RAFA, Gaza Strip (AP) – Israeli forces were fighting Palestinian militants across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, including in parts of the devastated north, the military said. It was cleared months agoHamas took advantage of the security vacuum to regroup.
Israel considers the southern Gaza city of Rafah to be Hamas’s last stronghold and says the invasion is necessary to achieve its goals of dismantling Hamas and returning many hostages. The limited operation has expanded in recent days, forcing around 300,000 people to evacuate and prompting a warning from the Egyptian government, officials said. Decades of peace treaty with Israel At risk.
But the rest of the war-torn region appears to offer ample opportunity for Hamas. Israel has not yet presented detailed plans for post-war governance of the Gaza Strip, saying only that it “will do so.” Maintain unlimited security control It flies over the coastal enclave, home to about 2.3 million Palestinians.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected a postwar plan proposed by the United States in which the Palestinian Authority, which controls parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, would rule Gaza with support from Arab and Islamic countries. those plans It depends on progress toward establishing a Palestinian state, which Netanyahu’s government fiercely opposes.
The two close allies have been divided, leaving Gaza without a functioning government, leading to a collapse of security and allowing Hamas to rebuild even in the hardest-hit areas.
The war started between Hamas and other extremists Attacks southern Israel on October 7th, killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took another 250 hostages. They still hold about 100 prisoners and more than 30 bodies, and internationally mediated talks over a ceasefire and hostage release appear to be at a standstill.
Israeli air, land and sea attacks have killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, but the ministry’s statistics show that only civilians and combatants have died. There is no distinction between Israel claims, without providing evidence, that it has killed more than 13,000 militants.
heavy bombardment in the north
Palestinians reported heavy Israeli shelling throughout the night in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp and other areas in the northern Gaza Strip. The Gaza Strip has suffered widespread devastation and been largely isolated by Israeli forces for months. According to UN officials, “Full-scale starvation” There.
Israeli warplanes and artillery attacked the camp and the Zeitoun area east of Gaza City, where troops have been fighting Palestinian militants for more than a week, residents said. They called on tens of thousands of people to move to nearby areas.
“It was a very tough night,” said Abdelkareem Radwan, 48, a Palestinian from Jabaliya. Heavy and continuous bombing could be heard from noon on Saturday. “This is madness.”
First responders from the Palestinian Civil Defense Agency said they were unable to respond to multiple calls for help from both areas and from Rafah.
Major General Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military’s top spokesman, said that in addition to Jabaliya and Zeitoun, troops were also operating in Beit Rahiya and Beit Hanoun. Two towns in northern Gaza near the border with Israel were heavily bombed early in the war.
Columnist Ben Caspit wrote in the Israeli daily Marib that the military is “now in Jabaliya for the second time and Zeitoun for the third time, and will continue to come and go.” Growing dissatisfaction felt by many Israelis It has been more than seven months since the war began.
“Toppling the Hamas regime is impossible without preparing a regime to replace it,” he wrote, comparing it to America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “The only people who can govern Gaza after the war are the Gazans, who have significant support and assistance from outside.”
Palestinians displaced by Israeli air and ground attacks arrive at a makeshift tent camp west of Rafah, Gaza Strip, Friday, May 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Civilians evacuating to the south
The United Nations Palestine Refugee Agency, the main provider of aid to the Gaza Strip, said: 300,000 people evacuated from Rafah That’s when the operation started. Most are heading towards The nearby city of Khan Yunis was heavily damaged. Or Mawasi, a crowded tent camp along the coast where some 450,000 people already live in squalid conditions.
Rafah had sheltered around 1.3 million Palestinians before the Israeli operation began, most of them fleeing fighting elsewhere in the territory.
Israel is currently evacuating an area in the eastern third of Rafah, where Hagari said dozens of militants were killed as “targeted operations continue.” The United Nations believes that the planned full-scale invasion of Rafah will further paralyze humanitarian operations And the number of civilian deaths skyrockets.
Rafah, which borders Egypt near a major aid entry point, has already been affected. The Israeli army is occupied the Gaza side The Rafah intersection was closed. Egypt refuses to coordinate with Israel on cross-border aid deliveries, citing “unacceptable Israeli escalation,” state TV station Al-Kahera News reported, citing unnamed officials. are doing.
A senior Egyptian official told The Associated Press that Cairo has lodged a complaint with Israeli, U.S. and European governments, saying the attack puts the peace treaty with Israel, a cornerstone of stability in the region, at high risk. Ta.
The official was not authorized to brief the media and spoke on condition of anonymity.
US President Joe Biden said he would not provide offensive weapons to Israel because of Rafah. On Friday, the administration called it “reasonable.” Evidence that Israel violated international law Protecting civilians — Washington’s strongest statement yet on the issue.
Israel rejects these claims, saying it is seeking to avoid harm to civilians. Hamas blames the high death toll because the militants are fighting in densely populated residential areas. But the military rarely comments on individual attacks, which often claim the lives of women and children.
The Gaza Ministry of Health announced that a strike in central Gaza late Saturday killed Mohammed Kazat, a prominent local dentist, and his son Youssef.
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Klaus reported from Jerusalem and Magdy from Cairo.
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