Israel bombards central Gaza as tanks advance deeper into Rafah
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The minaret of a mosque at a refugee camp in central Gaza, leaning against a house after it was hit in an Israeli air strike on July 17.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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CAIRO – Israeli forces bombarded the Gaza Strip’s historic refugee camps in the centre of the enclave and struck Gaza City in the north on July 18, killing at least 13 people, and tanks pushed deeper into Rafah in the south.
One Israeli air strike killed six people in Al-Zawayda in central Gaza, and two others were killed in a strike on a house in Bureij camp.
Another air strike killed three people inside a car in Deir al-Balah, a city packed with people displaced from elsewhere in Gaza.
In Gaza City in the north, medics said two Palestinians were killed in yet another air strike.
The Israeli military said in a statement that its forces killed two senior Islamic Jihad commanders in two air strikes in Gaza City, including one whom it said took part in the Oct 7 attack in southern Israel
In Rafah, residents said Israeli tanks advanced deeper into the western side of the city and took positions on a hilltop there. The Israeli military said forces located several tunnels and killed several gunmen.
The armed wing of Palestinian militant group Hamas and its allies said they fired mortar bombs at Israeli forces in south-west Rafah on July 18.
More than a million people sought shelter in Rafah from fighting further north, but most have scattered again since Israel launched an offensive in and around the city in May.
The fighting has pushed the 60-bed Red Cross field hospital in Rafah to the brink of capacity,
“The repeated mass casualty events resulting from the unrelenting hostilities have stretched to breaking point the response capacity of our hospital – and all health facilities in southern Gaza – to care for those with life-threatening injuries,” said Mr William Schomburg, head of the ICRC’s sub-delegation in Gaza.
More than nine months into the war, Palestinian fighters led by Hamas are still able to attack Israeli forces with anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs, occasionally firing rocket barrages into Israel.
Israel vowed to eradicate Hamas after its militants killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages in the Oct 7 attack.
More than 38,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory offensive since then.
As continued fighting exacerbates the dire conditions Gazans have had to endure since the war began, the US military announced on July 17 that its mission to install and operate a temporary floating pier off the coast of Gaza was complete, formally ending an extraordinary but troubled effort to bring humanitarian aid to Palestinians.
The pier was a massive endeavour that took about 1,000 US forces to execute. Aid began flowing via the pier to Gaza in May, in an operation aimed at helping avert famine after months of war between Israel and Hamas. But bad weather and distribution challenges inside Gaza limited the effectiveness of what the US military says was its biggest aid delivery effort ever in the Middle East. The pier was operational only for about 20 days.
“The maritime surge mission involving the pier is complete. So there’s no more need to use the pier,” Navy Vice-Admiral Brad Cooper, the deputy commander of US Central Command, told a news briefing.
Vice-Adm Cooper said efforts to distribute aid to Gaza arriving by sea would now shift to the established port of Ashdod in Israel. At least 2.26 million kg of aid, which is either in Cyprus or on ships, will be going to Ashdod in the coming days, he added.
Diplomatic efforts by Arab mediators to halt the hostilities, backed by the US, appear on hold, though all sides say they are open to more talks, including Israel and Hamas.
A deal aims to end the war and release Israeli hostages in Gaza in return for many Palestinians jailed by Israel.
Hamas was awaiting an Israeli response to a ceasefire offer drafted by the US based on ideas announced by President Joe Biden
“The feeling in Hamas is that (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu is stalling and that he might not say anything before he goes to the United States next week,” said the official, who asked not to be named. REUTERS
