CAIRO, Egypt
Israeli forces pushed deep
into the ruins of Gaza’s northern edge on Monday to recapture an area where
they had claimed to have defeated Hamas months ago, while at the opposite end
of the enclave tanks and troops pushed across a highway into Rafah.Above, smoke billows during Israeli strikes in eastern Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 13, 2024
With some of the most intense
fighting for weeks now taking place on both the northern and southern edges of
Gaza, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have again taken flight, and aid
groups warn that a humanitarian crisis could sharply worsen.
Israel described its latest
return to the north, where it pulled out most of its troops five months ago, as
part of a “mop-up” stage of the war to prevent fighters from returning, and
said such operations had always been part of its plan. Palestinians say the
need to keep fighting amid the ruins of previous battles is proof Israel’s
military objectives are unattainable.
In sprawling Jabalia, the
biggest of Gaza’s eight camps built 75 years ago to house Palestinian refugees
from what is now Israel, tanks pushed toward the heart of the district.
Residents said tank shells were landing at the center of the camp and air strikes
had destroyed clusters of houses.
Thick clouds of black smoke
from explosions could be seen rising over northern Gaza from the Israeli border
on Sunday.
Israeli troops are seeking to
wipe out Hamas, which has said it is committed to Israel’s destruction. The
militant group burst into Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 and taking more than
250 hostages, by Israeli tallies.
The Palestinian death toll in
the war has now surpassed 35,000, according to Gaza health officials who fear
many more bodies are lost under the rubble. The fighting has laid waste to the
coastal enclave and caused a deep humanitarian crisis, with the Gaza health
ministry warning in a statement on Monday that the medical system is on the
verge of collapse due to a shortage of fuel to power generators and ambulances.
Palestinian health officials
on Monday said they had so far recovered 20 bodies of Palestinians killed in
the overnight air strikes on Jabalia, while dozens were injured.
At the opposite end of Gaza in
Rafah, against the border fence with Egypt, Israel stepped up aerial and ground
bombardments on the eastern areas of the city, killing people in an air strike
on a house in the Brazil neighborhood.
Israel ordered residents out
of the east of the city last week, and extended that order to central areas in
recent days, sending hundreds of thousands of people, most of whom are already
displaced, fleeing for new shelters.
Residents said Israeli air and
ground bombardments were intensifying and tanks had cut off the main
north-south Salahuddin Road that divides the eastern part of the city from the
central area.
“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,” said Bassam, 57, from the Shaboura neighborhood in Rafah.
“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 told Reuters via a chat
app.
UNRWA, the main United Nations
aid agency in Gaza, estimated that about 360,000 people had fled the southern
city since the Israeli military gave its first evacuation order a week ago.
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