Israeli soldiers advance further north into Rafah in Gaza

In order to retake a region where they had claimed to have destroyed Hamas months before, Israeli soldiers advanced further into the ruins of Gaza’s northern frontier on Monday. Meanwhile, at the other end of the territory, tanks and infantry advanced over a highway into Rafah.

Thousands of Palestinians have fled once more as a result of the fierce fighting that has been occurring on Gaza’s northern and southern borders for several weeks. Relief organisations fear that the situation might quickly get worse.

Israel maintained that such operations had always been part of its plan and explained its most recent return to the north, where it withdrew the majority of its forces five months ago, as part of a “mop-up” stage of the battle to stop fighters from returning. Palestinians claim that Israel’s military goals are unachievable since the country must continue fighting among the remains of earlier conflicts.

Tanks drove into the centre of the neighbourhood in the vast Jabalia, the largest of Gaza’s eight camps established seventy-five years ago to accommodate Palestinian refugees from what is now Israel. The camp’s core was being hit by tank rounds, according to the residents, and some buildings had been damaged by airstrikes.

On Sunday, thick plumes of black smoke from explosions were visible rising over the northern part of Gaza from the Israeli border.

Israeli forces are attempting to destroy Hamas, which has declared its intention to destroy Israel. According to Israeli estimates, the extremist organisation invaded Israel on October 7 and killed 1,200 people while capturing over 250 captives.

Gaza health experts estimate that more than 35,000 Palestinians have died in the conflict, and they worry that many more are buried beneath the debris. The Gaza Health Ministry warned in a statement on Monday that the medical system is on the verge of collapsing owing to a scarcity of gasoline to power generators and ambulances. The conflict has destroyed the coastal enclave and created a serious humanitarian catastrophe.

Health officials in Palestine said on Monday that they had found 20 dead and several injured Palestinians from the airstrikes that occurred overnight on Jabalia.

Israel increased air and ground bombardments on the eastern parts of Rafah, Gaza, targeting the Egyptian border fence. An airstrike on a house in the Brazil neighbourhood resulted in casualties.

Hundreds of thousands of people, the majority of whom are already displaced, fled for new shelters after Israel issued an order last week for inhabitants to leave the city’s east and, in more recent days, expanded it to include central regions.

Residents reported that tanks had blocked the major Salahuddin Road, which runs north-south and separates the eastern and central parts of the city, and that Israeli air and ground shelling was getting worse.

Bassam, 57, of the Shaboura neighbourhood of Rafah stated, “The tanks cut the Saladuddin road east of the city, the forces are now in the southeast side, building up near the built-up area, the situation is dreadful and the sounds of explosions never stopped.”

“People continue to leave Rafah, even far away near the western areas as no place looks safe now and also because people do not want to escape at the last minute should tanks make sudden incursions and moving out becomes too late,” he said using a messaging app for Reuters.

Since the Israeli military issued its initial order to evacuate the southern city one week ago, UNRWA, the primary United Nations relief organisation in Gaza, estimated that over 360,000 Palestinians had left the area.

Shipment of bombs halted

For the first time since the start of the conflict, Israel’s primary ally, the United States, has severed ties with Israel because to the attack on Rafah, resulting in one of the worst rifts in centuries. Washington has stated that Israel cannot attack Rafah unless it has a strategy in place, which it has not yet seen, to safeguard residents there.

The American ambassador to Israel, Jack Lew, gave a hint on Sunday that Washington still views the Rafah incursion as reasonable.

Lew told Israel’s Channel 12 TV, “The president was clear in the interview he gave the other evening that what Israel has done so far hasn’t crossed over into the area where our disagreements lie,” without going into detail about what that area includes.

“I’m hoping we don’t end up with real disagreement.”

According to the armed wing of Hamas, gunfights between Israeli soldiers and its members were taking place on a street east of Rafah and in Jabalia.

The Israeli military repeatedly activated sirens in the vicinity of Gaza to alert the public of possible cross-border rocket and/or mortar attacks by Palestinians.

In a joint statement, Hamas and the armed branch of Islamic Jihad announced that they had fired mortar bombs against Israeli soldiers assembling inside the Rafah crossing, the only port of entry between Gaza and Egypt that Israel had taken control of last week.

The Israeli military claimed late on Saturday that troops stationed in Jabalia were keeping Gaza’s ruling Hamas group from regaining its military strength there.

Saed, 45, a resident of Jabalia, told Reuters via a chat app on Sunday, “They were bombing everywhere, including near schools that are housing people who lost their houses.” “War is restarting, this is how it looks in Jabalia.”

General News Platform – https://ihtlive.com/
Entertainment News Platforms – anyflix.in 
Construction Infrastructure and Mining News Platform – https://cimreviews.com/
Podcast Platforms – https://anyfm.in/