Cairo: Wednesday night was the heaviest for residents of the Gaza city of Rafah. Israeli tanks continued to bombard the southern Gaza city throughout the night. It was one of the most doomed nights for Rafah. Israeli soldiers bombed and fired on the edge of a crowded district in the center of Rafah, where Israel began its offensive this month. The Israeli attack has forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee Rafah, a settlement on the southern edge of Gaza, which was a refuge for half of the enclave’s 2.3 million people. It has also cut off the main access routes for humanitarian aid to Gaza. In such a situation, international fears of mass casualties and famine have arisen in Rafah.
Israel says it has no choice but to attack the city to root out the last battalion of Hamas fighters it believes are sheltering there. Its troops have been slowly advancing on the eastern outskirts of Rafah since the beginning of the month. Israeli tanks on Wednesday took up new positions further west than before on Gaza’s southern border fence with Egypt and are now deployed on the edge of Yabna in the center of Rafah, residents and militants there said. Due to the fierce fighting, the Israeli army had not yet entered the district.
Hamas claims attack on Israeli army
Hamas’ armed wing claimed to have attacked two armoured Israeli troop carriers with anti-tank rockets at a gate near the Rafah border fence. Palestinian residents said Israeli drones were firing at the Yibna suburb and fired at fishing boats off the coast of Rafah overnight, setting some boats on fire. “The Israeli army has been attacking all night with drones, helicopters, warplanes and tanks. The firing has still not stopped,” said one Rafah resident, who asked not to be named for his safety. “The tanks were making limited advances in the southeast, but they have moved further now amid heavy shelling all night,” he told Reuters via a chat app.
Israel did not give any statement
There has been no immediate statement from the Israeli army regarding this latest attack on Rafah. However, Israeli forces have killed several fighters in targeted operations in Khan Yunis, north of Rafah, and in the northern Gaza Strip. Now Israeli soldiers, after carrying out a major operation, have returned to the area where they had destroyed Hamas months ago. UNRWA, the main UN agency in Gaza, estimated as of Monday that more than 800,000 people had fled Rafah since Israel began targeting the city in early May, despite international appeals for restraint.(Reuters)
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