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©(Photo by Menahem KAHANA / AFP)
Israeli forces, in their campaign to destroy Hamas, have carried out airstrikes in Rafah, with the heaviest combat raging in the city of Khan Younes in recent weeks, pushing steadily south.
The Israeli occupation carried out heavy airstrikes on Wednesday, in Rafah in southern Gaza, while violent armed clashes broke out between Palestinian militant factions and Israeli armed forces in the Al-Amal neighborhood west of Khan Younes.
Israeli forces renewed their shelling of residential areas in the northern and central Gaza Strip, as artillery fire targeted the areas around the shelter center in Khan Younes in an attempt to drive Gazans to evacuate towards Rafah.
According to Al-Hadath, Israeli air forces launched intense strikes on the border strip between the northern Sinai Governorate in Egypt and the Gaza Strip, an area known as the Philadelphi Corridor.
If verified, these strikes risk shaking up Israeli-Egyptian diplomatic relations, as the director of the Egyptian Information Service previously stated that “any Israeli initiative aiming to occupy the Philadelphi Corridor (known as Salah Al-Din in Egypt) in the Gaza Strip would constitute a threat to relations with Israel.”
[readmore url="https://thisisbeirut.com.lb/israel-hamaswar/220862"]
Israeli naval forces fired towards the western coast of Rafah, while the media reported that the Israeli army is continuing its preparations to start a ground operation in the city.
The health ministry in Gaza said at least 100 people were killed overnight. AFP journalists reported more heavy bombing of southern cities.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned Wednesday that if Israel pushed its Gaza ground invasion into the southern city of Rafah, it would have "untold regional consequences."
"I am especially alarmed by reports that the Israeli military intends to focus next on Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been squeezed in a desperate search for safety," Guterres said, adding that "such an action would exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare with untold regional consequences."
Fear has grown among the more than one million Palestinians now crowded into Gaza's far south, around the city of Rafah on the Egyptian border, as the battlefront has crept ever closer. "I cannot imagine what will happen to us," said Dana Ahmed, 40, who was displaced from Gaza City with her three children and now lives in a tent in Rafah. "Where will we go now? The situation is catastrophic. I feel like I am living in a horror movie," she added.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned earlier this week that the army "will reach places where we have not yet fought ... right up to the last Hamas bastion, which is Rafah."
The UN aid coordination office OCHA voiced alarm about looming major combat in the densely crowded area.
The campaign has devastated swathes of Gaza and displaced the majority of its 2.4 million people who have also endured dire shortages of food, water, fuel and medicine. The humanitarian situation in long-blockaded Gaza has become "beyond catastrophic," the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said on Tuesday.
About 1,160 Israelis, mostly civilians, have been reported dead according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
At least 27,585 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israeli bombardments according to the Gaza health ministry.
Khalil Wakim, with AFP
The Israeli occupation carried out heavy airstrikes on Wednesday, in Rafah in southern Gaza, while violent armed clashes broke out between Palestinian militant factions and Israeli armed forces in the Al-Amal neighborhood west of Khan Younes.
Israeli forces renewed their shelling of residential areas in the northern and central Gaza Strip, as artillery fire targeted the areas around the shelter center in Khan Younes in an attempt to drive Gazans to evacuate towards Rafah.
According to Al-Hadath, Israeli air forces launched intense strikes on the border strip between the northern Sinai Governorate in Egypt and the Gaza Strip, an area known as the Philadelphi Corridor.
If verified, these strikes risk shaking up Israeli-Egyptian diplomatic relations, as the director of the Egyptian Information Service previously stated that “any Israeli initiative aiming to occupy the Philadelphi Corridor (known as Salah Al-Din in Egypt) in the Gaza Strip would constitute a threat to relations with Israel.”
[readmore url="https://thisisbeirut.com.lb/israel-hamaswar/220862"]
Israeli naval forces fired towards the western coast of Rafah, while the media reported that the Israeli army is continuing its preparations to start a ground operation in the city.
The health ministry in Gaza said at least 100 people were killed overnight. AFP journalists reported more heavy bombing of southern cities.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned Wednesday that if Israel pushed its Gaza ground invasion into the southern city of Rafah, it would have "untold regional consequences."
"I am especially alarmed by reports that the Israeli military intends to focus next on Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been squeezed in a desperate search for safety," Guterres said, adding that "such an action would exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare with untold regional consequences."
Fear has grown among the more than one million Palestinians now crowded into Gaza's far south, around the city of Rafah on the Egyptian border, as the battlefront has crept ever closer. "I cannot imagine what will happen to us," said Dana Ahmed, 40, who was displaced from Gaza City with her three children and now lives in a tent in Rafah. "Where will we go now? The situation is catastrophic. I feel like I am living in a horror movie," she added.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned earlier this week that the army "will reach places where we have not yet fought ... right up to the last Hamas bastion, which is Rafah."
The UN aid coordination office OCHA voiced alarm about looming major combat in the densely crowded area.
The campaign has devastated swathes of Gaza and displaced the majority of its 2.4 million people who have also endured dire shortages of food, water, fuel and medicine. The humanitarian situation in long-blockaded Gaza has become "beyond catastrophic," the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said on Tuesday.
About 1,160 Israelis, mostly civilians, have been reported dead according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
At least 27,585 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israeli bombardments according to the Gaza health ministry.
Khalil Wakim, with AFP
This Is Beirut
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