5/28/2024–|Last updated: 5/28/202412:29 AM (Mecca time)
The Israeli army sent a new brigade to join 5 others penetrating the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, in a step that is considered an expansion of the ongoing military operation in the region.
Israeli Army Radio said – today, Tuesday – that the Besalmach Brigade entered Rafah yesterday, and it is the sixth brigade fighting there, without specifying the names of the rest of the brigades.
The radio considered this an “expansion of the military operation” that the occupation army began in Rafah on May 6.
The Besalmach Brigade, which is known locally as the “Israeli Army School for Infantry Profession and Squad Leaders in Wartime,” was founded in 1974, and its soldiers had previously participated in fighting in Khan Yunis and other locations in the Gaza Strip.
The decision to send a new brigade to Rafah came 4 days after the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to stop its military operations in Rafah.
With the approval of 13 of its members and the rejection of two members, the Court of Justice issued new temporary measures demanding that Israel “immediately stop its attack on Rafah,” “maintain the opening of the Rafah crossing to facilitate the entry of aid into Gaza,” and “submit a report to the court within a month on the steps it has taken.” In this regard.
These new measures came from the court, which is the highest judicial body in the United Nations, in response to a request from South Africa as part of a comprehensive lawsuit filed by Pretoria at the end of December 2023, accusing Israel of committing genocide crimes in Gaza.
Since last October 7, Israel has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip that has left more than 117,000 Palestinians dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and about 10,000 missing amid massive destruction and famine that has claimed the lives of children and the elderly.