Residents of Rafah reported intense artillery shelling and gunfire in the far southern Gaza town after Israel said it had seized a strategic corridor on the Gaza border. Palestinian territory with Egypt.
The Israeli army launched its incursion into Rafah in early May despite international objections over the fate of Palestinian civilians sheltering there.
A weekend strike that sparked a fire and killed dozens at a displaced people’s camp sparked a wave of new condemnations, including a social media campaign with the slogan “All eyes on Rafah” that was shared by tens of millions of users.
Israel said on Wednesday that its forces had taken control of the 14-kilometer-long Philadelphia Corridor on the Gaza-Egypt border, which it suspects of being used for arms smuggling.
Military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari announced that Israel had taken “operational control” of the narrow border area, where he said troops had “discovered around 20 tunnels.”
Egypt, a longtime mediator in the conflict and increasingly critical of the Israeli operation, has rejected allegations that smuggling tunnels pass beneath the buffer zone.
“Israel is using these allegations to justify the continuation of the operation on the Palestinian town of Rafah and the prolongation of the war for political purposes,” said a high-level Egyptian source quoted by the Al-Qahera News newspaper, linked to the state.
Egyptian officials have said a possible Israeli takeover of Philadelphia could violate the historic 1979 peace agreement between the two countries, although there has been no official comment from Cairo since the announcement. the army.
An AFP correspondent reported artillery and gunfire in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City in the north of the territory, where witnesses saw thick plumes of smoke rising. rise above the Jabalia refugee camp and Beit Lahiya.
A steady stream of civilians have fled Rafah, carrying their belongings on their shoulders, in cars or on donkey carts.
Before the Rafah offensive began, the United Nations said up to 1.4 million people were taking refuge there. Since then, a million people have fled the region, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said.
The Israeli military said Thursday that its forces attacked more than 50 targets across Gaza the day before.
Troops found weapons, explosives and tunnel shafts in Rafah, and fought fighters in Jabalia, it said in a statement.
The weekend Israeli attack and subsequent gunfire that ravaged the camp of displaced Palestinians in Rafah, killed 45 people, according to Gaza officials, and sparked two days of discussions at the UN Security Council. ‘UN.