Israel’s allies have been warning of a major offensive in Rafah for months. But now, according to eyewitness reports, Israeli forces are penetrating deeper into the city in the south of the Gaza Strip.
According to eyewitness reports, Israeli troops have advanced deeper into the city of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip. Tanks therefore moved from the east to districts further west. The army did not initially comment on the reports.
Allies such as the USA had repeatedly warned Israel against a major ground offensive in the city, particularly because of the feared consequences for the civilian population. Until last week, around a million people had sought protection there from fighting in the rest of the Gaza Strip. According to UN estimates, almost 450,000 people left Rafah within a week. “Empty streets in Rafah as families continue to flee in search of safety,” wrote the Palestinian relief agency UNRWA on Platform X.
The Israeli army advanced on the city from the east a week ago and has since then also controlled the Palestinian part of the Rafah border crossing into Egypt. Israel is putting military pressure on the Islamist Hamas in Rafah to secure the release of hostages abducted in October. Israel also wants to destroy the remaining extremist battalions.
“People face constant exhaustion, hunger and fear,” UNRWA’s X-post said. “Nowhere is safe. An immediate ceasefire is the only hope.”
Fierce fighting from north to south of the Gaza Strip
Israeli attacks and fighting in the Gaza Strip continued on Tuesday. Palestinian eyewitnesses reported continued Israeli shelling in the north, south and central parts of the coastal strip. The military wing of the terrorist organization Hamas said its fighters had repeatedly attacked Israeli troops at the border crossing into Egypt in Rafah. They also fired on an Israeli troop transport in Rafah.
The Israeli army said its forces had “taken out several armed terrorist cells in close combat” at the Rafah border crossing. The operation in the refugee district of Jabalia in the north of the Gaza Strip has also been expanded. “Dozens of terrorists who were firing on Israeli troops were eliminated” with tank fire. In total, the air force “attacked more than 100 terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip” within 24 hours.
The Hamas-controlled health authority said 35,173 Palestinians had been killed and more than 79,000 others injured in the Gaza Strip since the war began more than seven months ago. The number, which is difficult to verify independently, does not distinguish between civilians and fighters.
Hamas attacks Israeli cities again
Hamas fired another rocket from the Gaza Strip at the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon on Tuesday. The military wing of Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. The Israeli news site Ynet reported that the missile was intercepted by missile defenses. There was also a rocket alarm in Sderot on Tuesday. The new attacks from Gaza came as hundreds of right-wing Israelis demonstrated in the border city demanding the repopulation of the Gaza Strip, which Israel evacuated in 2005.
Hamas has recently increased its attacks on Israeli towns from the Gaza Strip. According to Israeli figures, more than 16,600 projectiles have been fired from the coastal strip since the Gaza war began more than seven months ago.
Doctors Without Borders: Another hospital in Rafah has to close
In view of the ongoing Israeli military offensive in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, the aid organization Doctors Without Borders has stopped providing care at the Indonesian hospital in Rafah.
The 22 patients remaining there were referred to other facilities because their safety could no longer be guaranteed, a spokeswoman said on Tuesday.
Since the start of the war, 12 health facilities have been abandoned and 26 attacks have been experienced, “including air strikes that damaged hospitals, tanks that fired on designated shelters, ground attacks on medical facilities and convoys that came under fire,” said Michel-Olivier Lacharité, emergency coordinator for Doctors without borders, according to the announcement.
Qatar: Almost “standstill” in ceasefire talks in the Gaza war
According to the mediating state of Qatar, efforts to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza war have almost come to a “standstill”. There are fundamental disagreements between Hamas and Israel, said Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in the capital Doha.
One side wants to end the war and then talk about the hostages, the other side wants to free the hostages and continue the war. “As long as there is no agreement on these two things, we will not reach any conclusion.”
Netanyahu: Israel in the fight for its existence
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emphasized determination on his country’s Independence Day. At the central ceremony on Soldiers’ Remembrance Day, he called the war a fight for the existence of his country. According to its Defense Minister Joav Galant, the outcome of the war will determine the lives of Israelis in the coming decades. “This is a war with no alternative,” Galant said.
Israel’s Police Minister for Gaza Settlements
Meanwhile, according to media reports, several ministers from the right-wing national and right-wing extremist parties in the coalition government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for the establishment of Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip at a demonstration.
They therefore took part in a rally in Sderot, southern Israel, near the Gaza Strip, where several thousand representatives of the extreme right had gathered.
“We must return to Gaza now,” Police Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir reportedly said. This is the only true solution. “We are returning home to the holy land. And secondly, we must encourage voluntary emigration of the residents of Gaza.”
International UN worker killed
According to the United Nations, an international UN employee was killed in the Gaza Strip for the first time. He died in an attack on his vehicle on the way to a hospital in the cordoned-off coastal strip, a spokesman said on Monday. Another employee was injured. The background to the incident and the nationality of the victims initially remained unclear.
Families of the hostages: hope not yet lost
Meanwhile, on the eve of Independence Day, around 100,000 people remembered the fate of the 132 hostages in the Gaza Strip at a rally in Tel Aviv, according to the organizers. The rally’s motto was “Our hope is not yet lost.” There were also protests against Netanyahu and his government. One speaker accused the government of failing because it failed to prevent the Islamist terrorist attack on October 7 and the hostage-taking.
US government: Israel is not committing genocide
“We do not believe that what is happening in Gaza is a genocide,” US President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in Washington on Monday. “We have always firmly rejected this claim.” Sullivan said the US had also presented its position on this issue in writing and in detail before the International Court of Justice. At the same time, he emphasized: “We believe that Israel can and must do more to ensure the protection and well-being of innocent civilians.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
