Israel pushes back into northern Gaza, ups military pressure on Rafah

CAIRO - Israel sent tanks into eastern Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip early on May 12, after a night of heavy aerial and ground bombardments, killing 19 people and wounding dozens of others, health officials said.

The death toll in Israel’s military operation in Gaza has now passed 35,000, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The bombardment has laid waste to the coastal enclave and caused a deep humanitarian crisis.

Jabalia is the biggest of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps and is home to more than 100,000 people, most of whom are descendants of Palestinians who were driven from towns and villages in what is now Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war that led to the creation of the state of Israel.

Late on May 11, the Israeli military said forces operating in Jabalia are preventing Hamas, which controls Gaza, from re-establishing its military capabilities there.

“We identified, in the past weeks, attempts by Hamas to rehabilitate its military capabilities in Jabalia. We are operating there to eliminate those attempts,” said Rear-Admiral Daniel Hagari, Israel’s military spokesman, during a briefing to reporters.

Mr Hagari also said Israeli forces operating in Gaza City’s Zeitoun district killed about 30 Palestinian militants.

“Bombardment from the air and ground hasn’t stopped since yesterday; they were bombing everywhere, including near schools that are housing people who lost their houses,” said Mr Saed, 45, a resident of Jabalia.

“War is restarting, this is how it looks in Jabalia,” he told Reuters via a chat app. “The new incursion forces many families to evacuate.”

The army sent tanks back into Zeitoun, an eastern suburb of Gaza City, as well as Sabra, where residents also reported heavy bombardments that destroyed several houses, including high-rise residential buildings.

The army had claimed to have gained control of most of these areas months ago.

The Israel Defence Forces said air sirens were sounded in the southern Kerem Shalom area, and it successfully intercepted two rockets launched from the vicinity of Rafah. It said there were no injuries and no damage reported.

Later on May 12, sirens sounded in the Israeli city of Ashkelon as a result of incoming rocket fire from Gaza, which signalled that militants there were still able to launch rocket attacks after over seven months of war.

Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV said on its Telegram account that the rockets were launched from Jabalia, despite the active army raid.

A full-scale Israeli assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah “cannot take place”, UN human rights chief Volker Turk said on May 12.

“The latest evacuation orders affect close to a million people in Rafah. So where should they go now? There is no safe place in Gaza!” he said in a statement.

He said he was deeply distressed by fast-deteriorating conditions in Gaza, saying the latest evacuation orders had triggered “massive displacement of an already profoundly traumatised population”.

Mr Turk called on all states with influence to do everything in their power to prevent it.

He also called on Israel and Palestinian armed groups to agree on a ceasefire, and for all hostages to be released immediately.

Gunfight on outskirts

Tanks did not invade eastern Deir al-Balah city, said residents and Hamas media, but some Israeli tanks and bulldozers penetrated the fence on the outskirts of the city, prompting a gunfight with Hamas fighters.

In an air strike late on May 11 in the city, health officials said two doctors – a father and his son – were killed.

The armed wing of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said their fighters attacked Israeli forces in several areas inside Gaza with anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs, including in Rafah, previously the Palestinians’ last refuge where more than a million people were sheltering.

The Palestinian Telecommunications Company said internet services in southern areas of the enclave were severed because of the ongoing “aggression”, adding that workers were seeking to resolve the problem.

The war was triggered by a Hamas-led attack in southern Israel on Oct 7 in which around 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 people taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel says 620 soldiers have been killed in the fighting.

On May 12, more families, estimated in the thousands, were leaving Rafah as the Israeli military pressure intensified. Tank shells landed across the city as the army gave new evacuation orders covering some neighbourhoods in the centre of the city, which borders Egypt.

Gaza resident Tamer Al-Burai, who had been sheltering in Rafah, said: “As I moved out of Rafah, I passed through Khan Younis, I cried; I didn’t know if I was crying for what I was passing through, the humiliation and the feeling of loss I felt, or for what I have seen.

“I saw a ghost city, all buildings on the two sides of the road, complete districts were wiped out. People are fleeing for safety, knowing there was no place safe, and there are no tents and no people to care for them.”

Mr Al-Burai, a businessman, said Palestinians have been abandoned by the world and left to face their destiny as the war enters its eighth month, with world powers failing to end hostilities and international mediation efforts to reach a ceasefire collapsing over Hamas and Israel disputes.

“No ceasefire, no UN decision, no hope,” he said.

Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said Cairo would continue its mediation between Israel and Hamas, and urged the two sides to show the flexibility and the will needed to reach a deal. REUTERS