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Israel’s military said it had advanced into the center of Rafah and deeper into southern Gaza Strip, despite opposition from the international community and pressure from allies to scale back its recent offensive.
Israeli commandos, backed by tanks and artillery, were operating in the center of Rafah, the Israeli military said in a statement, without specifying the exact location. On Wednesday, the Israeli military said it had established operational control over an eight-mile stretch of the Egyptian border known as the Philadelphia Corridor outside Rafah.
According to the United Nations, more than 1 million Palestinians, half the population of Rafah, have fled Israel’s offensive in the past few weeks, many becoming refugees for the second or third time in the conflict. When Israel ordered a mass evacuation of northern Gaza in late October, many people sought refuge there, pushing the population of Gaza to 1.4 million.
Israel has continued its offensive against Rafah despite close allies like the United States raising concerns about the safety of Palestinian refugees and other civilians hiding there. Israeli officials say they cannot defeat Hamas in Gaza without rooting out its forces there and destroying the network of cross-border tunnels used to smuggle military supplies and other supplies from neighboring Egypt.
But the attack has deepened the misery of many ordinary Palestinians. A single Israeli airstrike on Sunday killed at least 45 people, according to Gaza health officials. The Israeli military said the shelling targeted two Hamas commanders but also unintentionally started a fire in a nearby area where civilians were sheltering in place.
Last week, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to curb the ongoing military offensive in Rafah, warning of irreversible harm to civilians. But some judges wrote that Israel could still conduct some military operations there. The Israeli military continued operations despite the pressure and described the Rafah operation as limited and precise.
Commercial satellite images taken by Planet Labs on Thursday showed that Israeli forces had established positions in parts of central Rafah, and military vehicles and tanks were spotted as far as the outskirts of the Tel al-Sultan area, west of Rafah.
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Satellite images from May 22 show that much of eastern Rafah has been devastated since attacks began in early May, especially areas around the border with Egypt. Israel captured the Rafah crossing area in a night operation on May 7, marking the start of the offensive. in that area.
Source: Satellite imagery from Planet Labs
The Rafah border has served as an important conduit for delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza amid widespread poverty and hunger. It also served as a key gateway for sick and injured Gaza residents fleeing fighting to receive emergency medical care.
Israeli officials say the portal was at the heart of a Hamas smuggling operation that has been under a tight Israeli-Egyptian blockade since the Palestinian militant group took over the Gaza Strip by force in 2007.
The crossing has been closed since Israeli military occupation, and Israeli, Egyptian and Palestinian officials have failed to reach an agreement to resume operations there.
After pressure from the United States, Egypt this week began redirecting some aid trucks to another Israeli-controlled crossing, Kerem Shalom, in a bid to ease a sharp decline in aid flows into Gaza.
