Fierce fighting in northern and southern Gaza as aid starts to roll off US-built pier
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Israeli tanks patrol near the security fence with Jabalia, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
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CAIRO - Heavy clashes and bombardments on May 18 rocked Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, as the Israeli military announced that the first humanitarian aid had entered the besieged territory via an American-built pier.
The Israeli military said its air forces “struck over 70 targets” across Gaza, while ground troops “continue precise operations” in eastern Rafah.
More than 10 days into what Israel called a “limited” operation in Rafah that sparked an exodus of Palestinians sheltering there, fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants has also flared again in Gaza’s north.
The Kuwaiti hospital said an overnight Israeli strike killed two people in a displacement camp in Rafah, with witnesses reporting heavy gunfire and shelling in the city’s south-east and jets bombarding its eastern areas.
Israeli forces had battled fighters of the militant group Hamas in the narrow alleyways of Jabalia in northern Gaza on May 17 in some of the fiercest engagements since they returned to the area a week ago.
Residents said Israeli armour had thrust as far as the market at the heart of Jabalia, the largest of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps, and that bulldozers were demolishing homes and shops in the path of the advance.
“Tanks and planes are wiping out residential districts and markets, shops, restaurants, everything. It is all happening before the one-eyed world,” Mr Ayman Rajab, a resident of western Jabalia, said via a chat app.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said its troops killed more than 60 militants in Jabalia in recent days and located a weapons warehouse in a “divisional-level offensive”.
A divisional operation would typically involve several brigades of thousands of troops each, making it one of the biggest of the war.
“The 7th Brigade’s fire control centre directed dozens of air strikes, eliminated terrorists and destroyed terrorist infrastructure,” the IDF said.
Israel said months earlier that its forces had already cleared Jabalia. Last week, however, it announced that it was returning to prevent Hamas from regrouping there.
In southern Gaza bordering Egypt, thick smoke rose over Rafah.
“People are terrified, and they’re trying to get away,” Mr Jens Laerke, the UN humanitarian office spokesman, said in Geneva, adding that most were following orders to move north towards the coast, but that there were no safe routes or destinations.
Aid by sea arrives
As the fighting raged, the US military said lorries started moving aid ashore from a temporary pier, the first to reach the besieged enclave by sea in weeks.
The World Food Programme, which expects food, water, shelter and medical supplies to arrive through the floating dock, said the aid was transported to its warehouses in Deir Al Balah in central Gaza and told partners it was ready for distribution.
In the coming days, around 500 tonnes of aid is expected to be delivered to Gaza through the pier, according to the US Central Command.
The United Nations earlier reiterated that lorry convoys by land – disrupted in May by the assault on Rafah – were still the most efficient way of getting aid in.
“To stave off the horrors of famine, we must use the fastest and most obvious route to reach the people of Gaza – and for that, we need access by land now,” deputy UN spokesman Farhan Haq said.
US aid was arriving in Cyprus for delivery to Gaza via the new pier.
Hamas has demanded an end to Israel’s siege and accused Washington of complicity with an Israeli policy of “starvation and blockade”.
The White House said National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan would visit Israel on May 18 and stress the need for a targeted offensive against Hamas militants rather than a full-scale assault on Rafah.
A group of American medical workers has left Gaza after getting stuck at the hospital where they were providing care, the White House said.
Remains of hostages recovered
Over 35,000 Palestinians have now been killed, while aid agencies have warned repeatedly of widespread hunger and dire shortages of fuel and medical supplies.
Israel says it must capture Rafah to destroy Hamas and ensure the country’s safety.
In Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct 7 that sparked the war in Gaza, around 1,170 people died in Israel and 252 were taken hostage. Of that number, 125 hostages are still being held in Gaza.
Israel said on May 17 that its forces retrieved the bodies of three people
In response, Hamas said negotiations were the only way for Israel to retrieve hostages alive: “The enemy will not get its prisoners except as lifeless corpses or through an honourable exchange deal for our people and our resistance.”
Talks on a ceasefire have been at an impasse.
Palestinians inspecting leaflets airdropped by an Israeli military aircraft on May 17, showing images of alleged members of Hamas, at a camp in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
‘Tragic war’
UNRWA, the main UN aid agency for Palestinians, said more than 630,000 people had fled Rafah since the offensive began on May 6.
“They’re moving to areas where there is no water – we’ve got to truck it in – and people aren’t getting enough food,” Mr Sam Rose, director of planning at UNRWA, told Reuters on May 17 by telephone from Rafah, where he said it was eerily quiet.
At the International Court of Justice, or World Court, in The Hague, where South Africa has accused Israel of violating the Genocide Convention, Israeli Justice Ministry official Gilad Noam defended the operation.
The South African legal team, which set out its case for fresh emergency measures the previous day, framed the Israeli military operation as part of a genocidal plan aimed at bringing about the destruction of the Palestinian people. REUTERS, AFP
