Israeli tanks and armored vehicles arrived for the first time this Tuesday in the center of the city of Rafah, at the southern end of the Gaza Strip, according to witnesses and can be seen in television images. They do it in two directions, from the border with Egypt, and from the eastern part of the city, the only one that they do not yet control in the Palestinian enclave. One million people have fled the area during the last three weeks due to the advance of the Israeli army and orders to head towards the “humanitarian zone” of Al Mawasi, according to estimates by the United Nations.
The previous night, the army bombed the city with airstrikes and tank fire, despite international protests over Sunday’s attack, which caused a fire in a camp for displaced people in which at least 45 Palestinians died, more than the half of them women and children, since the UN International Court of Justice had ordered it last week to immediately stop the offensive in Rafah. The army announced this Tuesday the deployment of another brigade (between 3,000 and 7,000 soldiers) in Rafah.
Since Sunday’s attack, at least 26 more people have been killed by Israeli fire in Rafah, and 46 across the Mediterranean enclave, Hamas authorities have reported. Israeli army sources admitted the entry of tanks into the city, but linked them to “very precise and localized” operations. Israeli armor advanced towards the western neighborhoods and took up positions on the top of Zurub Hill, west of Rafah, on one of the worst nights of shelling. Witnesses in Rafah said the Israeli military appeared to have guided guided armored vehicles and there were no immediate signs of personnel in or around them.
Artillery fire has reached the vicinity of the Kuwaiti hospital. He had to be evacuated and two paramedics died. It was one of two that was still operating in Gaza and has stopped operating. Also the three field hospitals in the western part of the city. The army is pressuring them to relocate their services to Al Mawasi, between the coast and the city of Khan Yunis, reports the Qatari network Al Jazeera.
Since Israel launched its ground offensive on Rafah three weeks ago, to take control of the border crossing with Egypt, tanks had surrounded the area and only entered some of its eastern districts. It was not until this Tuesday that they entered the city. Residents said the Tel al Sultan area, the scene of Sunday’s deadly attack, continued to come under heavy shelling. “Tank shells are falling everywhere in Tel al Sultan. “Many families have fled their homes in western Rafah under fire all night,” one resident told Reuters in a text message.
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The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) estimates that nearly a million people have already fled Rafah as the Israeli offensive advances. “This has happened with nowhere safe to go and in the midst of bombings, lack of food and water, piles of waste and inadequate living conditions,” the organization denounced. “Day after day, providing assistance and protection becomes almost impossible.”
Israel has maintained its attacks despite the fact that the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the highest judicial body of the UN, ordered it last Friday to “immediately” stop the offensive against Rafah and any other action that could lead to total destruction. or partial of the Palestinians as a group. However, for Israel, the judges’ ruling grants it some leeway for military action in the area.
The focus is on Rafah, but it is not the only place where Israeli forces operate, as they have been temporarily reoccupying places in the center and north of the Strip from which they had withdrawn. Palestinians are constantly forced to choose between staying in their devastated localities or trying to find a place less exposed to shelling and that may become a target later. Several civilians who had begun to return to the Al Fallujah area, west of the Jabalia refugee camp, after the withdrawal of forces were killed this Tuesday by fire from Israeli fighter-bombers.
Hamas urges UN to stop offensive
As the army advances in Rafah, Hamas has urged the international community, and in particular the UN Security Council – which meets this Tuesday in an emergency – to take “immediate measures” to stop the offensive. “We urge the international community and the Security Council to take practical and immediate measures,” he said in a statement.
The emergency meeting was requested by Algeria and convened after the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Tor Wennesland, asked Israeli authorities to carry out a “thorough and transparent investigation” into the bombing of the Sunday over the displaced persons camp. The Israeli army on Monday commissioned an independent internal mechanism to investigate what happened in that attack, allegedly directed against two senior Hamas officials.
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