.
With fighting intensifying, Qatar’s Sheikh Mohammed said ceasefire talks were at a stalemate.
” There is one party who wants to end the war and then talks about the hostages,” according to another party, who also wants to keep the war going. It wo n’t lead to a result, Sheikh Mohammed said, as long as there is n’t any commonality between those two things.
