RAFAH: Air strikes and shelling hit Gaza on Monday, witnesses said, as battles raged in the besieged territory’s north and the far-southern city of Rafah where Israel’s defence minister vowed to expand ground operations.
Nearly two weeks since Israel defied international opposition and sent troops into Rafah, which the army has described as the last Hamas stronghold, the UN said more than 810,000 Palestinians have fled the city.
“The question that haunts us is where will we go” said Rafah resident Sarhan Abu al-Saeed, 46.
“Certain death is chasing us from all directions,” he said.
Witnesses told AFP that Israeli naval forces struck Rafah, and medics reported an air strike that hit a residential building in the city’s western parts.
The army said Israeli troops were “conducting targeted raids on terrorist infrastructure” in eastern Rafah where they had found “dozens of tunnel shafts”.
Two Israeli soldiers killed in south Gaza, military says
Since the start of the long-threatened Rafah incursion in early May, Israeli forces have also been engaged in intense fighting in northern and central Gaza where the army says Hamas has regrouped after previously announcing these areas cleared of fighters.
An AFP correspondent and Palestinian medics said Israeli warplanes carried out overnight strikes on Gaza City’s centre and the southern neighbourhoods of Zeitun and Sabra.
Witnesses also reported helicopters hovering over northern Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp, one of the areas that has seen a resurgence of fighting in recent weeks, and air strikes on Al-Bureij camp and Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.
Post-war ‘strategy’
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to keep fighting Hamas in Gaza, following its October 7 attack that sparked the war, until the Iran-backed group is defeated and all remaining hostages are released.
American Dollar Exchange Rate