Israel expands offensive in Rafah, intensifies attacks on northern Gaza

GAZA CITY, Palestine

The Israeli army has expanded its military operation in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip amid intensified airstrikes and artillery shelling on the city, according to witnesses.

Nearly 360,000 Palestinians have fled the city since Israel launched its attack on Rafah last week, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said on Monday.

Israeli forces moved into Al-Jenenah and Al-Salam neighborhoods in western Rafah late Sunday, pushing deep into populated areas, witnesses said.

Israeli artillery and warplanes also intensified their attacks on residential buildings in Rafah, particularly in the eastern and central neighborhoods, they added.

At least eight people were killed and three others injured in Israeli attacks in the last few hours, according to medical sources.

The Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the resistance group Hamas, said its fighters had engaged in fierce clashes with Israeli forces in eastern Rafah.

The group claimed attacks on an Israeli tank, two personnel carriers and a military bulldozer east of Rafah and shelled Israeli forces at the Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt.

The Israeli army seized control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing on May 7, a vital route for humanitarian aid into the besieged Gaza Strip.

The move came one day after the army issued evacuation orders for Palestinians in eastern Rafah in a prelude to Israel's long-feared attack on the city, where some 1.5 million displaced Palestinians have sheltered.

Intensified attacks

The Israeli army also stepped up its offensive in Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip, forcing hundreds to flee their homes, according to witnesses.

Ambulances moving to evacuate injured people in the area were targeted by Israeli forces, medical sources at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza told Anadolu.

At least 25 people were reported dead and scores injured in Jabaliya while several others remained trapped under the rubble of destroyed buildings, the sources said.

Fierce clashes were reported between Palestinian resistance fighters and Israeli forces east of Jabaliya, according to witnesses and local sources.

Israeli forces also advanced into the Zeitoun neighborhood in Gaza City, shelling dozens of homes in the area.

Several people were reported killed and injured in the onslaught, including Talal Abu Zareefa, a member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) group, according to medical sources.

Israel has waged a brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip in retaliation for an Oct. 7 Hamas attack, which killed 1,200 people.

Nearly 35,100 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, the vast majority of whom have been women and children, and over 78,800 others injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.

Over seven months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85% of the enclave’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January said it is "plausible" that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and ordered Tel Aviv to stop such acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul