Israeli forces pounded Rafah in southern Gaza on Friday, as well as other areas across the enclave, killing at least 38 Palestinians as troops engaged in close-quarter combat with Hamas, residents and Israel’s military said.
Residents said the Israelis appeared to be trying to complete their capture of Rafah, which borders Egypt and has been the focus of an Israeli assault since early May.
Tanks were forcing their way into the western and northern parts of the city, having already captured the east, south and centre. Israeli forces fired from planes, tanks and ships off the coast, forcing a new wave of displacement from the city, which had been sheltering more than a million displaced people, most of whom have been forced to flee again.
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Later on Friday, Palestinian health officials said at least 18 Palestinians were killed in Mawasi in western Rafah in what Palestinians said was a tank shelling that hit a tent housing displaced families.
“Our teams have so far dealt with 18 martyrs and 35 injuries due to the occupation’s targeting of displaced people’s tents in Mawasi #Rafah, west of the governorate,” said the Palestinian Red Crescent Society in a statement on X.
Palestinian health officials said at least 38 Palestinians had been killed in separate Israeli military strikes on Friday.
The Israeli military said on Friday it was looking into the reported strikes on Mawasi and a separate incident in Gaza City.
It said its forces were conducting “precise, intelligence-based” actions in the Rafah area, where troops were involved in close-quarter combat and had located tunnels used by Hamas.
‘One of the worst nights’
Some Rafah residents said the pace of the Israeli raid has accelerated in the past two days. They said sounds of explosions and gunfire, indicating fierce fighting, have been almost non-stop.
“Last night was one of the worst nights in western Rafah, drones, planes, tanks, and naval boats bombarded the area. We feel the occupation is trying to complete the control of the city,” said Hatem, 45, reached by text message.
“They are taking heavy strikes from the resistance fighters, which may be slowing them down.”
More than eight months into the war in Gaza, Israel’s advance is now focused on the two last areas its forces had yet to storm: Rafah on Gaza’s southern edge and the area surrounding Deir al-Balah in the centre.
“The entire city of Rafah is an area of Israeli military operations,” Ahmed Al-Sofi, the mayor of Rafah, said in a statement carried by Hamas media on Friday.
“The city lives through a humanitarian catastrophe and people are dying inside their tents because of Israeli bombardment,” he added.
No functioning medical facility
Sofi said there was no medical facility functioning in the city, and that remaining residents and displaced families lacked the minimum daily needs of food and water.
Palestinian and UN figures show that fewer than 100,000 people may have remained in the far western side of the city, which had been sheltering more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people before the Israeli assault began in early May.
The Israeli military accused Hamas of using Palestinian civilians as human shields, an allegation Hamas denies.
In nearby Khan Younis, an Israeli air strike on Friday killed three people, including a father and son, medics said.
Later on Friday, an Israeli air strike on a Gaza City municipal facility killed five people, including four municipal workers, the territory’s Civil Emergency Service said. It added that rescue teams were searching the rubble for more missing victims.
In the nearby Beach camp, an Israeli air strike on a house killed at least seven people, medics said.