Gaza war: Israeli tanks rush into central Rafah

Israeli troops have reportedly reached the center of the southern Gaza city of Rafah and captured a strategically important hill overlooking the nearby border with Egypt.

Eyewitnesses and local journalists said the tanks were stationed at the Al Auda roundabout, which is considered an important landmark.

They also say the tanks are parked on Mount Zorub, effectively giving Israel control of the Philadelphia Corridor, a narrow strip of land that stretches along the border to the sea.

The Israeli military says its forces are continuing to target “terrorist targets” in Rafah, three weeks after launching a ground operation there.

Residents said areas in the city’s west also came under heavy bombardment overnight, despite international condemnation of Israeli airstrikes that led to a fire in a tent camp for displaced people that killed dozens of Palestinians on Sunday.

The Israeli military said it was investigating whether the fire was caused by the explosion of weapons stored nearby by Hamas.

It also denied reports from local health and emergency services officials on Tuesday afternoon that tank shells hit another camp in Mawasi, west of Rafah, killing at least 21 people.

The explosion occurred after an Israeli tank shell hit a group of tents in Mavasi on Tuesday, Reuters quoted local health officials as saying. An official from Hamas’s civil defense force also told AFP that Israel launched a deadly attack on the tent.

Footage posted to social media and analyzed by BBC Verify showed multiple people seriously injured, some lying motionless on the ground near tents and other makeshift structures.

The cause of the accident could not be determined as there were no obvious signs of an explosion zone or crater. Reference to surrounding buildings confirmed that the location was between Rafah and Mawasi, south of the IDF-designated humanitarian zone.

“Contrary to reports over the past few hours, the IDF did not attack the humanitarian area in Mawasi,” the IDF said in a statement.

Israel insists it cannot win its seven-month war with Hamas in Gaza without seizing Rafah, rejecting warnings of potentially catastrophic humanitarian consequences.

The United Nations says about one million people have fled fighting in Rafah, but hundreds of thousands are still seeking refuge there.

On May 6, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) began what they called “targeted” ground operations against Hamas militants and infrastructure east of Rafah.

Since then, tanks and troops have gradually moved into complexes in the eastern and central areas, while also moving north along the 13-kilometer (8-mile) border with Egypt.

They reportedly arrived in the city center for the first time on Tuesday.

The al-Awda roundabout is just 800m (2,600 ft) from the border and is home to major banks, government agencies, businesses and shops.

One witness said they saw soldiers standing on top of a building overlooking the roundabout and then began shooting at anyone who moved.

Meanwhile, videos posted online show traces of tanks on the road It is located about 3 kilometers west of al-Awda roundabout and 300m away from the Indonesian field hospital, which was damaged overnight.

Earlier, residents told the BBC that tanks occupied Zoroub Hill, about 2.5 kilometers northwest of al-Awda roundabout, after a firefight with Hamas-led militants.

The mountain is the highest point on the Egyptian border and its capture means the entire Gaza side of the border is now effectively under Israeli control.

Mount Zorub also overlooks western Rafah, which residents said last night saw the heaviest airstrikes and shelling since the Israeli operation began.

A local journalist said the bombing had forced hundreds of families to seek temporary shelter in a hospital yard, while ambulances struggled to reach the injured in the affected areas.

At dawn, thousands of people were seen heading north, piling into cars, trucks and donkey- and horse-drawn carriages.

Resident Khaled Mahmoud told the BBC: “The explosions rattled our tent, my children were scared and my sick father made it impossible for us to escape the darkness.”

“According to the Israeli army, we are supposed to be in a safe zone, but we have not received evacuation orders like the ones in the east. [Rafah] region,” he added. “If no one steps in to protect us, we fear for our lives.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) did not comment on the various reports, but issued a statement saying that “troops operated in the Philadelphia corridor overnight while conducting precise operations based on intelligence indicating the presence of terrorist targets in the area.”

“This activity is ongoing and efforts continue to prevent harm to civilians in the area who were not involved in the incident,” the statement added.

“The troops are engaged in close combat with terrorists and are scouring the area for terrorist tunnels, weapons and other terrorist infrastructure.”

The IDF has asked civilians east of Rafah to evacuate for their own safety to an “expanded humanitarian zone” that stretches from the coastal area of ​​Mawasi, north of Rafah, to the central town of Deir al-Balah.

On Sunday night, Israeli airstrikes sparked fires at a displaced persons camp near the United Nations logistics base in the Tal-Sultan region, killing at least 45 people, more than half of whom were children, women and the elderly, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Hundreds more were treated for severe burns, broken bones and shrapnel wounds.

The attack, which the IDF said targeted two senior Hamas officials, came hours after Hamas militants southeast of Rafah fired rockets into the Israeli city of Tel Aviv for the first time in months.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the “tragic incident” had occurred “despite our tremendous efforts to avoid harming non-combatants” and promised a thorough investigation.

The attack targeted a building used by Hamas commanders away from tents and used “two munitions with small warheads,” IDF chief spokesman Maj. Gen. Daniel Hagari said on Tuesday.

“After this strike, a fire broke out, the cause of which is still under investigation. It is impossible to ignite a fire of this size with our ammunition alone,” he said.

Maj. Gen. Hagari added that investigators were looking into whether the fire was caused by the explosion of weapons or ammunition stored in a nearby building, and played what he said was an intercepted phone conversation between two Gazans that suggested this. . The recording could not immediately be confirmed.

Sam Ross of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees told the BBC in Rafah West that the killing of so many civilians could not be dismissed as an accident.

“Gaza is already one of the most crowded places on earth. It is absolutely impossible to launch a military operation involving large-scale munitions, air, sea, and tank strikes without causing massive civilian casualties.

“It seems like every day we’re exploring new depths of terror, bloodshed and brutality. If this isn’t a wake-up call, it’s hard to imagine what will be.

Last week, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to “immediately cease its military offensive in Rafah governorate and any other actions that may impose living conditions on Palestinian groups in Gaza that could lead to their material destruction”. .

On October 7, Hamas launched a cross-border attack on southern Israel, and Israel launched a military operation in Gaza to destroy the organization, resulting in approximately 1,200 deaths and 252 people taken hostage.

Since then, at least 36,090 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.