3 hours ago
Rushdi Abu Alouf,David Gritten
Reuters
Israeli forces have reportedly reached the center of the southern Gaza city of Rafah and captured a strategically important hill overlooking the nearby border with Egypt.
Witnesses and local journalists said tanks were stationed at al-Awda roundabout, which is considered a key landmark.
They also said tanks were on Zoroub Hill, effectively giving Israel control of the Philadelphi Corridor – a narrow strip of land running along the border to the sea.
The Israeli military said its troops were continuing activities against “terror targets” in Rafah, three weeks after it launched the ground operation there.
Western areas of the city also came under intense bombardment overnight, residents said, despite international condemnation of an Israeli air strike and a resulting fire on Sunday that killed dozens of Palestinians at a tented camp for displaced people.
The Israeli military said it was investigating the possibility that the fire was caused by the explosion of weapons stored by Hamas in the vicinity.
It also denied reports from local health and emergency services officials on Tuesday afternoon that tank shells had hit another camp in al-Mawasi, on the coast west of Rafah, killing at least 21 people.
Reuters news agency cited local health officials as saying the blast occurred after Israeli tank shells hit a cluster of tents in al-Mawasi on Tuesday. An official in the Hamas-run civil defence force also told AFP there had been a deadly Israeli strike on tents.
Videos posted to social media and analyzed by BBC Verify showed multiple people with serious injuries, some lying motionless on the ground, near tents and other temporary structures.
There was no clear sign of a blast zone or crater, making it impossible to ascertain the cause of the incident. The location – verified through reference to surrounding buildings – is between Rafah and al-Mawasi, and lies south of the IDF’s designated humanitarian zone.
The IDF said in a statement: “Contrary to the reports from the last few hours, the IDF did not strike in the humanitarian area in al-Mawasi.”
Israel has insisted that victory in its seven-month war with Hamas in Gaza is impossible without taking Rafah and rejected warnings that it could have catastrophic humanitarian consequences.
The UN says around a million people have now fled the fighting in Rafah, but several hundred thousand more could still be sheltering there.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) began what they called “targeted” ground operations against Hamas fighters and infrastructure in the east of Rafah on 6 May.
Since then, tanks and troops have gradually pushed into built-up eastern and central areas while also moving northwards along the 13km (8-mile) border with Egypt.
On Tuesday, they reportedly reached the city center for the first time.
The al-Awda roundabout, which is only 800m (2,600 ft) from the border, is the location of major banks, government institutions, businesses, and shops.
One witness said they saw soldiers position themselves at the top of a building overlooking the roundabout and then begin to shoot at anyone who was moving.
Video posted online meanwhile showed tank track marks on a road about 3km west of al-Awda roundabout and 300m from the Indonesian field hospital, which was damaged overnight.
Reuters
The UN says around a million people have fled Rafah since the start of the Israeli ground operation in the city
Earlier, residents told the BBC that tanks seized Zoroub Hill, about 2.5km north-west of al-Awda roundabout, after gun battles with Hamas-led fighters.
The hill is highest point along the Egyptian border and its seizure means the entire Gazan side of the border is now effectively under Israeli control.
Zoroub Hill also overlooks western Rafah, where residents said there had been the heaviest air and artillery strikes overnight since the start of the Israeli operation.
A local journalist said the bombardment forced hundreds of families to seek temporary shelter in the courtyard of a hospital, while ambulances struggled to reach casualties in the affected areas.
At dawn, thousands of people were seen heading north, crammed into cars and lorries and onto carts pulled by donkeys and horses.
“The explosions are rattling our tent, my children are frightened, and my sick father makes it impossible for us to escape the darkness,” resident Khaled Mahmoud told the BBC.
“We are supposed to be in a safe zone according to the Israeli army, yet we have not received evacuation orders like those in the eastern [Rafah] region,” he added. “We fear for our lives if no-one steps in to protect us.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) did not comment on the various reports but put out a statement saying that “overnight troops operated on the Philadelphi Corridor while conducting precise operational activity based on intelligence indicating the presence of terror targets in the area”.
“The activity is being conducted as efforts are continuing to be made in order to prevent harm to uninvolved civilians in the area,” it added.
“The troops are engaging with terrorists in close-quarters combat and locating terror tunnel shafts, weapons, and additional terrorist infrastructure in the area.”
The IDF has told civilians in eastern Rafah to evacuate for their own safety to an “expanded humanitarian area” stretching from al-Mawasi, a coastal area just north of Rafah, to the central town of Deir al-Balah.
EPA
Israel’s prime minister said the killing of civilians in an air strike and resulting fire in Rafah on Sunday was a “tragedy”
On Sunday night, at least 45 people – more than half of them children, women and the elderly – were killed when an Israeli air strike triggered a huge fire in a camp for displaced people near a UN logistics base in the Tal al-Sultan area, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. Cientos más fueron tratados por quemaduras graves, fracturas y heridas de metralla. El IDF dijo que estaba apuntando a dos altos funcionarios de Hamas en el ataque, que ocurrió horas después de que combatientes de Hamas en el sureste de Rafah lanzaran cohetes hacia la ciudad israelí de Tel Aviv por primera vez en meses. El primer ministro israelí, Benjamin Netanyahu, dijo que había ocurrido un “incidente trágico” a pesar de “nuestros inmensos esfuerzos para evitar dañar a no combatientes” y prometió una investigación exhaustiva. El portavoz jefe del IDF, contraalmirante Daniel Hagari, dijo el martes que el ataque había apuntado a una estructura utilizada por los comandantes de Hamas que estaba lejos de cualquier tienda, utilizando “dos municiones con cabezas de guerra pequeñas”. “Después de este ataque, se encendió un gran incendio por razones que aún se están investigando. Nuestras municiones solas no podrían haber encendido un incendio de este tamaño”, dijo. Rear Adm Hagari agregó que los investigadores estaban investigando la posibilidad de que el incendio fuera causado por la explosión de armas o municiones almacenadas en una estructura cercana, y reprodujo lo que dijo que era una conversación telefónica interceptada entre dos gazatíes que sugería eso. La grabación de audio no pudo ser verificada de inmediato. Sam Rose de la agencia de refugiados palestinos de la ONU, Unrwa, dijo a la BBC desde Rafah occidental que la muerte de tantos civiles no podía ser descartada como un accidente. “Gaza ya era uno de los lugares más superpoblados del planeta. Es absolutamente imposible llevar a cabo una campaña militar que implique municiones a gran escala, ataques desde el cielo, el mar, los tanques, sin cobrar un gran número de víctimas civiles”, dijo. “Parece que estamos alcanzando nuevas profundidades de horror, derramamiento de sangre y brutalidad con cada día que pasa. Y si esto no es un llamado de atención, entonces es difícil ver qué será”. La semana pasada, la Corte Internacional de Justicia (CIJ) ordenó a Israel “detener inmediatamente su ofensiva militar y cualquier otra acción en el Gobernación de Rafah, que pueda infligir al grupo palestino en Gaza condiciones de vida que podrían llevar a su destrucción física en todo o en parte”. Israel lanzó una campaña militar en Gaza para destruir a Hamas en respuesta al ataque transfronterizo del grupo en el sur de Israel el 7 de octubre, durante el cual murieron unas 1,200 personas y otras 252 fueron tomadas como rehenes. Al menos 36,090 personas han muerto en Gaza desde entonces, según el Ministerio de Salud dirigido por Hamas.