By Nidal al-Mughrabi
CAIRO (Reuters) – Israeli forces stormed Rafah and other areas in the Gaza Strip, engaging in close combat with fighters led by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, residents and the Israeli army said.
Residents said the Israelis did this by trying to complete their capture of Rafah, the city on the southern edge of the enclave that has been the focus of an Israeli attack since early May.
Tanks entered the western and northern parts of the city, having already captured the east, south and center. Israeli forces fired from planes, tanks and ships off the coast, sparking a new wave of displacement from the city, which was home to more than a million displaced people, most of whom had to flee again.
The Israeli army said on Friday that its forces carried out “precise, intelligence-based” actions in the Rafah area, where forces engaged in close-quarters fighting and had located tunnels used by militants. It also reported actions elsewhere in the enclave.
Some residents said the pace of the Israeli incursion has accelerated in the past two days. They said the sounds of explosions and gunfire indicate heavy fighting was going on almost non-stop.
More than eight months after the war in Gaza, Israel’s advance is now focused on the last two areas its forces had yet to storm: Rafah on Gaza’s southern edge and the area around Deir al-Balah in the center.
“The entire city of Rafah is an area of Israeli military operations,” Ahmed Al-Sofi, the mayor of Rafah, said in a statement carried by Hamas media on Friday.
“The city is experiencing a humanitarian catastrophe and people are dying in their tents due to Israeli bombing,” he added.
Sofi said there was no functioning medical facility in the city, and remaining residents and displaced families could not meet their daily needs for food and water.
Palestinian and UN figures suggest fewer than 100,000 people may remain in the city’s far west, which had sheltered more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents before the Israeli assault began in early May .
The military accused Hamas of using Palestinian civilians as human shields, a claim Hamas denies.
“The soldiers are in a civilian home and have hidden large quantities of weapons in cupboards, including grenades, explosives, a launcher and anti-tank missiles, ammunition and weapons,” the army said in a statement late on Thursday.
Hamas’ armed wing said Thursday that its fighters had hit two Israeli tanks with anti-tank missiles in the Shaboura camp in Rafah, killing soldiers who tried to flee through the alleys. There was no immediate Israeli comment on Hamas’ claim.
In nearby Khan Younis, an Israeli airstrike killed three people on Friday, including a father and a son, doctors said.
At the same time, Israeli forces continued a new push into some Gaza City suburbs in the north of the enclave, where they fought with Hamas-led militants. Residents said the army destroyed many homes in the heart of Gaza City on Thursday.
Later on Friday, an Israeli airstrike on a main road in Gaza City killed four Palestinians, doctors said.
Israel’s ground and air campaign was triggered when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli figures.
The offensive has left Gaza in ruins, killing more than 37,400 people and leaving almost the entire population homeless and destitute, according to Palestinian health authorities.
(Reporting and writing by Nidal al-Mughrabi; editing by Peter Graff)
