Israel bombards northern and southern Gaza, engages Hamas in Rafah

Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen/Archive photo.

Local residents reported that fighting had intensified in the Tel al-Sultan area west of Rafah, where Israeli tanks were attempting to advance northward amid major clashes. The armed wing of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for attacking Israeli forces with anti-tank missiles and mortars.

Since the beginning of May, ground fighting has been concentrated in Rafah, a city bordering Egypt on the southern Gaza border, where more than half of the inner city's 2.3 million inhabitants are sheltering after being displaced from other areas. The majority of Rafah's residents had already fled the city since then.

Israel claims it is close to achieving its goal of eliminating the last remaining Hamas divisions in Rafah, and will then move on to smaller-scale operations in the area.

Medical personnel say two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli missile attack in Rafah.

The Israeli military said its forces killed a Hamas member involved in arms smuggling across the border between Rafah and Egypt. It also said its aircraft struck dozens of militant targets in Rafah overnight, including fighters, military structures, and tunnel entrances.

Medical personnel said late Wednesday that an Israeli airstrike killed three Palestinians and injured several others at the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, one of eight refugee camps in the Gaza Strip.

Local residents and Hamas media have reported that the casualties included a group of people gathered outside a shop to get an internet signal in order to contact relatives elsewhere in the area.

In the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, tank shells destroyed a residential building, killing at least five people and injuring several others.

The Israeli military has not commented on the incident.

Hostage exchange agreement

Israel's air and ground campaign in Gaza was sparked after Hamas militants stormed and attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages.

On Tuesday, the Gaza Health Ministry said that Israel's retaliatory campaign had killed 37,658 Palestinians, including 60 in the previous 24 hours, and leveled Gaza.

The Gaza health ministry does not differentiate between reported deaths of combatants and non-combatants, but officials assert that the vast majority of those killed were civilians. 314 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza, and Israeli authorities claim that at least one-third of the Palestinian casualties were militants.

After more than eight months of fighting, US-backed mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire agreement. Hamas insists that any agreement must end the war and require the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, while Israel maintains it will only accept a temporary ceasefire once Hamas is destroyed.

Orly Gilboa, a woman whose 20-year-old daughter Daniela is a hostage being held in Gaza, has called on Israeli leaders to accept the agreement and urged the international community to pressure Hamas to do the same.

In a press conference in Tel Aviv, she stated: “The agreement is to be signed and implemented. I urge my government to implement the proposal they have put forward, and to be as courageous as our children, to save them, to save us. Time is running out.”

Severe food shortage

In northern Gaza, Palestinians have voiced concerns about severe food shortages and soaring prices, and health officials say thousands of children are malnourished, with at least 30 children having died since October 7, 2023.

Abu Mustafa, who lives with his family in Gaza City, said: “We only have flour and canned goods, nothing else to eat, no vegetables, no meat, no milk.”

This family's house was hit by Israeli tank artillery fire last week, and the entire upper floor was destroyed.

"Besides the bombings, Israel is also waging another war in northern Gaza, and that is a war of starvation. People there don't recognize each other anymore when they meet on the streets because they've lost weight and look much older."

Gaza remains at extremely high risk of famine, however, on Tuesday, an international observer body said that aid deliveries had helped limit widespread starvation in northern Gaza.

More than 495,000 people in the Gaza Strip are facing the highest level of food insecurity, the “catastrophic” level, according to an update from the Integrated Food Security Status (IPC) Classification, an international cooperation body between the UN and other aid agencies.

Concluding his visit to Washington, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant affirmed that Israel is fighting against Hamas, not the people of Gaza.

“We are committed, and I am personally committed, to supporting the delivery of essential humanitarian aid to Gaza. We are only fighting against those who wish to harm us.”

Nguyen Quang Minh (According to Reuters)

Source: https://www.nguoiduatin.vn/israel-ban-pha-mien-bac-va-nam-gaza-tham-chien-voi-hamas-tai-rafah-a670348.html