By Nidal al-Mughrabi
CAIRO (Reuters) – Israeli tanks advanced deeper into eastern Rafah, reaching some residential neighborhoods on Tuesday, intensifying an offensive on the southern border city where more than a million people were sheltering after being displaced in seven months of war.
Israel’s international allies and aid groups have repeatedly called against a ground incursion into refugee-filled Rafah, warning of a potential humanitarian catastrophe.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said Israel’s operations in Rafah have delayed efforts to reach a ceasefire in talks being mediated by Qatar and Egypt, although they continue to Negotiate.
Israel has vowed to advance on Rafah even without support from allies, saying its operation is necessary to eradicate four remaining Hamas battalions hidden in the city.
“Tanks advanced this morning west of Salahuddin road, towards the neighborhoods of Brzail and Jneina. They are on the streets within the urban area and there are clashes,” a resident told Reuters via a chat app.
A video on social media showed a tank on George Street in the Al-Jneina neighborhood. Reuters was unable to verify the video.
Hamas’ armed wing said it destroyed an Israeli aircraft carrier with an Al-Yassin 105 missile in the eastern neighborhood of Al-Salam, killing some crew members and wounding others.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
‘NO PLACE IS SAFE’, SAYS UNRWA
Israel issued evacuation orders for people to move from parts of eastern Rafah a week ago, with a second round of orders extending to other areas on Saturday.
They are moving to empty tracts of land, including Al-Mawasi, a sandy strip bordering the coast that Israel has designated a humanitarian area. Humanitarian agencies have warned that the area lacks sanitary and other facilities to accommodate an influx of displaced people.
UNRWA, the main United Nations aid agency in Gaza, estimates that around 450,000 people have fled Rafah since May 6.
“People face constant exhaustion, hunger and fear. No place is safe,” the agency posted on X.
Fighting across the strip has intensified in recent days, including in the north, with the Israeli military returning to areas where it claimed to have dismantled Hamas months ago. Israel says the operations aim to prevent Hamas, which controls Gaza, from rebuilding its military capabilities.
The number of Palestinian deaths in the war has already exceeded 35,000, according to Gaza health authorities, whose numbers do not differentiate between civilians and combatants. It said 82 Palestinians had been killed in the past 24 hours, the highest single-day death toll in many weeks.
A foreign member of the UN security team was killed in Rafah on Monday when a UN-marked vehicle was hit. A spokesman said it was the first international UN fatality of the war and brought the total number of UN staff deaths to around 190.
Israel launched its operation in Gaza after the devastating October 7 attack carried out by armed men led by Hamas who invaded Israeli communities around the enclave, killing around 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli data.
The shootouts between Israeli forces and Palestinian gunmen were the most violent in recent months, according to residents, both in the north and south of the densely populated enclave of 2.3 million people.
In the Zeitoun neighborhood of northern Gaza city, bulldozers demolished clusters of houses to create a new road for tanks to pass into the eastern suburbs.
In Jabalia in northern Gaza, a sprawling refugee camp built for displaced Palestinians 75 years ago, residents said Israeli forces were trying to reach as deep as the camp’s local market under heavy tank shelling.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo, Clauda Tanios in Dubai; writing by Sharon Singleton; editing by Alex Richardson)
