GAZA STRIP: Israeli helicopters struck Gaza’s Rafah Thursday, residents said, with Hamas militants reporting street battles in the southern city after top US diplomat Antony Blinken said a truce was still possible.
But the war raged on, and tensions soared on Israel’s northern border with more attacks by Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah forces targeting military positions.
Israel, which has traded near-daily fire with Hamas ally Hezbollah since the start of the Gaza war, said it would respond “with force”.
Israeli ground forces have been operating in Rafah since early May, despite widespread alarm over the fate of Palestinian civilians there, including in a ruling by the International Court of Justice later that month.
Western areas of Rafah came under heavy fire on Thursday from the air, sea and land, residents said.
“There was very intense fire from warplanes, Apaches (helicopters) and quadcopters, in addition to Israeli artillery and military battle ships, all of which were striking the area west of Rafah,” one told AFP.
Hamas said its fighters were battling Israeli troops on the streets in the city, near the besieged Gaza Strip’s border with Egypt.
The Gaza war began after Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
The militants also seized 251 hostages. Of these, 116 remain in Gaza although the army says 41 are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has left at least 37,232 people dead in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-ruled territory’s health ministry.
The latest toll includes at least 30 more deaths over the previous day, it said.
Efforts to reach a truce stalled when Israel began ground operations in Rafah, but US President Joe Biden in late May launched a new effort to secure a deal.
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