Occupation advances in Rafah, expands offensive in north, forcing wave of displacement

Israeli tanks pushed further west into Rafah on Tuesday morning, clashing with resistance fighters in the overcrowded city as it expanded the offensive it began last week on the southern area of Gaza.

After reentering the northern area of the besieged strip three days ago, Occupation troops also clashed with resistance forces in Jabalia on Tuesday.

Despite international warnings about the inevitable humanitarian toll, including the United States stating repeated concern about the lack of a “credible plan” to protect civilians, Israel launched what it described as a “limited” operation on Rafah last week, ordering the evacuation of residents and stationing tanks at the Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt. The clashes between Israeli troops and resistance forces have already killed dozens of civilians, displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and blocked the south’s main entry points for aid.

Israeli military forces pushed west to attack new areas in central Rafah on Tuesday morning, a resident told Reuters. Troops entered Salah Eddin Street in eastern Rafah from the crossing facility, the resident said, moving into the Brazil, Salam and Jeneina neighborhoods and clashing with Hamas fighters. One Palestinian was killed and several others were injured by an Israeli aerial strike near the Salah Eddin gate on the southern border of Rafah with Egypt, according to Al Jazeera.

The Occupation military said early on Tuesday afternoon that the operations were geared to locate “terror targets” in the east of Rafah, describing its aircraft as targeting a group of fighters leaving a launch site and a launch post that previously fired on Israeli troops, and that it located weapons. Several Palestinian fighters were killed on the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing with Egypt, the Occupation added in its statement. 

In turn, the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing, said they targeted an Israeli troop carrier, killing and wounding its crew, and a tank with explosive devices in the Salam neighborhood in Rafah’s east. The group also announced an attack on Occupation forces stationed within the border crossing with mortar shells.

In Rafah’s center, Occupation tanks and aircraft escalated attacks on the Awda roundabout and the Shaboura and Yabna camps, which shelter the highest number of the city’s residents, according to reports in Palestinian news outlets.

Israeli troops also “expanded their activity in the area of Jabalia,” according to the military’s Tuesday statement. The Occupation resumed ground operations in Jabalia on Sunday, besieging and storming the area and forcing residents in shelter centers to leave without their personal belongings.

It ordered the evacuation of residents and surrounded neighborhoods in the north Gaza camp to conduct operations in designated areas, claiming that the aim was to prevent Hamas from  “re-establishing its military capabilities there.”

Israeli airstrikes and tank shells destroyed clusters of houses and targeted ambulances on Monday, according to Palestinian news reports.

Clashes in both north and south Gaza have prompted another huge wave of displacement. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) estimated on  Tuesday that nearly 450,000 people fled from Gaza’s southern city of Rafah in the past nine days. 

Around 1.5 million Palestinians were previously estimated to be sheltering in Rafah, where many took shelter after orders from the Occupation to evacuate other areas of Gaza during the seven months of Israel’s war on the besieged coastal enclave.

Two former residents of Rafah displaced by Israel’s operation in the southern area told Mada Masr on Monday that resources available to Palestinians after relocating are scarce, pointing to limited water and scarce and expensive food supplies. Aid deliveries to the strip have slowed with the Rafah crossing closed since Israel invaded it last week, and the other main crossing point for aid, the Karam Abu Salem crossing, also shut.

On the other side of the border, unnamed Egyptian sources denounced the Rafah operation in statements to the domestic and international press. A high-level source reportedly told state-aligned outlet Al-Qahera News that Egypt has informed “mediators” of its objection to Israel’s “escalation” in Rafah and is holding Israel accountable for deteriorating conditions in the strip.